Judgment Day

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.)

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 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.

A direct to video blockbuster involving meteors destroying the planet. Thats where the similarities between Not So Deep Impact, Yawnageddon, and this movie end and actual entertainment begins. The movie moves at an impressive pace with some amiable performances by all (except for an offensively lifeless performance by Amis). And the script actually serves up enough twists to keep the noodle somewhat active. It kind of treats your brain like a computer, occasionally nudging the mouse to get rid of the screen-saver. Mario Van-Peebles is in top form as a religious cult leader welcoming the end of the world.

Well worth a rent.

I recently watched Judgement Day (1999) on Tubi. The storyline follows the impending end of the world and a scientist who may be Earth's last hope. However, a cult leader believes the apocalypse is God's will and kidnaps the scientist. An unlikely pair of agents must track down the cult, rescue the scientist, and try to save the world.

This picture is directed by John Terlesky (Written in Blood) and stars Ice-T (New Jack City), Mario Van Peebles (Heartbreak Ridge), Tiny Lister Jr. (Friday), Suzy Amis (The Usual Suspects), and Coolio (Daredevil).

This is one of those movies that's terrible-but I enjoy it every time. The acting is wildly inconsistent, with Amis having zero chemistry with Ice-T, but Van Peebles and Tiny Lister give surprisingly entertaining performances and had me cracking up. The cast is actually pretty stacked. I also laughed out loud at Coolio's brief five-second appearance-it's so random, and it gets me every time.

The storyline is a mess, the logic is out the window, but honestly, that's part of the charm.

In conclusion, Judgement Day is a bad movie, no question-but it's a fun kind of bad. I'd give it an honest 3/10.