Judgment Night

Four friends on the run from a street gang in downtown Chicago is the story line for the movie Judgment Night from 1993. This story line has nothing to do with music. However, the soundtrack that accompanied this film featured a unique formula of hard rock bands teaming up with hip-hop artists to compose original songs. Join co-hosts Jon and Mark as they revisit this wrong turn off the expressway and how this soundtrack became an icon for the beginnings of rap-rock in the years that followed.

By the way, don't call me Francis!

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Jon (00:00)
Tonight in the Rock N' Roll Theatre, don't move, don't whisper, don't even breathe. It's Judgment Night.

Hello everybody, welcome back to the  Rock N' Roll Theatre  Podcast. My name is John. I'm joined here by my co-host and my brother Mark. Each episode here in the  Rock N' Roll Theatre  we look at movies, pop culture, all sorts of fun things. And today we're looking at Judgment Night.

Mark (00:30)
Judgment Night was released on October 15th, 1993. It runs one hour, 45 minutes, rated R. This is an action, mystery, and thriller crime and drama film. It's a lot going on there. It was directed by Stephen Hopkins

It was produced for a budget of twenty one million dollars, but at the box office it only generated twelve million dollars. So that's a pretty big loss.

In Judgment Night, we have four friends in suburban Chicago planning to go to a professional boxing match, but instead they end up witnessing a murder in a rough part of town. And now they're on the run from a street gang trying to kill them. The film stars Emilio Estavez, Cuba Gooding Jr., Jeremy Piven, Steven Dorff, and Dennis Leary. The movie was heavily inspired by other, let's say, urban nightmare style thrillers.

There's the Warriors in 1979, Southern Comfort in 1981, movies where ordinary people are now suddenly in hostile territory. The movie was filmed before Chicago underwent much of its later downtown redevelopment, but it still has a very gritty early 1990s urban look.

Jon (01:52)
This project was in development for several years. Its original title was Escape. At one point John Carpenter actually wrote a script. Hopkins wanted John Travolta at first as the lead and Kevin Spacey as the villain. I can't really picture that, but okay. Ray Leota turned down this film, Tom Cruise turned down this film, Samuel L. Jackson turned down this film, and even Christian Slater turned down a role in this movie. Finally, in the end, at the very last minute, they signed on Emilio Estavez, who got four million dollars for the picture.

Mark (02:17)
So despite the film being pretty forgettable for audiences, it did feature a very unique soundtrack that featured eleven pairs of rock and metal bands with hip hop artists performing original songs not found anywhere else in their catalogs. This was unprecedented at the time as rock and rap rarely crossed over, but it was a huge success and the soundtrack has arguably become more influential than the film.

Jon (02:43)
The actual movie score itself doesn't feature many things from the soundtrack. We'll get into a lot of how that was an lost opportunity later on. The score was done by Alan Sylvestri, and he worked with Hawkins on Predator 2, so in for the much more traditional movie sound effects style you'd expect from an action movie. And we're gonna get into all things Judgment Night, all things the soundtrack too, of course. But first, before we do, there are spoilers ahead. I forgot last episode to tell you there were spoilers, but yes.

We always have spoilers included here. So hit pause, come back if you haven't seen Judgment Night in a long time or have never seen it. And while you're at it, if you have a quick second here, like, subscribe, comment, share with a friend, let them know what we have going on in the theatre. we have a pretty big back catalog growing now. There's lots of cool things to check out. But for now, Judgment Night.

Mark (03:28)
The movie opens with a big panoramic shot over the suburbs of Chicago. We see a nice neighborhood. It looks like it's fall. Leaves are falling. The trees, their leaves are starting to change color. It looks pretty, you know, quaint. It looks quiet. People are having a nice time. Families are out walking around on the sidewalk. What have you? We see our main character, Frankie, played by Emilio Estavez. he's with his wife, he's with his.

His child, and he's sort of wishing them goodbye for the evening. He's he's off to watch a boxing match with his friends. In the background, we hear the song Fallen, which is Teenage Fan Club and De La Soul. It really does fit here. It feels good, it sounds good, it's really setting a nice vibe. When I'm hearing this, I'm I'm thinking, okay, maybe I need to give this movie a chance. I've I've heard some bad reviews about it, but this this seems very early 90s and it's kind of got a good

vibe going here. I'm excited. So Frankie's other friends pull up.

