Jenna Walter The film may be flawed, but its message is not.

Portia Hilton Blistering performances.

Geraldine The story, direction, characters, and writing/dialogue is akin to taking a tranquilizer shot to the neck, but everything else was so well done.

Phillida Let me be very fair here, this is not the best movie in my opinion. But, this movie is fun, it has purpose and is very enjoyable to watch.

inspectors71 Oh, yeah, that's just a start, and the dopey, clichéd, mind- numbingness of Class Action just gets worse. Ten minutes into this Michael Apted thing and I was debating doing what I very rarely do--to give up on a movie.But, I stuck it out. Through the emoting and the legal chicanerying and the feeling that this awful, awful movie would--minus some gratuitous f-bombs (How would we take a legal drama seriously otherwise?)--best be shown on the Hallmark Movie Channel, sandwiched between two episodes of Murder, She Wrote, I just sat there amazed at how bad women look in those business suits with the giant shoulder pads.1991.The painful part of the movie is the movie, but the searing pain comes from watching something I almost didn't think possible, Gene Hackman giving a bad performance. He just phones it in here.The other star, a woman who was having a jump in her career at the time, Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio, is so inconsequential that I was thinking of the old criticism of an actress in a 1960s sex comedy or something. The writer said that this actress exuded the sex appeal of a bran muffin. One of the funniest lines I've ever read.Jump to Class Action, and MEM (I don't want to try to write her whole name again because there are only so many keystrokes in a laptop) exudes the acting talent of somebody whose legal drama belongs on the Hallmark Movie Channel. She's utterly bland. In fact, everyone involved has his or her big brick Motorola out and is reading the lines until the battery gives out.Except the guy who plays the judge; I can't remember his name, but you'd recognize him if you saw him. He was one of the card sharps in The Outlaw Josey Wales.I don't know if anyone shows this movie on TV, but, if you desire big hair, big shoulder pads, and big, I mean really big emoting and cliché- ing, keep checking Zap2it. Otherwise, take my advice, legal or not.

kapelusznik18 ***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!

Tim Kidner 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.

AbeStreet Sometimes I'm left with the impression that viewers think all films should be award winning material, as though the goal and worth of a film can be judged by the amount of award nominations it generates and brings home. I disagree, a good film should entertain, and that is what this film does very well. Nice on location sets give the film an authentic and attractive feel. The acting is top notch. The two main overlapping stories, the father & daughter relationship and the legal battle, tie in very nicely. This is a solid film that draws the viewer in and keeps his/her attention until final scene. There are many ways to waste two hours, this film is not one of them.