No Surrender Cinema: Judgment Night
The first No Surrender Cinema of the new year covers what happened when a night out on the town turned into four friends fighting for their lives. Take an A-list cast, move them out of their comfort zone, put them in a concrete jungle with a killer soundtrack, and you’ve got an exciting entry into the action genre. Read on to find out how our heroes handle their Judgement Night!
Names like Emilio Estevez, Denis Leary, and Jeremy Piven won’t immediately make your mind drift towards action movies, but they’re all here helping carry the load in Judgment Night. While Cuba Gooding Jr. and Stephen Dorff did their fair share of action later on in their careers, back in 1993 neither were known for it. Sure, Dorff had co-starred with BPA favorite Michael Dudikoff in Rescue Me, a film released through our beloved Cannon Films, but that flick was much lighter fare than what Cannon had become famous for. Some might consider the casting of all of these stars in an urban thriller a risk, but it’s one that paid off in spades, because Judgment Night is a great film, one that I personally feel gets forgotten or overlooked among the more outlandish and bombastic of 90’s action flicks. It’s a pretty standard movie with a simple premise, but it delivers in every aspect.
The movie starts off in Anytown, USA, and establishes Frank Wyatt (Estevez) as a married man who recently entered fatherhood. While waiting for his buddies to arrive, Frank and his wife have a heart to heart about his maturity and his newfound responsibilities, but Frank reassures her that his days of debauchery are behind him. Of course, Frank’s argument is hampered by Ray (Piven) riding up to the house in a tricked out RV that he hustled a salesman into letting him test drive. Ray definitely has the most douchebag tendencies of the group, but ladies man Mike (Gooding Jr.) is not afraid to bust Ray’s balls. Last but not least is Frank’s younger brother John (Dorff), who its hinted at is a troublemaker who has tension with his big bro. Now that each character has at least one defining trait established, the RV rolls out to their planned destination of a big boxing match.
The groups troubles start quickly, as a traffic jam has them moving at a snail’s pace en route to the fights. There’s a brief interlude of excitement when a road raging driver bumps the RV with his truck, but that’s just a small taste of what’s to come and only served to show that everyone but Ray at least has a little bit of backbone. Seeing how Judgment Night wouldn’t be much of a night (or a film) if our four leads were spending it holed up in a RV, Ray opts for the next off-ramp to try a faster route. And since we’re in an action movie, this valiant attempt to make the matches on time leads our heroes into a ghetto wasteland, one that sets their internal alarms off almost immediately. Before they can roll up their windows and lock their doors (and you would think the guy from Boyz N The Hood wouldn’t be so quick to profile), the RV hits something. After arguing over checking it out (with a panicked Ray wanting to GTFO of there), they discover an injured gangbanger named Teddy. Ray freaks out over the situation, but the rest of the crew insist on getting Teddy off the street and into the RV. As our heroes try get some help, they wind up sideswiped, an accident that pins the RV between the walls of an alleyway, leaving them stuck. This makes them prone for Fallon (Leary) and his gang to attack the RV and take Teddy away. Turns out Teddy’s wounds happened due to him being caught skimming from Fallon’s cash, and the ensuing getaway. This scene sets the groundwork for what our heroes are going to be up against, because Fallon is heartless in his pistol-aided elimination of the Teddy problem, and his command that there be no witnesses. Fallon and co. launch another assault on the RV, but Frank starts a fire to give his group the time to escape.
Unfortunately for our heroes, help is not about to come easily in this modern day no man’s land. The group hides out in an old train car that a group of homeless men have taken residence in, and are blackmailed by the vagrants to keep them quiet. It’s a bit of poetic justice (not the Tupac kind) when the one who wanted Mike’s jacket winds up gunned down by Fallon in a case of mistaken identity. Seeking refuge in an apartment complex makes them sitting ducks when Fallon’s gang barges in and starts kicking down doors. Not wanting to put anyone else in danger (especially the women and children that have been hiding them), the four make their way to the roof to cross over to the next building. This escape attempt leads to my personal favorite part of the movie, one that gets very tense very fast, and is what I consider the most memorable scene in Judgment Night. Discovering that their exit strategy depends on the sturdiness of a makeshift ladder bridge, each member of the group take turns crawling to the next building with nothing to save them from dropping to the street below. Ray, who we’ve known to be even more of a douchebag than we initially thought (because of his fake call to 911 during the Teddy incident, wanting to save his own ass), tosses the ladder down to the street when his turn comes. Apparently certain death didn’t outweigh his fear of heights, and his tells his friends he’s going to wait on Fallon and negotiate a deal. Ray turns on the salesman charm that Piven would use years later in The Goods, but Leary isn’t having any of his bullshit and hurls him off the roof. Let’s get something straight; I’ve had a fear of heights my whole life. If a gang of killers are relentlessly pursuing me, I’m gonna crawl, fear of heights be damned. It was a solid move, though, since asshole Ray was clearly the most expendable of the protagonists. If anyone had to die, I’m glad it was him, and I’m sure anyone else watching felt the same way.