We have Cuba Gooding Jr. playing Mike. We have Jeremy Piven playing Ray. And we have Steven Dorf playing John. Jeremy Piven's character, Ray, he has this large party RV that he pulls up in to take everybody to the boxing match that they're going to see. That seems maybe not the best choice for going into downtown traffic in Chicago.

Jon (04:51)
Mm-hmm. Definitely a bad choice, as we're gonna see here in a few moments. The interior of this RV, however, is like the perfect 90s mobile you'd ever want to drive in. They have a Nintendo, including with the flash gun. they have TVs, a wet bar, they got beers, they got everything going on. The thing is insanely wide, and probably not at all what you'd want to bring to downtown Chicago to an arena to try to park. But hey, we'll see if they even get there. as they're getting there, they're partying, they're having a good time.

But there's a truck that kind of cuts them off and it kind of starts a road raid inch incident with John, the brother of Frankie, Emilio Estavez's character. He jumps out. We very, very briefly in the background hear the Slayer Ice-T song from the soundtrack, Disorder. But it's really under like the the audio levels. It's very quiet in the background. I mean, they should have cranked it up for this, for the scene for what it was, you know, the boys about to get in a fight. It would have been perfect. But no, it's just kind of softly in the background there.

Mark (05:42)
I

think maybe they were trying to mimic it as that was the actual stereo in the truck.

Jon (05:48)
Hmm, possible. If if if if that's the case, I'll I'll give him a pass on that one. There'll be other ones I don't give a pass on. Okay, maybe we could go for that idea. basically when there's stuff in traffic, the Ray character, Jeremy Piven, gets the idea of, hey, I know a shortcut. I'm gonna hop off the expressway and I have a quick back way into the arena. And this is basically the idea for the entire plot.

This wrong turn sends him on a total adventure on a total journey.

As they're making their bad turn off the expressway, we do hear a little bit too of Freak Mama, which is the Sir Mix-a-lot Mudhoney track, which is the party track on the soundtrack. And sadly, that's about all the music we're gonna get for quite a while off the soundtrack. So in the first 10-12 minutes or so, you do hear a little bit of what was going on with the soundtrack, but then it's just kind of abandoned for most of the movie.

Anyway, they end up in a really bad part of town. they're getting spooked. They're they're trying to be able for directions, but it's not going well.

Ray kind of subtly opens a glove box to show that he has a gun. sadly they didn't have a GPS. This would have solved a lot of problems for them. And as they're in this kind of confused state, driving around this bad part of town, they see a man lying at the side of the road.

so they come over, they give him aid, they're trying to help him out,

Ray, the Jeremy Jeremy Pivens character, he actually does have a cell phone, which is pretty rare for 1993. And of course the guys are like, hey, call 911. This guy's down here. He's hurt. We're not sure what's wrong with him. He's kind of like, yeah, okay, but kind of looking around the RV and all the booze and stuff. So he does call 911 for like a second and hangs up on them and just doesn't tell them anything or tell them where they're at.

so it turns out that this guy actually was shot by some gangsters and he has a bunch of money on him. They take him into the RV. They see if they can get him some help. They want to take him to the hospital. But as they're trying to figure this out, and Ray's kind of against the idea and doesn't want him in the RV and doesn't want to get caught for drinking and driving, is probably the real story here. all of a sudden, a Cadillac comes out of nowhere, T-bones him, crashes into the RV, causes a ton of damage, and even broke the fax machine.

Mark (07:41)
Things are about to take a turn for the worse. This street gang that is chasing this victim that they have struck with the RV, they've arrived.

The guys in the RV, they have the guy, they're tending to him, his name is Teddy. We learn more about this street gang. The leader of the street gang named Fallon is played by Denis Leary. Now, not to say this is a strong film overall, but one of the biggest gripes I would have with this film is that Denis Leary is maybe the most least intimidating villain you could pick in the year nineteen ninety three.

Jon (08:20)
I couldn't agree more. He sounds like he's about to start his stand-up set at any second. And that's why he's known for being a stand-up comic. So it is kind of funny to watch him as he's the tough guy, leader of this gang. And even his jokes aren't very good.

Mark (08:32)
They don't look tough, they don't act tough, they don't even have

Jon (08:35)
No.

Mark (08:35)
their faces covered. So they're not even

Jon (08:37)
No.

Mark (08:38)
smart villains.

Jon (08:39)
They wrecked their own car.

Mark (08:40)
Anyway, there's a dispute. Teddy ends up on the street with the street gang. They put him to his knees and they execute him. The guys in the RV, they're horrified. They know, okay, this is really bad. This street gang, they know they know now that they saw it. So they're the next target. Can't have witnesses. So the street gang proceeds to shoot up the RV.

