[5]
Four young men take an alternate route to a boxing match and end up getting lost in the most drug-infested, crime-ridden part of Los Angeles. After witnessing a murder, they’re pursued relentlessly by the killer and his cronies. Unable to escape the deadly urban wasteland, they’re forced to make a stand and fight violence with violence.
Judgment Night is a somewhat implausible action/thriller from director Stephen Hopkins (Predator 2, Lost in Space), starring Emilio Estevez, Cuba Gooding Jr, Stephen Dorff (Cecil B. Demented), and Jeremy Piven (Entourage) as the four friends, and stand-up comedian Denis Leary (The Ref) as their pursuer. The casting is good all around, even though the characters are all a bit under-developed. It requires some extra suspension of disbelief that such a large swath of Los Angeles could be as empty and post-apocalyptic as it’s portrayed here. (It almost feels like a Mad Max movie at times.) The film gains momentum after the friends witness the murder, but Leary’s chase gets a bit tedious as the film progresses to a somewhat unsatisfying finale. Alan Silvestri adds extra adrenaline (perhaps too much) with his score, a spooky, rhythmic one reminiscent of his work on the Predator movies.
Despite all its foibles, the cinematography and production design conjure a pleasantly spooky atmosphere and the actors are all charismatic enough to keep us watching. If you’re in the mood for a moderately entertaining pop-corn muncher, you could do much worse.
With Peter Greene, Erik Schrody, and Michael Wiseman.