Judgement Night (1993) Full Review

Film Scene Investigation

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Transcript

00:12hey everyone welcome back to another cult movie review with me beau here on the film scene

00:20investigation channel i hope everyone out there is doing good in today's video i'm going to be

00:27reviewing the 1993 action thriller judgment night before we get into it guys as always if you haven't

00:38already please do consider subscribing to the channel all the support is greatly appreciated

00:45so judgment night from 1993 was directed by the filmmaker stephen hopkins and starred an ensemble

00:57cast of actors including emilio estevez cuba gooding jr and jeremy piven the film script went

01:08through several drafts before being finalized by script writer lewis kolick in the early 90s

01:16now judgment night only came to my attention sometime last year when i was scouring through

01:26various youtube videos so yeah i'd never heard of this film before but it was actually surprising

01:33since i knew all of the actors that were involved from emilio estevez to dennis leary i'd seen all of

01:44these guys in various other movies but uh i was yeah totally unaware of judgment night

01:51when it comes to the narrative we followed a group of guys who traveled together on a bus to attend

02:01a

02:02boxing match in chicago frank who was played by emilio estevez was a young father getting to grips

02:11with parenthood for the very first time frank his younger brother john and their friends mike and ray

02:20drove into the city in this very expensive rv fully equipped with alcohol and a satellite dish

02:30the group were in high spirits they were ready for a good night out away from their wives and ready

02:38to let

02:38loose but things quickly turned sour when the guys got stuck in a traffic jam it was total gridlock

02:48with dozens of cars backed up and nobody going anywhere the character ray who was played by actor jeremy

02:58piven was the one driving the rv and was extremely determined to get to the arena on time since ray

03:08was

03:09driving the rv he took it upon himself to take charge of the situation and decided to make a detour

03:19down a freeway ray was overconfident that he had saved the day when in actual fact he had endangered

03:31himself and his friends the guys quickly found themselves driving through a run-down residential

03:41neighborhood miles away from the arena it was obvious that ray's detour had indeed made things worse

03:53but he remained steadfast that he was going to find a way out suddenly out of nowhere ray hit someone

04:03who was walking out in the middle of the street i mean it all happened so fast ray did not

04:09have enough time to

04:10react properly initially frank kind of dismissed the whole situation he just wanted to get on out of there

04:18but the other guys insisted they check it out ray tried to play it down as if it was just

04:28a bump in the road

04:29but yeah the guys wanted to be sure so they took a look outside it turned out that ray had

04:39indeed hit

04:39someone with the rv someone called teddy who was in serious need of some medical attention you know

04:48i mean i mean at this point the night was ruined i mean you know they couldn't even get to

04:54the arena

04:54on time and now you know they'd actually ran someone over complete nightmare once ray had discovered

05:03that he had hit someone he knew he was in big trouble so he decided to start hiding the various

05:12bottles of alcohol before any authorities arrived on the scene frank even told him to ring for an ambulance

05:21but ray being so panicked and confused hung up at the last moment but making the decision not to call

05:33the authorities would ultimately come back to haunt ray later on in the film teddy who was played by actor

05:41michael di lorenzo needed help so the guys decided to pack up and drive off to the nearest hospital

05:49while ray was quite happy to just drive on the guys yeah they made the right decision and decided to

05:58take charge and find help for teddy but as the guys were driving to the nearest hospital a car from

06:05out of

06:06nowhere collided with the bus and they ended up crashing into an alleyway now initially when i was

06:12watching this i thought okay what another accident happened you know but uh it turned out that this

06:19time it was intentional you see teddy wasn't this innocent bystander who unfortunately got ran down by ray

06:29in actuality teddy was a street thug who had just ripped off his boss and was trying to make an

06:37escape

06:37before he got run over three dubious looking guys then exited the car and dragged the injured teddy out

06:47onto the street the guys on the bus had no idea what was going on but didn't want to get