Since taking things up top didn’t pan out as they’d hoped, Frank and friends decide to go low, and try to escape through the sewers. No Ninja Turtles are around to save the day, but the sewer does help the group gain an advantage over Fallon’s crew. His main henchman Sykes (Peter Greene, who has played a villain in nearly every film he’s been in) is killed by Mike. Fallon gets chewed out by a member of his own crew for allowing Sykes to get killed, and Fallon takes it as well as you’d expect, drowning his own underling in sewer water. Fallon is now left with only Rhodes (Everlast, yes THAT Everlast) as his last remaining lackey, and his lack of remorse is compounded with his frustration with the situation. Now, it’s just a matter of principle that Frank and friends get toe tagged before the night is through.
The climax of Judgment Night is a tense affair that takes a few twists. Earlier in the film, Fallon finds Frank’s wallet, and uses the information from his driver’s license to taunt him and goad him out of hiding. Every time it seems that help is on the way, the happiness is cut short by Fallon. Mike, John, and Rhodes all take bullets, in varying levels of severity. This leaves only Fallon and Frank to face off to see who will be left standing before the sun comes up. Reluctant hero vs. vile villain is a tale as old as time, and both Estevez and Leary are game to keep our eyes glued to the screen to see how things will play out.
I remember Judgment Night well, not just because I still have the VHS (or because I remember a LOT of things), but because it was always one of those movies that I would come back to. It’s got tremendous rewatch potential because it’s never boring, the cast that’s supposed to be likable is likable, and those that aren’t truly aren’t. There aren’t many cutesy lines from Leary, and this wasn’t a case of him being shoehorned in here to do his comedy routine. Leary plays it straight, and Fallon is a cold, calculating killer who takes great pleasure in menacing those perceived as weaker than him. Watching Judgment Night makes you think that Leary could/should have parlayed this role into more serious thriller or even horror roles. With his worn facial features and gravely voice, he could have been the perfect nemesis for so many of the names we discuss here at BPA. Estevez is good as Frank, a guy who hadn’t had a night out in months and is now in way over his head. The rest of the supporting cast all have their moments, although I feel like Dorff’s character is the weakest and less defined. If it wasn’t for hinting at their family issues to give Frank an extra layer of character development, the movie would have been just fine without him. There was nothing wrong with his acting, but it was an obvious low point in a script that had some overall very good writing.
Judgment Night also has the distinction of having one of the most influential and memorable soundtrack albums, as each song in the film was a collaboration between rock bands and rap groups. That might not seem so out of the norm these days, but back in 1993 it was pretty groundbreaking. Helmet and House of Pain’s “Just Another Victim” is the best known song from the soundtrack, but other team ups like Pearl Jam and Cypress Hill put the spotlight on some of the top acts from each genre at the time. Songs like “Another Body Murdered” by Faith No More and Boo-Yaa TRIBE are extremely fitting for a movie with characters fighting for their lives in the rundown part of town. The whole album set the tone for what you see on screen and definitely adds to the Judgment Night experience. Much like the movie has tremendous rewatch value, this is a soundtrack that still gets a lot of credit (and radio play, at least as far as my car is concerned) in the present time.
Judgment Night is currently back on cable, airing on the Starz/Encore block of channels and their streaming app, and if you’re into tangible media like I am, both the DVD or Blu-Ray versions can be had for a fair price on Amazon and elsewhere. The cast is top notch, especially Leary, who skipped past the comedy to keep Fallon as evil as he could. With heroes we can relate to, a villain that loves to be hated, and action backed by one of the best soundtracks you’ll ever hear, Judgment Night is well worth the watch.