The guys run out the other side. The RV was sort of wedged between two buildings. So the it the route of escape was only to go out through the front. There's actually a massive explosion where the RV just engulfs into flames and there's this huge explosion. It's actually very well done. The effects look pretty good for 1993.

There's background music, but it has nothing to do with the soundtrack. It's just generic, bad, bland. But now we know that the chase is on. These four friends, they gotta escape this this street gang. They know they're the number one target. They decide to hide out in the nearby train yard.

Jon (09:41)
After testing out a couple of train cars, they find one that's open. However, there's a whole bunch of hobos living in it. the hobos are basically saying, hey, if you don't pay us or bribe us or something, we're gonna scream you out your names and we're gonna rat you out. we also noticed here as they're searching around that Everlast from House of Pain is in Dennis Leary's gang. They don't give him a name or anything, but that's definitely the OG Everlast.

so as they're negotiating with the hobos, Frankie Emil Estevez gives them his wallet with all of his ID pictures, everything else in it. Okay, that's really stupid. the scene goes on forever. They're the bad guys are searching for them, Dennis Leary's taunting them, like none of the taunts are really good or creative. Not what do you expect from a guy who made his career as a stand-up comedian? I'm guess didn't write anything in this movie. So in the end, the plan decides to be that they'll basically give all their possessions to the hobos.

And trade clothes with them to get away. And they all kind of burst out of the train car together and start running. Of course, the gangsters start shooting. they actually kill one of the hobos dressed in in I think it was Cuba Gooding Junior's clothes. they don't even seem to, notice this or care that this person just got shot on their behalf, whatever. then they run and they hide in a warehouse. So they see that there's lights on an apartment building.

So they decide to go over, check out this building, even though it's in a really bad part of town. I did like this part a little bit. There's this creepy little gangbanger kid. He's on a swing just looking at them, swinging in the darkness like late at night. It's a pretty creepy scene. I liked it. One of the few things I did. So they start going to door to door to ask for help, and nobody wants to help them. I don't blame them. If these guys came pounding on my door saying, Hey, I want to come inside and use your phone, I wouldn't let them in either.

then they see this woman in the laundry room and they kind of like force themselves into her an apartment. It's a little bit of a creepy scene, they're in there and they're not even acting very nice. They're like smoking her apartment and being kind of rude to her. of course, once the gang shows up, Denis Leary and the gangbangers have a little discussion. basically they decide, well, you know what? They're your problem. We don't want them in our neighborhood, so you can go ahead and get them. we do hear very softly just another victim. this one I won't say was the radio in the background.

You just hear it kind of very briefly underneath, and it doesn't make any sense because Everlast is in the song. House of Pain are in the song, and we barely even hear it, and it's more just regular generic, sound score, action movie stuff.

Mark (11:52)
Another thing that couldn't go unnoticed for me during this first sequence of chasing, especially in the train yards and the warehouse, the way they filmed this movie, it is so dark. I mean dark. You can barely make out the faces of the different characters. Not good.

Jon (12:09)
I saw it in the theatre and remember thinking that at the time. of course we watched it with much more modern HD technology, and it was still really dark, and still kind of like, what is going on half the time?

Mark (12:19)
Alright, so now Denis Leary and his street gang, he's found them. And he knows Frank's name because of the wallet. So they're in this lady's apartment. They're getting kind of freaked out. What are we gonna do? What are we gonna do? They hear the street gang coming up, going through the different units, searching for them. Ray, Jeremy Piven's character, he gets kind of really spooked and he decides to pull out his gun and he insists he's not going out there. They're able to finally

Talk him down from doing anything too drastic with the gun. Frankie takes it from him, they end up escaping onto the roof. The lady in the apartment said, yeah, there's a way you can get out, go up to the roof. There's ladders that connect to the next building. For music, we hear another few seconds of another body murdered, but again, you're not getting the full song. We do see these two ladders between the buildings. They look pretty sketchy. It's kind of a homemade operation going on here.

But apparently this is the only escape. So Frank, John, and Mike, they all make it across the ladder. But Ray, Jeremy Piven's character, he's still on the other side. he's not in the best shape. He's been drinking a lot that night. He knows he probably can't do it. He throws the ladders down to the ground. So now he can't cross. He decides that he's going to negotiate with the street gang once they get up to the roof.

