Search - Judgment Night on DVD

Great suspense, awesome set-pieces.

Inspector Gadget | On the trail of Doctor Claw | 02/04/2004

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Since seeing this film I've never been comfortable with Denis Leary as a comedian because he's so damn convincing as the cold-hearted bad guy in this. I think he's a great actor but this is the movie to see him in as it's A. His best performance and B. One of the best villains ever in movies.Judgment Night kind of comes across as a modern, urban Deliverance. There are many similarities between them but Judgment Night clearly has more excitement. Estevez, Gooding Jnr, Piven and Dorff play well off each other and Piven especially seems to really get into the whiny runt of his character. Leary plays Fallon, a dangerous criminal from Chicago's bad side. And when the four pals cross him and witness a murder carried out by him a chase across derelict landscapes follows. Peter Greene, an actor I always like to see, plays Sykes, one of Fallon's cohorts as well as Everlast from the rap group House of Pain as Rhodes. They sure do make a threatening impression.Director Stephen Hopkins (who also did Predator 2 and Blown Away) uses creeping camera movements and neo-noir lighting to provoke multiple eerie moments as well as a great deal of tension. Slow-mo and warped sound effects are also used to great effect in the finale.This DVD by Universal massively improves on the old release by Goodtimes. Now the film is brilliantly presented in it's proper aspect ratio of 2.35:1. This new framing wonderfully compliments the gothic atmosphere and brooding silhouette photography. The terrible Dolby 2.0 soundtrack has been dropped and replaced with a grand DTS 5.1 track (Judgment Night was one of the first movies to be released in DTS). For the presentation of the movie it's surely a great package but the only extra is a trailer. It's still a must buy!"

DECENT SUSPENSEFUL THRILLER

Tim Janson | Michigan | 01/20/2004

(3 out of 5 stars)

"Don't watch this one with real high expectations and you won't be disappointed. The roles are all pretty much two dimensional but still its kind of a fun ride.Four suburnanite buddies travel into the city to attend a boxing match. They make the trip in an expensive RV that one of the buddies, a car salesmen, has "borrowed" off the lot. Fighting traffic they try and take a different route and end up lost in a very bad part of town.Okay, stereotype alert. This part of town seems totally abandoned. Newspapers blow down the streets like tumbleweeds in an old western. Unfortunately they are in the wrong place at the wrong time. They witness a gangland slaying and the gang also sees them.The four crash the RV and now have to flee on foot from the gang. The gang leader is played well over the top by fast talking Dennis Leary. Not the role I think he's best at but he does a decent job. Emilio Estevez leads the ones who are on the run through this rugged part of town. From there on it's a cat and mouse game as the friends are persued relentlessly.As you can guess, the friends have to finally make a stand and fight back for their lives. As said, the movie is pretty predictable but still fun. Full of cliches but not bad.Not much in the way of DVD extras but a good transfer."

A HIGHLY TENSE THRILLER

Tim Janson | 11/17/1999

(5 out of 5 stars)

"A cat and mouse chase which draws the audience to the edge of its seat.Dennis Leary is brilliant as the bad guy, so is the actor from the sitcom "Ellen" who plays one of panic-stricken good guys.A film with a simple plot but remains one of the most effective films of its type since "Deliverance" because of the fine performances all-round. Watch out for rapper Everlast from House of Pain as one of Leary's Mob."

COOL ACTION

Tim Janson | 02/09/1999

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Dennis Leary makes for a great villain in this movie and there are a lot of cool action scenes but it was released theatrically as 2.35:1 but the DVD is 1.78:1. Why? This ruins it a little."