Rodent's Reviews

Rodent's Reviews: Delivering The Good, The Bad, And The Ugly In Film

Rodent's Reviews: PART DEUX!

Rodent's 1950-Present Sci-Fi And Futuristic Fantasy Movies

JayDee's Movie Musings (Reviews - Frailty / Total Recall / Lone Ranger / Nightcrawler / Whiplash / Imitation Game / Birdman / Avengers: Age of Ultron / Mad Max: Fury Road)

Decided to make this one my 200th. Fan of the cast and fan of the movie and it's on TV right now too... slightly out of practice, but here goes.

Review #200, Movie #270
Judgment Night



Year Of Release
1993

Director
Stephen Hopkins

Producer
Gene Levy, Christopher Mollo, Lloyd Segan, Marilyn Vance

Writer
Lewis Colick, Jere Cunningham

Cast
Emilio Estevez, Stephen Dorff, Cuba Gooding Jr, Jeremy Piven, Peter Greene and Denis Leary

Notes
Stephen Hopkins, the director behind Predator 2 and Alan Silvesrtry, the man behind the music for Predator worked together on this film, and the thing is, this film has small elements of both films.
Emilio Estevez was also something like 10th in line to play Frank Wyatt. Other stars included Tom Cruise and Christian Slater. All of whom dropped out and because of this, Estevez ended up getting a bigger pay-check than was originally negotiated.


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Brothers Frank and John Wyatt and their friends Mike and Ray head out to see a Boxing match and spend a long awaited boys weekend drinking beer and driving around in an RV.
When a traffic jam looks like putting an end to their fun and games, they take a detour from the Highway and end up in a poor residential 'hood where Gang Law rules...

... and the foursome end up on a chase of their life from a particularly nasty Gangland Boss when they inadvertently witness a murder.

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What sounds simple and pretty outlandish at times is actually a tightly woven story of paranoia, fear, blood, violence and sheer atmosphere that bases itself around almost a coming of age story but with 20-somethings in the lead roles.

For a start, the tension never lets up. From the get-go you just know something bad is on the cards. It's not some exposition dialogue though, it's the fine acting involved and general atmosphere that hits the viewer where it matters and get you on the edge of your seat.

Some of the story telling and settings are outlandish, for instance what goes on in some scenes that lead the cast into some sewers or across a rooftop... you'd think "Really?" but the lead up and following scenes combined with the casting and general acting makes it work brilliantly and the overall tense setting plays wonderfully with the viewer's nerves.


Which brings me to the acting.
Estevez as Frank Wyatt is brilliantly out of his depth but has a streetwise background that shines through the role. It's toward the ens we really see Frank's real side and Estevez doesn't disappoint.
Stephen Dorff as John Wyatt is also on top form. I'm not a huge fan of Dorff, but here he really lets go and becomes the younger, wannabe badass Brother you get to care about.
Gooding Jr is also, as usual with Jr, on top form. He's certainly one of the most likeable of the foursome.
Jeremy Piven, sadly, is the most likeable.

Denis Leary though makes the biggest mark as Fallon. Leary absolutely rocks this movie. Even when not on screen he lives with the viewer and never fails to impress, and even scare the viewer, when he is on screen.
Leary absolutely makes this film what it is: A tense and gripping action-drama.

The chemistry across all the actors along with the well written characters and their backgrounds is also top notch and gives the audience something to really care about too and adds so much more to what could have been just another chase movie.


The backing track did remind me of Predator though. Not a bad thing, just felt a bit like recycled music through lack of trying.

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All in all, a chase movie with ex-college buddies in the leads and simply yet nicely written backstories crossed with not only great acting across the board but also some exceptionally tense and gripping scenes and atmosphere.
It's not very often I say this, but although the film has a few faults in terms of a couple scene settings, my heart was pounding throughout the whole running time, it's still that well put together.

My Rating: 93%