Judgment Night (1993)
September 8, 2024 7:57 AM - Subscribe
IMDB: Four young friends, while taking a shortcut en route to a local boxing match, witness a brutal murder which leaves them running for their lives. From 1993, the ultimate White Suburban Conservative Dad movie, where the city is rife with horrors and only the power of Dad Rage can carry the day.
A really interesting watch in 2024, falling tidily between the Reagan-era fever dream of Death Wish 3 and Spike Lee's Clockers. It's the ur-Republican Dad movie, with new family man Emilio Estevez, his ne'er do well brother (Stephen Dorff), quick-fisted pal (Cuba Gooding, Jr.) and a deliriously smarmy college pal (Jeremy Piven) taking a wrong turn in a traffic jam into The Poor Neighbourhood.
The Place Poor People Live is rife with crumbling buildings, trash barrel fires, and an all-white street (?!) gang led by the motor-mouthed Dennis Leary hunting them down after they witness Leary murdering a local tough.
It's a race through an apocalyptic hellscape where Poors are either antagonistic or terrified, and even though Emilio mumbles a mealy-mouthed line about "these are our neighbours," the movie doesn't hide its straight-up propaganda that the low-income neighbourhood is a hive of scum and villainy. Our well-heeled pals are aghast tourists in an environment where one misstep can lead to certain death at the hands of gang-bangers, trigger-happy security guards, or House of Pain's Everlast.
It's trash, but frustrating trash in that it's competently written, decently acted (even Piven turns in a genuine performance), relentlessly paced and tightly directed, all in service of an absolutely shit vision of the world, culminating in Emilio gaining superhuman powers when he has to Defend His Family against the threat of Criminal Creeps.
Why watch it? I've been riding high on revisiting the soundtrack, which I will defend to my death as a lightning in a bottle slice of fried gold; magic that never got recaptured even with other attempts (looking at you, Spawn The Album).
A really interesting watch in 2024, falling tidily between the Reagan-era fever dream of Death Wish 3 and Spike Lee's Clockers. It's the ur-Republican Dad movie, with new family man Emilio Estevez, his ne'er do well brother (Stephen Dorff), quick-fisted pal (Cuba Gooding, Jr.) and a deliriously smarmy college pal (Jeremy Piven) taking a wrong turn in a traffic jam into The Poor Neighbourhood.
The Place Poor People Live is rife with crumbling buildings, trash barrel fires, and an all-white street (?!) gang led by the motor-mouthed Dennis Leary hunting them down after they witness Leary murdering a local tough.
It's a race through an apocalyptic hellscape where Poors are either antagonistic or terrified, and even though Emilio mumbles a mealy-mouthed line about "these are our neighbours," the movie doesn't hide its straight-up propaganda that the low-income neighbourhood is a hive of scum and villainy. Our well-heeled pals are aghast tourists in an environment where one misstep can lead to certain death at the hands of gang-bangers, trigger-happy security guards, or House of Pain's Everlast.
It's trash, but frustrating trash in that it's competently written, decently acted (even Piven turns in a genuine performance), relentlessly paced and tightly directed, all in service of an absolutely shit vision of the world, culminating in Emilio gaining superhuman powers when he has to Defend His Family against the threat of Criminal Creeps.
Why watch it? I've been riding high on revisiting the soundtrack, which I will defend to my death as a lightning in a bottle slice of fried gold; magic that never got recaptured even with other attempts (looking at you, Spawn The Album).
My favorite line from this movie, paraphrased:
Some guy: That money's got blood on it!
Denis Leary: Have you ever seen any that didn't?
posted by box at 9:18 AM on September 8 [4 favorites]
Some guy: That money's got blood on it!
Denis Leary: Have you ever seen any that didn't?
posted by box at 9:18 AM on September 8 [4 favorites]
new family man Emilio Estevez, his ne'er do well brother (Stephen Dorff)
That is one versatile set of genes!
posted by praemunire at 9:36 PM on September 8
That is one versatile set of genes!
posted by praemunire at 9:36 PM on September 8
I know I've watched the beginning of this, but I still get it mixed up with Trespass, which I may have also watched the beginning of.
posted by Alvy Ampersand at 9:44 PM on September 8
posted by Alvy Ampersand at 9:44 PM on September 8
The Judgement Night soundtrack is an absolute banger, and finding that the title track was on a jukebox at the bar that my ladyfriend and I had our first date at may just be what kicked off what is now thirteen years of discussion about just what exactly qualifies as 'our song'.
posted by FatherDagon at 5:20 AM on September 9 [3 favorites]
posted by FatherDagon at 5:20 AM on September 9 [3 favorites]
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posted by KingEdRa at 8:32 AM on September 8 [5 favorites]