So something that happened here, they actually had to close the production of the movie for a few days because there wasn't a real shooting that took place in this neighborhood.

Going back to the film, Denis Leary and his crew, they show up to the roof. Ray knows, okay, this is his chance to make that deal. So he offers them $100,000 the next day. It will arrive at a certain location. Then he

Jon (13:58)
Hmm.

Mark (13:59)
ups it to $200,000. And you can see that Denis Leary is the villain. He's not having it. What does he do? Knocks Ray off the roof. Ouch.

Now one thing that I noticed here, even though in the moment the other three friends are horrified for Ray, but we basically never hear about Ray ever again. That's it.

Jon (14:19)
I mean, should we feel bad for Ray? He's kind of a scumbag. And I'm guessing this isn't the first night. He's probably done some questionable things in his life. But you're right, yeah, it's kinda like, one of our best like childhood friends, the guy who got us the tickets in the R V is now dead. Okay, let's just keep running.

So but before they leave, there's a little bit of a shootout, and Cuba Gooding Jr. manages to shoot one of the gangsters. And the gangsters are kind of taking pause for a second here. Well, Dennis Leary doesn't care. He's full on, he wants to kill these guys no matter what. But I see they're starting to think, hey, wait a second, maybe we're biting off a little bit more than we can chew here. So as they're running away, again, we hear Coming and Die, yet again, very briefly, therapy and fatal. there could be better choices for this chase scene for music. Let's just put it like that.

hey, it's time to hide in the sewers. So now we're in our what third, fourth low hiding location where we're about to play the same scene out over and over again. So they jump down the sewers, and like in three seconds, the gangsters immediately find them. And of course, they come down too. So everyone's gonna run around the sewers. We're over an hour into this movie, and they basically just ran from location to location. And not even that interesting of locations either. It's so it's getting really old,

also, as I watch this, I'm thinking, this must have been miserable to shoot. You're like in waist deep water filming this very, very long chase scene. It probably took days to film. I'm sure they hated doing it. The lead up to this is way too long, however. So there's going to be this confrontation. So finally they get there and a fight breaks out, shooting starts breaking out, and Cuba Gooding Jr. shoots one of them.

And then he turns on Frankie and says, You know, weren't you used to be a badass? Why'd you help me out there? You didn't have my back. This is yet again, this is one of my biggest beats with this movie. They don't tell us anything about the characters, the main characters of the crew. They don't give him a name, who are trying to escape Dennis Leary and his thugs. We don't know anything about their backstories. The reason why we're using their real names is because they barely, if at all, ever mention their names in the movie. So there's nothing for me to really feel bad about did the gangster die or did one of the crew die? I don't know anything about any of them.

So anyway, Dennis Leary's gang is starting to turn on. So okay, now we've lost two guys. well, let's make it three. He just kills one of them. So now it's just him and Everlast who are basically on this quest to kill Emilia West of As and his friends. they get out of the sewer and they run out to a bus. of course the bus won't stop for them. I wouldn't stop for them either. So they're starting to unravel too. So you have both sides now are starting to unravel. And hopefully now we're moving to some sort of finish.

Mark (16:42)
It's time to go hide in the flea market.

Jon (16:45)
Location number five, I was wrong.

Mark (16:49)
So the chase continues. Must be getting pretty late.

Crew runs into some security guards though that I guess arrest them,

However, Dennis Leary and Everlast, they show up and they shoot the security guards.

Time for a big shootout now. You got Cuba Gooding Jr. and Everlast squaring off. I mean, that's that's a pretty nineties battle going on right there.

Jon (17:11)
That is the most nineties of nineties battles.

Mark (17:14)
But the background music, what is it? Some sort of cheesy seventies generic movie filler?

Jon (17:20)
Like when

we did Kiss Misa Famma in the park, that's the kind of music they use in the background. Why we're using this in nineteen ninety three when you have a banger soundtrack, who knows, right? Like you're just gonna pound your head at the wall at this point.

Mark (17:31)
Anyway, it's a super long gunfight, lots of action. Okay, okay. Eventually, Cuba Gooding Jr.'s character, Mike, and the John character, they end up in the washroom.

Mike actually ends up getting shot, so he has a wound in his his stomach, midsection area. So Frankie tends to his aid, gets him all sealed up in the washroom. He's gonna wait it out. Frankie's gotta take care of Dennis Leary now on his own.