06:54involved with

06:55these random guys with guns another car would pull up and out came fallon teddy's boss who was played by

07:05actor dennis leary teddy had messed up he had stolen a lot of money from his boss and uh fallon

07:16was pissed

07:17while teddy said he was sorry and uh you know plead for his innocence fallon just ignored him i mean

07:28in his

07:29eyes teddy had broken the golden rule and needed to be punished fallon ended up executing teddy then and there

07:40in the middle of the street as the guys on the bus watched on in horror i mean when fallon

07:47pulled the

07:48trigger you could just see the dread on the guys faces with teddy no longer being an issue fallon then

07:58set his sights on the rest of the guys on the bus frank and the guys had seen the whole

08:05thing go down

08:06i mean they had seen fallon commit murder and now they were witnesses to the crime and fallon needed

08:16them dead too what followed was this cat and mouse game with fallon and his henchmen hunting down the

08:26guys as they tried to call for help at first they sought refuge in a nearby apartment complex before

08:34heading down a sewer an effort to hide from fallon they're running around they're sweating you know

08:42they're panicking and you know throughout the movie you are asking yourself where are the police i mean

08:50it's like where are they you know and even when they do get called they don't even show up

08:58and with that you kind of have to suspend your disbelief while watching judgment night to really enjoy it

09:08properly the serious lack of law enforcement was kind of yeah i mean yeah it was borderline silly

09:21but um for me i was able to look past it and even with the plot holes there was still

09:30a lot to enjoy

09:31from this movie for me the best scene in the entire film was the ladder bridge sequence where we saw

09:41the

09:41guys attempt to crawl across two buildings frank and the guys were being hunted down by fallon's men

09:49and were moments away from being blown to pieces so they decided to head to the rooftop where the only

09:56exit was across this precarious looking ladder bridge between two buildings one by one the guys took it in

10:05turns to slowly crawl across the ladder but ray had other ideas we learned that ray had a fear of

10:17heights

10:17and there was absolutely no way that he could cross i mean it wasn't even an option in his mind

10:27that he

10:27could do that and so yeah while the other guys crossed he stayed behind he was too scared to make

10:38the

10:38crossing he didn't want to potentially fall down all that way but in all honesty

10:46who could blame him i for one am not a massive fan of heights so uh yeah i could appreciate

10:58ray's dilemma

10:59what i didn't appreciate was the various pov shots of the camera looking over the edge

11:09i mean yeah those visuals did uh freak me out a little bit frank did his best to encourage ray

11:19to you

11:20know take a chance and you know attempt to cross over but nothing worked ray had made his decision and

11:30instead tried to negotiate with fallon and his men i found this to be a pretty intense sequence and

11:38yeah a major highlight for the film the whole thing felt very grounded and not necessarily out of the

11:47realms of possibility that these guys would attempt to you know do something like that as i said i'm no

11:55fan of heights but if there are a group of guys with guns chasing me ready to kill me you

12:02know i'd hate to

12:03be in that situation but i would probably attempt to cross the bridge too anyways the scene came to an

12:11abrupt end when the negotiating didn't work and fallon decided to push ray off the roof the whole thing is

12:22pretty disturbing actually seeing ray you know fall to his death like he did because i think knowing that

12:31the character had such a fear of heights made his death seem all that more cruel you know there's no

12:40denying that judgment night had a really good ensemble cast all of the actors got a chance to showcase their

12:49talents and um yeah there were there were no bad performances emilio estevez played the protective

12:59older brother quite well many times in the film we saw frank come to the aid of his brother john

13:07doing his best to keep him safe i liked estevez in the role he did his best with the material

13:16he had

13:17and yeah he delivered a fairly earnest performance what i wasn't so keen on was how his character

13:27took control in the final act of the film taking on fallon one-on-one those guys were trying to

13:36choke

13:36each other out you know punching kicking each other i'll be honest i've never really seen

