Cast: Emilio Estevez, Cuba Gooding Jr., Jeremy Piven, Stephen Dorff, Denis Leary
Director: Stephen Hopkins
Producer: Gene Levy
Screenplay: Lewis Colick
Cinematography: Peter Levy
Music: Alan Silvestri
U.S. Distributor: 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 using an oversized RV borrowed by Ray as transportation to a boxing match. 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 action flick, take a look at Judgment Night, one of the most unbearably dull "thrillers" of the year. This film plods along at a stultifyingly slow 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.
It's refreshing to know that it's not just characters in horror films who are irredeemably 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?
The actors aren't given much in the way of characters, but their performances are far from Oscar-caliber. Even Cuba Gooding Jr. flounders. 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 gotten less challenging and more cliched.
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, exhibits all the talent of a hack. Not only is the film poorly directed, but the editing is terrible. With some of the overlong running time snipped, Judgment Night might have been palatable. As it stands, however, the best judgment I can pass on this movie is an exceedingly harsh one.
© 1993 James Berardinelli