Jon (17:56)
So what Frankie's big move is, is he takes off his belt. So I guess we all know what's about to happen. He proceeds to choke Dennis Leary in a room, and I'm not making this up, filled with shelves after shelves of pottery. And so of course, they dramatically smash into every single shelf, breaking every single vase, pot.

Whatever thing you might have there. It's it's over the top and it's just it's might sound like it's cool, it's not, trust me. also during this, I remember the blood looked really fake. I mean, this is 1993, not 1933. There's good sp great special effects out there. Why it looks so bad, I don't know. I maybe they spent all the money blowing up the RB. That's a possibility. But finally Frankie pushes him off, I guess what would be, I don't know, the third floor or so it looks like. And this kills Dennis Leary. And the cops show up and for a second they want to arrest Frankie. I mean, hey, why not?

There's a lot of dead bodies there, but they immediately don't change their tune. No, everything is cool. And even though everybody's banged up, everyone's okay and actually in a pretty good mood. Ray is totally forgotten. They don't even mention him. Frankie gets his wallet back, and his last, act of defiance, because I Dennis Lear was calling him Francis while he was chasing him around. He yells at him, Don't call me Francis. Then we hear Francis

Mark (19:04)
So when

so when exactly was the Emilio Estevez character such a tough guy? We never learned that either.

Jon (19:10)
No,

like at one point when they're in the series just like, why didn't you back me up? Used to be a badass. That's never explained. Like how or what. Also, I mean, I look at Emilio Estavez, I don't necessarily think badass, okay. You know, more like teen eighties icon.

Mark (19:22)
He looks like a very responsible

adult in the movie. He doesn't look like a tough guy at all.

Jon (19:25)
He does. He d

he looks probably fifteen years older than he really was when he filmed it. Also, I mean he took four million dollars the very last second to film it. So I don't know how much prep work Emilio put into any of this. so who knows? But apparently he has badass belt choking skills and got the job done. So don't ever call him Francis.

Then we hear Falling, which started the movie, now ending the movie for the credits. which but the only good thing I can say about that is we get to hear it twice. And that's Judgment Night.

But hang on, that's not Judgment Night. That's not the real story of Judgment Night. That's probably not the reason why you're listening. Judgment Night is all about its soundtrack. It's the only good thing to come out of this project, and we have a lot to say about it, so let's get into it.

Mark (20:06)
Judgment Night, music from the motion picture, was released on September 14th, 1993. Released by Immortal Records and Epic Soundtrax. That's soundtracks with an X. The album did very well. It peaked at number 17 on the Billboard 200. It is a certified gold album. That means it has over 500,000 in sales. There were four singles that came off of this album.

Fallen by Teenage Fan Club and De La Soul. Another Body Murdered by Faith No More and Boo-ya Tribe. Just Another Victim by Helmet and House of Pain. And of course the title track Judgment Night by Biohazard and Onyx. I gotta take a moment here and talk about the artwork. Personally, I think it's awful. The cover of this album is Judgment Night, the title as you would see it on maybe the VHS box.

And then it's just the names of the artists list in list form. On the back, you know, in the background there's a very grainy, hazy looks like one of the scenes from the sewer or maybe the warehouse. You can't see any characters, you can't see anybody playing music, nothing to do with music really. Just a list of text names. Awful. Two thumbs down.

Jon (21:25)
Considering you make the graphics for this very podcast, and I think they look great by the way. I'm not surprised you picked up on that. I mean, I guess I've been seeing the soundtrack, and hey, I own it on cassette, and I've listened to it since it came out. I love it. But like, yeah, the the graphics are really bad. I don't know what they were thinking. It seems like just like no thought was put into a lot of elements of Judgment Night. So anyway, Happy Walters and Amanda Shear Dem produced this album.

Like you said, it was Immortal Records through Epic or Epic Tracks, I guess is the imprint. both of them had many film credits before this. They managed House of Pain in Cypress Hill. So I guess that's kind of where this idea was born. later on signed corn, 30 seconds to Mars, Incubus, to their label Immortal. this was paved the way back in the day by Run DMC and Aerosmiths walk this way. And of course, I'd say even more closer, Anthrax and Public Enemies bring the noise.

Those two are really the blueprint for this album where you're basically taking big name rock band, big name rap group, and putting them together and see what happens. Although in some cases, like walk this way and bring the noise, those are just reinventions of songs that already existed. These are all brand new compositions. So Cypress Hill and Pearl Jam kind of kicked the whole thing off. They've been jamming together. They even played a festival together in Seattle and Cypress Hill invited them up on stage and they started rapping and it went really well. So the bass player thought, hey, maybe we could explore this little bit further.

