JUDGMENT NIGHT
A film review by James Berardinelli
Copyright 1993 James Berardinelli
JUDGMENT NIGHT
Rating (Linear 0 to 10): 2.9
Date Released: 10/15/93
Running Length: 1:48
Rated: R (Violence, language)
Starring: Emilio Estevez, Cuba Gooding Jr., Jeremy Piven,
Stephen Dorff, Denis Leary
Director: Stephen Hopkins
Producer: Gene Levy
Screenplay: Lewis Colick
Music: Alan Silvestri
Released by Universal Pictures
It's night in Chicago and four good buddies - Frank (Emilio Estevez), Mike (Cuba Gooding Jr.), Ray (Jeremy Piven), and John (Stephen Dorff) - are headed for a boxing match in an oversized RV borrowed by Ray. However, when rush hour traffic halts their progress, they try a short cut (obviously not familiar with a similar situation in BONFIRE OF THE VANITIES), and end up trapped in one of the Windy City's seedier districts. After finding an injured man by the roadside, they inadvertently become witnesses to a murder, and the crook behind the killing (Denis Leary) decides that he doesn't want any witnesses.
If you want a good chase movie, see THE FUGITIVE. If you want a clinic on how not to put together an entry to the genre, take a look at JUDGMENT NIGHT, one of the most unbearably dull so-called thrillers of the year. This film plods along at an almost-unbearable pace, threatening to lull its audience to sleep with long stretches of inactivity followed by bursts of poorly-choreographed fights and flights. Any suspense is generated purely in the mind of the action-starved viewer, because what's on screen is horribly predictable and poorly executed.
The movie is set up by a series of coincidences so convoluted and difficult to swallow that JUDGMENT NIGHT is in trouble from the start. And, believe me, it doesn't get any better. Even during the most crucial sequences, there is neither energy nor excitement. Often, scenes that are supposed to be tense with uncertainty are dragged out to the point where they become tedious.
It's refreshing to know that it's not just characters in horror films that are unredeemably dumb. Everyone - the bad guys as well as the heros - acts as if he's been subjected to a frontal lobotomy. If you're being pursued by a ruthless, psychotic killer, would you seriously try to negotiate your way out of the mess?
JUDGMENT NIGHT also suffers from a split personality. For a film that constantly preaches the virtues of non-violence and restraint, it has far too many shoot-outs for the message to ring anything but hollow. There also seems to be some uncertainty about what makes a man macho: having a gun and blowing someone's brains out, or running away.
The actors aren't given much in the way of characters, but their performances are far from Oscar-caliber. Even Cuba Gooding Jr. is painfully inept. Maybe he should consider a different agent. Since BOYZ 'N THE HOOD, his parts (which include the fun-but-brainless GLADIATOR and the anything-but-fun DAYBREAK) have generally gotten less challenging and more cliched.
Is there anyone out there who actually likes Denis Leary as an actor? Not only is this guy awful in his role as the evil Fallon, but he's obnoxious as well. I wanted someone to put a bullet through his skull just to shut him up. Why is it necessary to give this guy a scene where he can spout his trademark fast-talking nonsense? This is supposed to be a movie, not the DENIS LEARY SHOW.
Most of the time, even painful chase movies can at least boast superior technical skills. Not so in this case. Director Stephen Hopkins, who foisted PREDATOR 2 on us, looks uncomfortably like a hack in this endeavor. In addition, he lets this movie go on for far too long. Had it been judiciously edited, it might not have been nearly as unpleasant. Then again, it might have taken a miracle to redeem JUDGMENT NIGHT.
- James Berardinelli (blake7@cc.bellcore.com)
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