Stephen Hopkins turns out perfectly enjoyable films and 1993’s Judgment Night is one of them. Featuring a bombastic score (which sometimes feels out of place) by Alan Silvestri, this action thriller was in need of a rewatch – I hadn’t seen this one since it was released on VHS!

The film stars Emilio Estevez, Denis Leary, Cuba Gooding Jr., Jeremy Piven and Stephen Dorff and plays with themes of the separation of society, and the differences between the inner city and suburbia, and they are illustrated violently.

Frank (Estevez) is having a guy’s night with his friends, Mike (Gooding Jr.), Ray (Piven) and his younger brother, John (Dorff), they are off to a big fight, Frank’s first outing since the birth of his daughter. Ray has got his hands on a top-of-the-line RV for the night, and they are off to the fight.

And get snarled in traffic, which gives the film a chance to show the characters’ opinions and violent tendencies. One wrong turn gets them off the freeway and mired in broken-down buildings, trash-filled straights, and a murder right in front of their eyes.

A murder committed by Fallon (Leary) who has a rule about witnesses, in that there should be none, and the hunt and chase across the rundown, violent end of town begins, allowing each of the characters to confront the violence within themselves as each is determined to survive the night, and Frank wants to get home to his wife and daughter.

Rapidly paced, almost as rapid as Leary’s signature dialogue delivery, the film moves quickly and puts Frank and his friends through their paces as Fallon pursues them relentlessly, almost to the final frames of the film.

This feels like a forgotten film of the 90s, man I remember seeing rows and rows of VHS copies of this one upon its release, and I remember thinking it was ok. Watching it now, I liked it a lot more, and while there are no surprises in terms of the narrative, you know who is going to live and die from the film’s opening, but the ride itself is fun.

I found myself paying attention to Silvestri’s score throughout. It sounds great, and sometimes I feel it’s better than the film it’s scoring. Overall, I enjoyed this one a lot, Estevez turns in a solid performance as does Gooding, and it’s interesting seeing Leary as a villain. He’s definitely menacing.

Once things get rolling Hopkins leans into some split-diopter use, and it gets used nicely, but it’s only for a few sequences and stands out because Hopkins doesn’t incorporate it throughout the entire film, which I think would have been a nice touch, and could have really hinted at the differences and disparity in the characters.

That being said, this one was fun.