Seven Hours to Judgment

Oddly enough i saw this movie a few times as I worked at a theatre and well could never afford film school and dreamed of what would never be. oddly enough as i recall now in hindsight MORT ABRAHAMS was in the theatre with me watching the movie. Wish i would have recognized him then. A curious thing but well, a footnote in my past now. the film is a cross between psycho and the REBECCA LYONS version of THE LADY THE TIGER AND THE DOOR and a "on the lamb movie". The film mixes courtroom drama with a race against time as a judge must be judged by the derrainged survivor of a murder spree who lost his wife. The judge must try to save his wife while racing through SEATTLE to find clues and being pursused by vicious street gangs who do not want the truth to come out. A great modest budget movie which features a fine cast including some very talented extras. the film was an independent feature from TRANSWORLD, before they went primarily straight to video. The film sports good directoral and production values. I liked the "dream like" otherworldly sequences which added a human touch to the judge and a artsy feel. The film did more monetarily on video tape after theatrical release. A fine movie relesed in sleeper status with little fan fare or advertisement. Several films did this one the year before in 1987 was THE HIDDEN.

Beau Bridges directs himself in this utterly preposterous but entertaining thriller. He plays a judge who was forced to release some minority punks who'd robbed and killed a woman, due to insufficient evidence. This enrages her husband (Ron Leibman), one of those local businessmen you see on TV with the corny ads. Since the husband is more than a little unhinged, he gets even by kidnapping the judges' smoking hot young wife (Julianne Phillips), and forcing the judge to go into the toughest parts of town to obtain some supposed evidence that would have helped convict the punks.

You don't have to think too hard about this one. It establishes itself as ridiculous escapism early on, with Bridges putting the pedal to the metal, so to speak. And that's the best thing about "Seven Hours to Judgment": it rarely stops moving, enabling itself to wrap up in a tidy 91 minutes. If it was attempting to make a statement on the sad, sad state of affairs regarding the "justice" system in the U.S.A., it kind of blows it by making Leibmans' character such a nutcase. He goes from being a sympathetic character to an out and out villain pretty quickly, enlisting the services of a simple minded employee (played by the massive "Tiny" Ron, who does get a good showcase). But it does sort of succeed, at least to some small degree, by giving Bridges' well-off character a chance to see how the other half lives.

Bridges is overall too insipid for us to root for him that much, while Phillips is wasted in a mostly thankless role. The two of them don't generate any real chemistry, either. Leibman, as he's so often been prone to do, absolutely demolishes the scenery. Reggie Johnson ("Platoon") is fine as a clichéd tough talking gangbanger. Familiar faces like John Aylward ('ER'), John Billingsley ('Enterprise'), and Steve Harris ('The Practice') turn up, while veteran actor Al Freeman Jr. ("Malcolm X", 'One Life to Live') has a nice presence as Bridges' psychiatrist friend.

Location filming in Seattle does help a fair bit in the enjoyment of this one. If you desire mindless B movie thrills, you could do worse.

Six out of 10.

Another film that attempts to make a comment on how the legal system allows criminals to use loopholes to slip out of being penalized, while victims suffer. However, the character Ron Leibman plays comes off as a lunatic instead of the anguished husband of a murdered victim as the story wears on. The premise of the film seems very far fetched as well, especially in the scenes where Beau Bridges is facing down gang toughs. There is no chemistry between Bridges and Moore (she plays his wife), either. Could have been a much better film for the ideas it was trying to get across.

Because there is none. "Seven Hours to Judgement" is a completely off the rails nightmare, and if you had dreamed this, you definitely would have awakened in a sweat. Beau Bridges is constantly running away from a nice assortment of seedy characters, as he to obtain evidence that could save his kidnapped wife. The kidnapper is a totally unhinged Ron Leibman. The movie moves so quickly, you might be tempted to overlook the disbelief factor, but I doubt you will. There are so many lapses in logic that they completely swamp any sense of reality or meaning . Nevertheless, any Ron Leibman performance is worth seeing, and this is certainly Ron Leibman's most bizarre character of all time. The film would best be described as a blend of "After Hours", and "Frauds", and is entertaining enough as long as you cast logic down the drain. - MERK