Rating summary

Movie		4.0
Video		4.5
Audio		4.5
Extras		0.0
Overall		3.5

Judgment Night Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Martin Liebman February 7, 2019

Judgment Night's plot pits innocent bystanders against hardened drug dealers and murders. In the film, the former desperately run for their lives through Chicago's seedy underbelly. The film's chase-based action may not sound original, and the film does little, if anything, to reinvent a fairly basic story line. Director Stephen Hopkins (Predator 2, Lost in Space), working on a screenplay written by Lewis Colick and Jere Cunningham, nevertheless creates a frenzied, desperate and despair-defined atmosphere as the innocent men, who are outgunned and out of their element, frantically flee and try to find a way out of the situation, including running, negotiating, and eventually fighting. The story is not about the external details but rather how the four men process and respond to their predicament, how they evolve from frightened friends to fearsome fighters. Hopkins and his writers keep the story flowing as realistically as it can, though, never elevating the heroes beyond reason and never building the villains as unstoppable entities. All of the characters are flesh-and-blood, and it's in their evolving responses, along with Hopkins' tight direction, that elevates the film above similar cinema chum.

Family man Frank Wyatt (Emilio Estevez) has barely left the house in the months since his baby was born. Neither has his wife, but she's OK -- though not thrilled -- with the idea of him getting away with his buddies for a night at a boxing match. Along with his little brother John (Stephen Dorff) and his friends Mike (Cuba Gooding Jr.) and Ray (Jeremy Piven), Frank heads out for a night on the town in a luxury RV that Ray conned for the evening from a gullible dealership. With traffic backed up and the boxing match about to begin, Ray decides to detour off the freeway and through a seedier part of town where they are accidental witnesses to a murder. With the RV trashed in the ensuing chaos, the four finds themselves on foot and on the run from four heavily armed thugs, led by the dangerous Fallon (Denis Leary), who relentlessly pursue the friends who have been marked for death.

"Tense" and "terrifying" are appropriate adjectives to describe Judgment Night. The film earns as much mileage as it can from the premise, which is quite a bit. The audience is never quite sure what to expect next, beyond, of course, location shifts from one set piece to the next. The film moves from streets to housing complexes and from to sewers to stores, each offering the friends somewhat increased opportunities for survival while also reminding them that no matter how far they go, which direction they take, that there's seemingly no escape from their pursuers, who are apparently expert urban trackers. Each environment offers a unique opportunity for them to face their fears and to grow as men and fighters, coming to terms with the deadly reality of their situation and searching for the conviction to not just fight back, but to survive, to see the ordeal through, not to surrender to fear and fatigue at the cost of their lives. The film doesn't spend much time developing the characters. Frank is a family man with more to fight for than anyone else, particularly as Fallon regularly reminds him that he knows who he is and where he lives, promising to pay a visit to his wife when the night's hunt comes to a close. Ray is the most transparent character while Mike and John serve as little more than bodies to participate in the action.

Yet even without tightly defined character details in play, Hopkins manages to keep the movie about them rather than their predicament. The night is obviously not easy on them. They are not robots running from destruction but rather flesh and blood characters who gradually find themselves turning on one another as the stresses mount, not because the night reveals any truths about their friendship but because it reveals truths about themselves, about how they respond to stress sand operate under pressure. One of the film's strengths is its depiction of the characters' relative weaknesses compared to their more violently attuned and murderously seasoned pursuers. Their innocence is their defining characteristic, one they will need to overcome not to run from trouble but to confront trouble when it becomes apparent that nobody is going to save them but themselves. Hopkins manages an even keeled approach to it all, transitioning from big set pieces and breathlessly dangerous action scenes to intimate story details and character growth moments along the way.

Judgment Night Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

According to a source at Warner Archive, Judgment Night has received a new transfer from an IP scanned at 2K by Warner's MPI facility. There is an international release of the film on Blu-ray which was apparently sourced from an older, and lesser, Universal master created at least a decade ago. The results for this Blu-ray are quite remarkable. WAC's 1080p Blu-ray delivers a gorgeous film-quality image, blessed with a finely rendered natural grain structure that compliments fine detailing which shows no signs of unwanted or unwarranted grain reduction or texture tampering. The result is a natural, high yield image that even in challenging dark scenes -- which comprise the vast majority of the movie -- produces a cinematic quality for the home. Facial and clothing textures come easily and with natural complexity. The challenges posed by the darker nighttime exteriors and various low-light interiors are never hurdles this image cannot overcome. Gritty urban environments are likewise healthy and robust, whether street-level details, sewers, stores, or apartment building interiors, the latter of which represent just about the best-lit scenes in the film beyond the opening minutes. Colors are nicely rendered and appear accurate, masked by the movie's overwhelmingly dark scenes and locations, but they do impress within the film's natural visual parameters and excel in an early dusk scene when the friends prepare to leave on their trip or in any of several better lit locales. Blood is a particular standout seen towards film's end. Black levels are strong with only slight elevation. Only the most eagle-eyed viewer will spot one or two stray pops or speckles. No serious source wear or encode artifacts are apparent; WAC's bitrate hovers around 40Mbps for the duration. Fans could not have asked for more from a Judgment Night Blu-ray.

Judgment Night Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Judgment Night was one of the first films to release theatrically with DTS sound, and for this Blu-ray release Warner Archive has produced the soundtrack from the digital 5.1 printmaster. The results are very impressive. The film begins somewhat reservedly, front-heavy, and not particularly interesting one way or another, but a few early scenes highlight the potential and goodness to come, such as when Frank cranks up the music, momentarily, in the RV. Once the action picks up, this proves to be a positive, energetic track with music offering positive front-side stretch. When the men make their escape from Fallon and his gang after witnessing the execution, musical engagement, clarity, and vigor are terrific, while support effects such as gunfire and explosions offer commendable depth, detail, and stage engagement. Gunfire is always a highlight, with many shots coming from a large caliber Desert Eagle or a variety of revolvers presumably shooting .357 loads; while shots don't match the ear-bursting intensity of real gunfire, the sense of depth and stage fill is quite impressive, whether above ground, inside a building, or down in the enclosed confines of a sewer. It's in those sewers where the track enjoys some of its most prominent surround engagement in the way of realistically tinny reverberation, creating a claustrophobic, inescapable sonic landscape that's the perfect compliment to the on-screen action. Other prominent effects are handled as well as can be expected, including a blaring alarm in chapter 25 which delivers a steady, penetrating intensity. Light atmospherics gently immerse the listener into various locations throughout the film, with light breezy winds, rustling papers, and rolling bottles defining an exterior scene early in the film when the friends stop to tend to a wounded man who is eventually executed at the end of Fallon's revolver. Dialogue is center positioned, lifelike, and well prioritized for the duration.

Judgment Night Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

Warner Archive's Blu-ray release of Judgment Night contains no supplemental content. The main menu screen offers only options for "Play Movie" and to toggle subtitles on and off. No DVD or digital copies are included. The release does not appear to ship with a slipcover.

Judgment Night Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Judgment Night may not be a classic, but the film just works. Leary delivers a commanding performance as the lead villain While Estevez, Gooding Jr., Piven, and Dorff are smartly cast as the hunted. Hopkins does much without developing any of them too intimately, relying on atmosphere, tension, and terror to carry the film. It's a well paced, relentless film that holds up to repeat viewings. Warner Archive's Blu-ray is the definitive home video version. Though it's entirely absent any supplemental content, the video and audio production qualities are first-rate. Highly recommended.