And DJ Muggs from Cypress Hill was also very influential in making the soundtrack happen. He said, of course, Cypress Hill were the very first to sign on and say, Yeah, we'll do this. But also immediately Faith no Moore showed interest. Helmets showed interest. Sonic Youth showed interest. So it got some momentum really quickly and started ballooning into what we know it is today. though, Ice Cube turned it down, notorious BIG turned it down, Perry Farrell turned it down. Okay. those would have been some interesting compilations there.

And there was also this rumored track that Rage Games Machine and Tool did called Can't Kill the Revolution. the demo is available online. You can hear it. And it's it's disputed. I don't know what the right answer is. Some people say it wasn't supposed to be part of this, others say it was. either way, it's not there.

Mark (23:27)
The album opens with just another victim. This is Helmet and House of Pain.

Jon (23:32)
This was born out of a basement studio jam. Basically, they all got together and no one actually had any ideas. And they got to a little studio and said, Well, what do we want to do? Helmet said, We have this guitar riff, and it's a good riff. It's a killer riff. It really sends the blueprint of a riff for what a new metal later on, early 2000s band would be. the first two verses are kind of held held by Helmet there. And then you hear a little bit of Everlast on the choruses.

However, he does his own two two verses after they have a great breakdown. He hears alarm sound, and Everlast has an amazing flow on this song. He's not just jump around, he can do lots of other stuff. this is definitely up there as one of the better songs on the soundtrack. And there's a really good scratching part by the DJ at the end, which I love because I am a DJ.

Mark (24:13)
I like this song. I think it has a kind of almost an industrial feel. The drums and percussion elements, they're using like these metallic blocks and bells. It almost sounds like there's an anvil being hit or something. It does sound pretty cool. It does fit the vibe of the warehouse and the train yard and some of the different settings from the film. Maybe they should you should have used it more in the film. Hint hint. And yeah, the background noise, the siren, like that's pretty cool.

Jon (24:39)
Yeah, how they use the sirens to lean to Everlast versus is really good. It it kind of takes the heavy part down for a second, it draws your attention to like, hey, something's about to happen. Then they bring the riff back in and he goes off. It's a great moment.

Mark (24:51)
Second song is really the only song that's truly featured in the movie. That's Fallen by Teenage Fan Club and De La Soul.

Jon (24:59)
This track was actually recorded in the studio with everybody all together at the same time. It was built around Tom Petty's song, of course, Free Falling. That's where the sample comes from. And apparently Tom Petty heard this version and liked it and let the music. Didn't have a problem with it at all. And it's actually in the movie, you know, twice, which is more can say about almost anything else we're about to talk about. It's also one of the more mellower tracks on the record. It charted, but I think it could have been bigger. It's a classic Day La Soul song. It's so good. I saw them live around this time and they were excellent.

Great choruses. And the album overall is a jam vibe. It's kind of what it's supposed to be. It's a big jam. I think this song really encapsulates that.

Mark (25:34)
Think this worked well in the movie. This might be the actual best thing about the movie was the integration of this song. You could have told me it was just De La Soul on their own, and I'd believe you. There's not really a heavy rock angle incorporated here. Like there's a little bit of strings in the background, so a little bit of guitar, but it's not distorted. There's live drums, obviously, but you could have just told me that De La Soul had live drums on that track. And okay, sure. So the teenage fan club element of it is really.

really reduced. I don't think they have any vocal contribution to it.

The third track up is Me Myself and My Microphone. That's by Living Color and Run DMC.

Jon (26:13)
So you have the OGs of this on the album. This feels so natural. they actually record the parts separate from each other. Living Color gave Run DMC the music. Then Jam Master J, legendary DJ of Run DMC and producer, put it all together. The song is a great vibe, everyone's in top form. I mean, of course, Run DMC and Living Color. It's gonna be good. And yet again, though, the song should have been bigger. I don't think I heard too much about it outside of the soundtrack. I mean, Run DMC at that point had worth about three albums in, four albums in their career, and definitely a new style of hip-hop was taken.

taking over. So I wish this maybe got a little more of a push. Maybe if they shot a video for it or something, it would have been a little bit better.

Mark (26:48)
It's also worth noting this is the shortest song on the album. It's only about three minutes, which doesn't seem like it's that short, but most of the songs on this album are pretty long.

Fourth track is the title track, Judgment Night. That's Biohazard and Onyx.