13:42emilio estevez as some sort of convincing action star so seeing him being this dominant being this

13:53kind of hero you know saving the day did seem like a stretch actor jeremy piven put in a very

14:03memorable

14:04performance as the fun loving high flyer ray cochran when he first showed up on screen i'm gonna be

14:13honest i thought i was gonna hate this character some loud mouth you know always cracking jokes and being

14:21obnoxious that's what i thought this ray character was gonna be but you know overall i found him pretty

14:29likeable i mean when it came to the rooftop sequence i was uh really rooting for him i really

14:36wanted him to uh you know be successful in his negotiations with fallon you know over his freedom

14:43i mean ray was offering money he was offering jewelry you know doing everything he could to convince

14:51fallon to let him go i also uh wanted to mention the actor peter green who showed up as one

15:00of fallon's

15:00henchmen a guy called sykes i remember him so vividly from the jim carrey movie the mask so uh yeah

15:09it was

15:10really cool to see him pop up here on screen again he was great in the mask as this you

15:16know gangster type

15:17criminal and once again he pulled off being the bad guy very convincingly and so dislikes for judgment

15:26night from 1993 my biggest dislike for the film would have to be the film's score that was produced by

15:37the

15:37composer alan silvestri now silvestri is a highly acclaimed composer you know he's produced

15:47some great work over the years nobody can dispute that and while his score for judgment night

15:55was solid and it was a you know competent piece ultimately for me i thought it just

16:04didn't mix well with the film's tone and vibe i felt the score was uh over dramatic

16:13and at times even bombastic you know it just didn't uh didn't complement the gritty visuals that

16:22were on screen i mean especially at the end of the film when frank was fighting fallon you know the

16:28score was like you know i mean you know it just really was distracting for me silvestri has produced

16:39some great material over the years for films like castaway and forrest gump you know big time

16:47hollywood projects but for a movie like judgment night kind of this b-movie kind of project

16:56yeah it just um he was just the wrong choice it needed to be a lot darker you know it

17:04needed to be

17:05almost like minimalist if that makes sense you know whereas silvestri had like so much

17:11instrumentation you know it was this you know orchestra so big and uh yeah it really didn't

17:18match well another dislike i wanted to mention for judgment night was its length overall i felt that

17:28the movie was way too long than it needed to be i mean judgment night had an interesting concept for

17:35sure but by the final act i was uh i was getting kind of restless there was uh a lot

17:45of time given

17:46to one of the sequences where the guys decided to escape down a sewer all the guys were you know

17:53running down this tunnel as uh felon and his men were you know not far behind them if it was

18:00up to

18:00me i would have removed the whole you know entire sequence in the sewer because for me it just uh

18:07felt like padding it was like okay here's another location for these guys to you know play hide and

18:14seek where you know at that point i was just like can we you know get on you know to

18:20the end here

18:21i also would have kept all of the action above ground which would have retained some realism

18:27once the guys started you know having a shootout underground the story uh yeah started to get a bit

18:37silly for me and so ratings for judgment night from 1993 i'm going to be rating this movie a solid

18:463.5 out of 10 i enjoyed judgment night for what it was you know some entertaining 90 plus minutes

18:59of suspense and drama it certainly was a well-made production with its slick nihilistic atmosphere

19:07and i like the film's simple yet effective premise that was enhanced by the solid lineup of actors

19:18involved if you're looking for a more hard-hitting story with a lot of substance then yeah this movie is

19:26not for you for those who have seen judgment night please let me know what you think in the comment

19:32section below for those who haven't yeah i'm gonna just say that it's not essential viewing if you

19:39don't ever get around to seeing this movie but if you're a fan of any of the actors involved i'd

19:47give

19:47it a go and well that's all from me today guys i hope you have enjoyed this review of judgment

19:53night

19:53from 1993 i'll be back next week as always don't forget to like and subscribe and of course take care

20:04um

20:14you

20:15you

20:16you

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