Plot so thin, it passes unnoticed.

i know i wasted 90 mins of my life.

Crappy film

it is the rare 'crazy' movie that actually has something to say.

Jed Ward (Gene Hackman) is a hard-nosed lawyer taking down corporations. He gets a class action lawsuit against an automaker after some cars explode. On the opposite side is his estranged daughter Maggie Ward (Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio). She is ambitious eager to push for partnership in her firm. They don't get along since she discovered his cheating. She also claims that he abandons his clients after winning his cases. He had maintained his marriage. His wife Estelle tries to bridge the gap between father and daughter but she dies suddenly. Nick Holbrook (Larry Fishburne) is Jed's longtime assistant.These are two top class actors. Director Michael Apted asks them for family dysfunction and they deliver. The movie lays out the situation but it doesn't have much movement after the mother's death. The court case is basic and has limited drama. The personal drama also doesn't make much movement. This is a movie with a world of potential but does little more than expected.

Class Action is directed by Michael Apted, is written by Carolyn Shelby, Christopher Ames and Samantha Shad, has music by James Horner and stars Gene Hackman, Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio, Laurence Fishburne and Donald Moffatt.Jebediah Tucker Ward(Gene Hackman)is a brilliant lawyer who takes on a client who is suing the makers of his car due to major faults in the vehicle which it's believed led to an accident. Ward must deal with the fact that the defence lawyer for the automobile company is his estranged daughter Maggie Ward(Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio).Ward and Maggie have had a difficult relationship since Maggie discovered he was cheating on her mum. When her mum dies Maggie and Ward spend some time together after her funeral and tentatively try and reconnect. They find there's still too much bad feeling between them though and after a bitter argument don't speak. They find themselves thrown back together again when the case goes to court and they discover they will be facing each other in the courtroom.Although the film is classed as a courtroom drama there's more focus on the relationship between Ward and Maggie. The film works better as a story about an estranged father and daughter and Hackman and Mastrantonio have amazing chemistry.Anyone who has a less than perfect relationship with a parent will be able to relate to this film and to the awkwardness both Ward and Maggie feel when they are with each other. Hackman in particular is excellent in scenes where Ward is with his daughter and he doesn't know how to act around her,you can see that he wants to reach out to her but doesn't know how to and is perhaps too stubborn to even try.

***SPOILERS*** The film "Class Action" pits San Francisco activist lawyer for the down trodden and helpless Jed Tucker Ward, Gene Hackman, against his no nonsense and bull headed daughter Maggie, Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonoi, in a winner take all civil case against a giant car manufacture Argon Motors. It's Argon Motors who's 1985 model station wagons are the cause of some 130 accident one, the one which Jed takes up, had two persons killed and the driver left crippled. This father and daughter conflict in the courtroom results in Jed's wife Estella, Joanna Marlin, collapsing in the courthouse from a fatal heart attack from the stress that it caused her. Estella begged Maggie not to take the case for the car manufacture against her father. It was by Maggie taking it up that caused her mom's weak heart to stop beating.In the courtroom sparks flew with Maggie and her defense team using every dirty and underhanded tactic to win that case. Even going so far as to to humiliate the victim of the crash, who lost his both wife and infant daughter as well as legs, as well as the engineer of the "death" station wagon the retired from the business but now running a bunny farm Mr. Pavel, Jan Rubes. Parvel who's memory, in not being able to remember his telephone number or birth date,was put in question who felt the station wagon was a death trap. It was Pavel who wrote in his notes that the car was a deathtrap to anyone driving it but as the defense, by destroying them, showed the notes he wrote about it had mysteriously ended up either missing or misplaced! Just as it looked like curtains for Jed Ward's case an important witness was brought in a professional bean counter Mr. Patricola, Ken Grantham, who broke the case wide open in Jed Ward's favor.The mysterious Mr. Patricola proved what Jed Ward wasn't able to do in showing that the car was too dangerous to be driven. That as well as the reason for the destruction of Mr. Pavel's notes which brought the roof down on Argon Motors! And it was non other Maggie Ward who at first did everything to prevent her father Jed from winning the case that made that all possible! The film was obviously based on the landmark Ralph Nader book "Unsafe at any Speed" published in 1966 about the lack of car safety in the automobile industry and how it resulted in the thousands of deaths and injuries that could have so easily been avoided. In the movie like in real life it was a minor fault in the car that would have caused a few hundred dollars to correct that was not addressed that caused the car company in question, Argon Moters, to almost go bankrupt in the 100 million damage suit that was ruled, by a jury, against it!

Though I shan't name specifics, back in the '90s, when Class Action was made, vehicle component malfunction affected and scared more everyday folk than the usual cases for U.S Courtroom dramas i.e Medical and Corporate cases.So, when a lighting circuit component fails in a popular car model and causes vehicle fires, naturally a case is lodged against the manufacturers. Taking the case is a crusty, liberal lawyer, Jed, (Gene Hackman). But, to his shock and fortunately for us, in defence is Jed's estranged daughter Maggie (Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio), who's ambitious and ruthless. This creates a tension, in the courtroom and privately as reasons and causes for their differences are aired.Unlike some more well known courtroom dramas, there's little shouting or violence. No one gets murdered. The case is reasonably involving and both leads are good. The outcome wasn't as full-blooded as I'd have liked and so I give six and bit stars. Quietly recommended, though, especially for lovers of the genre.