Judgment Night, Revisited

This randomly played on the Criterion Channel’s 24/7 stream; yes, it’s currently on the Criterion Channel, as part of their “90’s Soundtracks” collection. That’s the most famous artifact from the film, the then-revolutionary concept of tracks where rock bands collaborate w/ rappers. It’s wild to hear Slayer with Ice-T, Living Colour and Run D.M.C. & Pearl Jam w/ Cypress Hill. I saw this on VHS in the 90’s then DVD a decade ago-about time for the HD experience, right? It was also time for an upgraded review from the old one posted summer of '15.

The ”set during one long night” film isn’t too terribly complex. Four total suburbanites (Emilio Estevez, Cuba Gooding, Jr., Stephen Dorff, Jeremy Piven) who live in the Chicago suburbs go to a big boxing match in downtown Chi-town. They travel in a SWEET 90’s RV (modern and hip--it has a Nintendo Entertainment System console complete with the Zapper light gun) that Piven's character got for the night after some sweet talking. Really, you can guess the types of roles that all four actors portrayed; I presume that most of Jeremy's roles are “smarmy A-hole.”

They experience a Chicago traffic jam (I was born and grew up in Illinois so even though I did not live in Chicago or its many suburbs, I still have experienced them before and they're no good) so they get off the freeway and-surprise, surprise-they get lost in “a bad part of town.”* They see a gang leader (Denis Leary) kill a man who wronged him and as the quartet are witnesses, he and a few henchmen-including the future Everlast-are chasing after our protagonists.

The movie has some contrivances but for the most part, you can explain how Leary and gang can always find the protagonists... basically, the protagonists do some dopey things. It is a “class struggle” sort of thing as it's men who have done decently enough in life vs. the more blue collar types in the gang who felt like they had to do such acts to earn their money... then of course both sides interact with the poor people who live in those run-down areas of Chicago that the police doesn't really care about, as the movie states more than once. The movie isn’t as awkward concerning racial politics as you might fear.

While I wouldn't call it great I was at least entertained by the story, all the moments where the heroes run from the villains and go through several different setpieces (some of them pretty tense), and how the characters all interacted with each other. I know the whole “Denis Leary and Bill Hicks” thing but as the characters played by Leary & Everlast both deliver plenty of sarcastic dialogue, they do it well.
Ultimately, Judgment Night is an entertaining modest thriller from the 90’s which-as people are proclaiming more often now-reminds you how even films like this look great despite almost entirely being set at night and the random Alan Silvestri score is solid. The movie is more than just an influential soundtrack.

* I should say that when I lived in Illinois, I one day did get off a busy freeway and drove through a sketchy area of Chicago. I ended up fine and it was in the afternoon but it was more awkward than anything else, as for like 45 minutes I saw no one who even closely resembled me-a dorky white man-and I stuck out like a sore thumb.