Movie #328 - Judgment Night

Judgment Night
1993 - Rated R - 1 hr 50 min
Director: Stephen Hopkins
Starring: Emilio Estevez, Cuba Gooding Jr, Denis Leary, Stephen Dorff, Jeremy Piven, Peter Greene

Four friends go out for a night of fun and accidentally witness a murder.  Bad guy Denis Leary wants to kill them now.  Bad times. 

In Judgment Night, Emilio Estevez plays a new father who's been itching to get out of the house.  His friends take him out for the night and he almost gets killed. The lesson? New dads need to stay home and help new moms.  Not my opinion, folks, but apparently it's the filmmaker's.  Hey, I didn't write this movie.

Emilio Estevez is not playing hockey but winds up kicking some serious butt.  Denis Leary's evil, but isn't he usually?  There's not really much to this that's original, just some of the circumstances.  But it's your basic bad guys chasing good guys story and it's pretty predictable.  That's all I got here, folks.

Movie #278 - As Good As It Gets

As Good As It Gets
1997 - Rated PG-13 - 2 hr 19 min
Director: James L Brooks
Starring: Jack Nicholson, Helen Hunt, Greg Kinnear, Cuba Gooding Jr, Skeet Ulrich, Shirley Knight, Yeardley Smith

The late addition reviews continue with this, the winner of both Best Actress and Best Actor at 1998's Academy Awards ceremony.  It lost Best Picture to Titanic that year, just so you can get your bearings on that tidbit.

Anyhow, this movie's fun.  Curmudgeony, OCD-battling Jack Nicholson is a treat to watch, even if he is a bit annoying. And the relationship that blooms between him and Helen Hunt's friendly waitress / troubled mother of a sick boy, well it's about as awkward as possible.  This is the first movie I remember seeing Greg Kinnear in and I loved him right away.  The chemistry among these three on their "getaway" makes the whole movie worthwhile.  Why it's over two hours, I can't be sure. It does drag in parts.

Overall, a great "feel good" movie that's really a study in human relationships... also human/dog relationships.  Cute and funny, but I guess not more impressive than a sinking cruiseliner.