JUSTICE may be blind, but when it comes to money - or, more specifically, making obscene amounts of the stuff - the American legal system possesses perfect vision.

Runaway Jury is the latest courtroom thriller based on a trashy best-seller by the king of the legal blockbuster, John Grisham.

The film may be guilty of several misdemeanours - predictable plotting, lapses in logic, an implausible ending - but it's nevertheless slick and engrossing, propelled by a handful of neat twists.

In the wake of an office block massacre, vengeful widow Celeste Woods (Joanna Going), whose husband Nick (Dylan McDermott) perished in the bloodbath, launches a multi-million-dollar lawsuit against the gun company which made the deranged shooter's weapon.

She hires the notoriously incorruptible Wendell Rohr (Dustin Hoffman) to prosecute her case, while the firearms company enlists the services of oily lawyer Durwood Cable (Bruce Davison) and Machiavellian jury consultant Rankin Fitch (Gene Hackman).

Fitch intends to handpick the 12 men and women who will judge the gun company, then blackmail them into delivering a not guilty verdict.

Runaway Jury gallops along at a fair lick and gives us little time to ponder the gaping holes in Grisham's tall tale, particularly the dramatic verdict which is pure wish fulfilment.

The ensemble cast is excellent, Hoffman and Hackman clearly relish their courtroom confrontations.

Rating: 6/10.