Cinema Dissection: Judgment Night

 

It's 1993 folks. UB40 and Haddaway are tearing up the charts, Jurassic Park was dominating the box office and I was a fat kid. Well, fatter kid. 

Also, Emilio Estevez, Denis Leary, Cuba Gooding Jr, Jeremy Piven and Stephen Dorff were all in the same damn movie. What would a movie with this cast look like now? 

Some kind of nightmarish, drug-fueled rendition of Wild Hogs or Grown Ups, no doubt. So instead of walking down that road, let's focus on their cult classic(?) Judgment Night.

Estevez was already an established star in Hollywood, Piven was an up-and-coming talent though it was still a full decade before he really splashed on Entourage. We were still 3 years away from Cuba being shown the money and an Oscar, Dorff was only 20 years old and at the beginning of a long and rather confusing career. Leary had just controversially topped friend-turned-rival Bill Hicks in the comedy world and was on his way to stardom and a long, still thriving career. 

This sort of breeding ground for a handful of unquestionably successful Hollywood careers, combined with the distinct action, atmosphere, direction and one of the more unique soundtracks in movie history make Judgment Night a perfect subject for our latest Cinema Dissection.