Jon (27:02)
If you know anything about early 90s hip-hop and metal, you would know that those two worked together on this remix for the song Slam by Onyx. That was a huge song around the time. It was huge for me and my friends. We played it all the time. I still like the song too, as well. This is a natural pairing, of course, they'd already worked together, so it seemed totally natural. Jam Master J also produced this track as well. Both groups are from New York City. But actually, Biohazard are on tour in the UK when they got approached to do this. So they had a day off from tour.

And they actually rented out or they got permission to use the studio that Tony Iommi from Black Sabbath owned. But then all of a sudden Tony realized I have something I want to record today and kick them out. But they did manage to get it done as quickly as possible and got it out there. This should have been all over the movie. It's it's the title track of the album, here it is at track number four. I don't know. This should have been in the movie trailer, it should have been all over the movie. It would have been great. And Biohazards always incorporate those sort of hip-hop elements. They maybe could have done a full album with Onyx at some point.

Mark (27:57)
Maybe it should have been the first track on the release as well, considering it's the title song.

Jon (28:02)
I would agree.

Mark (28:02)
In the fifth position we have disorder, that's Slayer and Ice-T.

Jon (28:05)
this is actually a medley of three exploited songs, UK punk band. the three songs were War, UK 82, and Disorder. They combined them all into one track and just called the Disorder. Ice-T at the time had his group Body Count as well. They were kind of a hardcore punk band So I'd saw them around that time too, and they were great. So he was already kind of sort of in the rock world a little bit by that, more so than most hip-hop people would have been. when Slayer were approached, they absolutely loved the idea. Tom Maria, bass player, singer,

he arranged this whole song together and put these three songs together. So it's definitely one of the fastest songs on here. And they reworked the UK 82 into LA 92, which I think hits really hard as a lyric considering what was going on in LA in 1992. You had riots, Rodney King, all sorts of police problems in LA. So with Ice-T's scream in LA 92, you believe it. And I also think this sounds better than the originals. I don't love the exploited.

So I think that these are, great take on some okay songs.

Mark (29:00)
I think this is the best song on the soundtrack for sure. I'm confused though, why wasn't it actually just named as a medley? It's a bit misleading just to call it disorder when it's three songs in one.

And we mentioned earlier this song is what you hear in the background when the character John tries to fight the driver of the pickup truck. So we, heard a brief appearance of it in the movie.

This track reminds me a lot of what you would hear on the Slayer album Undisputed Attitude. It sounds just like that, that album, that vibe. It's all old school punk songs done in a more sped up metal kind of way. I'd believe you if you told me it was an outtake from that album.

The sixth track, another body murdered, that's Faith No More and Booyah Tribe.

Jon (29:43)
This one has an interesting backstory as well. Bill Gould, keyboard player of Faith No More, put this all together. It was a totally improvised jam. Booya Tribe just showed up and they just went for it. the first two jams that apparently last like 20-30 minutes weren't recorded. And members of the Booya tribe say that the second jam was the best. But for the third one, they turned the tape on, and this is what we got. This is a really strong song. It starts off the classic Faith No More piano intro that you would have heard like on the real thing or something like that. And Mike Patton chanting, and it's all you recognize his voice instantly. It's one of the most

most recognizable voices in rock and roll. It's heavy, it has a great flow. It yet again should have been used in the movie. There's so much talent on this and I think this is one of the strongest songs on the record.

Mark (30:23)
Next is I Love You Mary Jane, Sonic Youth and Cypress Hill.

Jon (30:28)
Surprise, it's about weed. Hmm, who would have thought? DJ Muggs struggled with this composition at first, because Sonic Youth weren't used to their style. He likes to work with loops and all that sort of thing to make a hip hop song, and they just didn't really understand it at first. But it all came together and Kim Gordon actually loved it. I think it's better than like the novelty song Because I Got High by Afro Man. I think this one's a better maybe tribute for the weed smokers out there. And I think it would have been a bigger song in this in this era. Originally, Cypress Hill wanted Ministry to do this with them, but unfortunately they were busy.

Mark (30:58)
That would have been cool. Next up is Freak Mama. That's Mudhoney and Sir Mix-a-lot.

Jon (31:03)
It's really supposed to be rapper funk dubiest, actually, to do this, but he could he wasn't available for some reason. Mudhoney asked Sir Mix a lot, if they would do it with them. This one's actually featured the movie as well, too, more so than anything else. It's a good fun track. It breaks up the heaviness. It shows he has more skills, not just, baby got back and jump on it, kind of novelty songs. he keeps right up here with everybody else in the soundtrack, more of the serious rappers, shall we say. And he shows he got some skills. It's a fun track.

