La nuit du jugement

This film is awesome, and Emilio Estevez and Dennis Leary excel as the two lead roles in the film, but one can not help but notice how many times this movie has been done before. However, this is a much better entry in the "running and hiding to save your life" subgenre of thrillers. Basically, if you liked "Run", "The Warriors", or "The Running Man" you'll probably enjoy this one too.

This movie is actually pretty decent. I liked all the characters, even Jeremy Piven, who was kind of a dick in this. The story focuses on these four friends who get lost on a way to a game in a bad neighborhood. They happen upon a gang of drug-dealers (led by Denis Leary), and witness something horrible so Leary decides he can't let them escape. From their the movie is pure suspense, with the guys trying to escape the gangsters. Some very good scenes, one which involves them hiding in a train, having to bribe the hobos to keep quiet. A lot of action, some good acting, and constantly keeps moving. I give this movie a solid 6/10, because there were a few things that bothered me, but I won't go into this for the sake of not ruining the film.

Soundtrack for this movie is one of the first CDs I got and one of the most worn out ones. But it took me more than two decades to finally see the movie too. I suppose I was dodging it because of pretty much bad reviews and, once again, I missed the good movie. OK, it's not masterpiece, but for an action drama it is above average. And music kicks ass!

7/10

Since seeing this film I've never been comfortable with Denis Leary as a comedian because he's so damn convincing as the cold-hearted bad guy in this. I think he's a great actor but this is the movie to see him in as it's A. His best performance and B. One of the best villains ever in movies.

Leary plays Fallon, a dangerous criminal from Chicago's bad side. And when four middle class pals from the quiet suburbs cross him and witness a murder a chase across derelict landscapes follows. The spoon-fed quartet are way out of their comfort zone and have no idea how to navigate the ghetto or deal with its dwellers. Peter Greene, an actor always like to see, plays Sykes, one of Fallon's cohorts as well as Everlast from the rap group House of Pain as Rhodes. They sure do make a threatening impression.

Judgment Night kind of comes across as a modern, urban Deliverance. There are many similarities between them but Judgment Night clearly has more excitement. Estevez (who was cast very late after Tom Cruise and Christian Slater turned down the lead role), Gooding Jnr, Piven and Dorff play well off each other and Piven especially seems to really get into the whiny runt of his character. Though the editors really should have cut down the in-fighting and petty bickering between the quartet as it often slows the film down to a complete stop.

Director Stephen Hopkins (who also did Predator 2 and Blown Away) uses creeping camera movements and neo-noir lighting to provoke multiple eerie moments as well as a great deal of tension. Slow-mo and warped sound effects are also used to great effect in the finale. Alan Silvestri's score is also one of his best, alternating between several different moods. His first score (electronic based) was rejected by Hopkins but that difficult decision proved be a good judgment (ha!) as the end result is one of the film's best features.

Judgment Night is certainly an overlooked tour-de-force and is a brilliant action film with fine performances all round, but Leary completely and utterly steals the show.

1993 film where four old buddies in Chicago rent a lavish motor home for a night of partying and watching boxing. After they witness a murder by Fallon, a sinister drug lord very well-played by Denis Leary, a long, tense, violent urban odyssey follows.

Though somewhat dated by its 20 years, JUDGMENT NIGHT is everything a thriller-seeker desires. The simple but focused plot follows the old formula, and it's fairly easy to predict the basics of how it will turn out, but it has plenty of small surprises along the way, and there's nothing too unbelievable. The four friends--one who turns out to be the big hero, one who keeps mucking everything up for everybody else, and two who are kind of in the middle--are a rather cookie-cutter set, but good acting and even better filming keep this film alive.

Interesting to see the young Stephen Dorff in an atypical role as the younger brother of the hero played by Emilio Estevez.