Simple but fantastic; it's old age is irrelevant

Rating: 9/10 (19 March 2012)

The concept of this film is incredibly simple, as are the sets throughout. However, this is why the fact that this film is over 50 years old, is completely irrelevant to how enjoyable it is today.
Despite of the fact that this is not an action film, it is engaging, exciting and tense from start to finish and manages to stay highly entertaining throughout in the most subtle, intelligent manner I've seen in cinema.
This is achieved through absolutely fantastic characterisation; each of the 12 men the movie centres around are individuals who are void of any tedious stereotypes that most of the shallow characters we see in cinema today will fit into. Every one of these characters are complex, controversial and interesting. This is contributed to hugely by the fact that each and every role taken in this film is acted tremendously; it would be unfair to highlight a single great performance as every member of the cast is just sensational.
In addition to this, the script gives an authenticity and realism to the movie; we can relate to and believe every situation on-screen, which is what makes this such edge-of-seat stuff. Furthermore, the film could not be paced any more perfectly; as a result, the running time flies by.
Although this is, undoubtedly, a necessary watch for anybody, I could not give it a 10/10 purely because I felt that the direction of the plot and the nature of some aspects of character changes were a bit too predictable; I had a pretty good idea what was going to be different from the beginning of the movie and the end.
Overall, I believe that the unrivalled characterisation and simplistic thrills of this incredibly authentic, intelligent movie, render it a must-watch. "12 Angry Men" is NOT a victim of it's age... Just give it a go.