Word: shrewd
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That's the main line. A whole lot of other interesting stuff feeds smoothly into it: the fight against cancer by Jack's shrewd old mentor (James Earl Jones); an FBI secretary seduced by the oiliest drug runner; the field operatives led by Willem Dafoe who do spectacular damage to the cartel's operations; amusing glimpses of the life-style of its rich and infamous boss. What's truly appealing about the film is that it plays fair with all this material and the audience. Unlike the typical action movie, which is always trampling over narrative logic in order...
...Woodstock '94 becomes a triumph of salesmanship over spirit, blame it on the curious times in which we now live. Hipness has become a national paradox, a special condition almost everyone seems to aspire to. And one that, thanks to a lot of shrewd marketing, almost everyone can fancy having achieved...
...pure guesswork on the part of the most diligent outside intelligence analysts. What is reputed about Jong Il -- known as the Dear Leader -- is itself a mass of contradictions: terrorist and warmonger, or would-be economic reformer and peacemaker? A pampered, pouting sorehead indifferent to responsibilities, or a relatively shrewd go-getter who has mastered much statecraft...
While such theatrics might seem acceptable from a road-touring rock band, they are usually enough to scuttle the career of most politicians. But Zhirinovsky is no ordinary politician. In the three years since this obscure Moscow lawyer careened into the national spotlight, his career has combined the shrewd manipulation of an instinctive demagogue with the abandon of a swinging Sybarite. Zhirinovsky has slugged fellow lawmakers in the halls of parliament, hobnobbed with ex-Nazi storm troopers in Austria and posed, au naturel, for photographers while cavorting in a steam bath in Serbia. He has been kicked...
That Cayhall is a man the world could do without is clear to his grandson Adam, a shrewd, tough lawyer who turns up late in the game, determined to prevent the execution. So why fight? Adam doesn't have a clear answer, and Grisham wisely lets the reader find his own. Perhaps because Sam Cayhall is a human being, beginning to learn remorse. Perhaps because the posturing Governor and the other officials who press for the execution seem less human and less worthy than Adam and his allies. Or perhaps because forgiveness is said to be ennobling, and processing society...