Judgment Day

There's a lot going on here. The cast do a pretty good job, I think, and so does director John Terlesky, making what they can of a wildly flummoxing screenplay by Fred Olen Ray. How did this script get approved? How did stars like Ice-T and Mario Van Peebles get roped into it, among others? What, exactly, is the history of this production, from start to finish? I'd be very curious to know. It's not that there's no story in 'Judgment Day,' but rather that the story is assembled something like a custom car built from with every piece stolen from a completely different make and model - bits and pieces cut from different sources, and welded together in a form that sounds like it might work in theory so long as you don't spend a single moment thinking about it.

Thus do we have elements cobbled together of a charismatic black preacher, speaking truth to power, going full Doomsday Cult; unaligned streetwise black characters who know everything about what's going on here, there, and everywhere; two competing "space defense" projects, one favored above the other with a key inexplicably being held by a former intelligence official now working as a college instructor; a felon whose past links with the preacher in ways that the screenplay cannot convincingly connect; threatening celestial objects a la Michael Bay's 'Armageddon'; and more. Early dialogue tries to have earnest, cheeky fun with matters like race relations or LGBTQ topics, but lacks the intelligence and delicate touch to make the cracks stick, so instead it just comes off as weakly borderline racist, homophobic, or transphobic. The smarter the writing tries to be (heavy verbiage delineating the past of character Matthew Reese; attempted kernels of wisdom from preacher Payne), the flimsier it is. Reese and co-lead Tyrell have dynamics that don't quite fit together, and while both have character arcs of a sort, on the crunched timeline in this film, they just seem forced. And so on, and so on, from start to finish.

I'm not even sure that the plot, as written, meaningfully connects together in terms of how the leading characters move from A to B. For what it's worth, stunts and effects look decent, and any CGI. Terlesky shows suitable capability as a director, and the cast make a sincere effort to inject something real and believable into the proceedings. The crew put in good work all around, and the climax that is mostly just an action sequence is probably the single strongest part of the feature. Truthfully, 'Judgment Day' is fairly well made for a late 90s "direct to video" release, and it's not altogether bad. It's passably enjoyable. It's enjoyable, however, provided that one just tries to accept the movie at face value, and leave it at that. If you can do so then this is still less than perfect or essential, but it's decent enough for a lazy day. If you can't, then you might be better off just passing on it altogether.

Ice-T and Suzy Amis star as two cops who team up to rescue a scientist, Linden Ashby (!) who has been kidnapped by religious fanatics led by Mario Van Peebles (!) among the group of fanatics include Coolio (!) and Tiny Lister Jr (!!) and the reason they kidnap Ashby is because it is only him that can prevent a meteor from destroying earth, with his expertise. They want to end the world for mainly religious reasons although they are easily thwarted by the "cop-killer" himself. One of the great ironies in showbiz is just how Ice-T gained fame singing a (admittedly catchy)rap song which expressed his overall unhappiness with the men in blue, now Ice-T makes his living playing a cop on Law and Order:SVU! Hilarious. However given his choice of terrible movies (Johnny Mnemonic,Surviving The Game,Tank Girl,Ticker,Gangland and Ablaze) and this is believe it or not one of the Iceman's better efforts. It's still a badly made rip off of Armageddon (Which also sucked) with some extremely awkward acting from Van Peebles, Lister and (especially) Ashby. Indeed the casting director had to have been drunk to cast Ashby as a scientist, also Van Peebles as a religious fanatic? This alone guarantees a couple of chuckles, however the special effects are so terrible that the embarrassing stock footage causes more surreal amazement than genuine hilarity. Still for fans of Ice-T, this is a must see.

*1/2 out of 4-(Poor)

Ice-T stars as a federal prisoner that is doing a deed for the FBI, where a scientist is kidnapped by an extremist group, with Mario Van Peebles as the leader. An asteroid threatens the earth (a la Armageddon), and the top scientist is kidnapped, and hope lies with both Ice-T and Suzy Amis (Titanic) as an FBI agent.

Ice-T might be portraying another stereotypical role as a convict, as well as the villain, like his previous films, but his vulgar overtones might sound like one of his rap songs. Check out a cameo by Coolio as a street hustler, and this film marks the third appearance of Tiny Lister (Trespass, Jackie Brown) with Ice-T.

The scene where Amis cuffs Ice-T to the steering wheel of the car has been repeated several times, in films like Rush Hour. 48 HRS. was the first film to feature such a scene, and every fan of the film might view this scene as homage to a timeless classic.

Why Mario Van Peebles as the black David Koresh? Ice-T might have lynched his ass in this film, since the two first met in New Jack City.

I stumbled on this movie after SportsCenter. It was on FX, so I stayed a few minutes. The cast was full of recognizable faces, including Ice-T and Mario Van Peebles, the king of B-Movies.

This was definitely a B-Movie.

I called up IMDb to figure out who the director was and he is an actor/director. That was obvious from the movie.

The plot was predictable and it was a combo of David Koresh and Armageddon, filmed on a low budget. The movie was enjoyable and Ice-T's grimace always gives me a smile, along with his silly bad-ass lines.

I don't know why Suzy Amis is attempting to act any more, since she's married to James Cameron-Titanic. She can do whatever she wants.

Plenty of the actors give you the 'I know that dude' feeling. I saw a guy from the Young and Restless, another was a character actor in every military movie.

Judgment Day was released in 1999, so it was probably filmed in 1998, when the Armageddon themed movies were still a hot commodity. That's the likely reason this movie was made. Still, it's an OK watch, though I did vacuum the carpet during the movie and didn't seem to miss anything.

Any movie that somehow brings Chicken and Waffles into the script can't be all bad.

This is definitely a late night movie watch.

(Like 90% of the actors that made it big in the 1985-1992 area, Suzy Amis appeared in a bad Miami Vice episode-Heart of Darkness. It's terrible that I just saw this on TV as I was writing this review.)

This movie is alright! I've seen it a number of times. It's one of those movies that you can see a number of times and not get bored of it.

Mario van Peebles and tommy Lister jr. gave good performances in my opinion. I like the idea of a religious activist believing that God had decided the world's fate and that it should be interfered with. Good special effects.

I don't know why this movie didn't come out at the cinema because I like the movie. Good story. Coolio's gangster character was a brief but interesting part of the film. A few things could have been done a little better, but a good movie on the whole. Worth watching.