Mark (31:27)
I found this one has more of a garage rock and almost kind of a power pop vibe. It's less more hard edged rock or metal.

Next up is Missing Link. That's Dinosaur Junior and Dell the Funky Homo sapien.

Jon (31:39)
Jay Mascus from Dinosaur Jr. did all the production on this one. I couldn't find a ton of background info about this. It's got that trippy sort of jam early 90s hip-hop style to it, and that Dell the Funky Homo sapien was definitely a part of. And it sounds like he kind of did it in one take. It's very stream of conscious, very in the flow type of thing. But their styles really complement each other. I always thought he was a good MC. I actually I saw him open for Day La Soul way back when. And I always kind of liked him. But yeah, it's a good track, not the strongest track, though.

Mark (32:09)
Next, the tenth song Come in and die, that's Therapy? and Fatal.

Jon (32:14)
Hmm, Irish band Therapy? and rapper Fatal. I want to like this because I really like Therapy?'s album Troublegum quite a lot. The song Nowhere on It was so good. But this, I gotta say it, this is the weakest track on the album. they have a sample of the singer from Therapy? just screaming, Die, over and over again. It really takes away from the track. It was made at just jamming around one drum loop and it shows. but I feel bad for Fatal. His raps aren't bad. It's just it's drowned out by them yelling, die, and weird production, and just doesn't really fit with what

Mark (32:46)
Sounds really crammed together. It doesn't flow well. I'm thinking maybe they misunderstood the assignment here.

Jon (32:53)
I think a lot of people with Judgment Night misunderstood the assignment.

Mark (32:56)
Closing out the album, the last song, real thing, Pearl Jam, and Cypress Hill.

Jon (33:03)
This very well may have been what started off this whole project. So like I mentioned, they had jammed together at a festival in Seattle and this kind of sparked the idea of them doing a song together. Cypress Hill loved the idea of the soundtrack. They're actually down to do two tracks for it, and everyone else just did one.

Pearl's Raven already actually composed the music for this, and Cypress Hill figured out a way to rap over it. considering the popularity of both bands, I think it should have been bigger at the time. I sometimes I think on my cassette it's listed as a bonus track to the album. I mean, but I've never seen a copy without this song on it.

And I'm thinking this is probably where they got the idea for the song Rock Superstar, which mixes rap and rock and is one of Cypress Hill's biggest hits.

Mark (33:36)
Before we stop talking about the soundtrack, I just thought of a question that might be interesting here.

Jon (33:40)
Okay.

Mark (33:41)
If you could pick two artists from the early nineties, one being a heavy rock based artist and the other one being a hip hop artist to do a track, who would you pick?

Jon (33:51)
Hmm. Okay, that that is good. I I think I because I was so into both genres and still am in the early nineties. I you know what he was actually refused the soundtrack or didn't want to be a part of it, but I think Ice Cube is a big missing part here. I think he would have been perfect for a heavier edge sound. He never really did a full on like rock hip hop song as far as I know. I think if you paired him with the Rollins band, Henry Rollins, I think that would have been an amazing compilation. What do you what do you think would have

Mark (34:16)
All right.

Jon (34:17)
worked?

Mark (34:18)
That's pretty strong. I'm gonna go with Sick of It All and KRS one.

Jon (34:23)
I think you got me beat on that one. That's nice. And R.I.P. Lou shout-out man, one of the best.

Mark (34:33)
Looking at the critical reception for Judgment Night. Right now it's scoring thirty-eight percent on its tomato meter and fifty five percent on its popcorn meter. I can see why. I think thirty eight percent from the critics, that's a little low. Like, okay, it's overall a bad movie, but

Maybe a little bit higher, I think. Somewhere in between the two is where I would fall.

Jon (34:51)
I wonder at the time in nineteen ninety-three what the reviews would have been. If you just counted from that time with the star power in it, I feel like the tomato meter would have been a little bit higher. But over the years, this film's got a reputation, let's face it.

Mark (35:04)
It has a six point six out of ten on internet movie database, so that's higher than both of those, so it's imp a little bit of improvement going on there.

Jon (35:09)
Mm-hmm. I I

think I think that's rather generous. I don't think I would give it six out of six.

Mark (35:16)
No awards to mention.

Jon (35:17)
Mm-hmm.

Mark (35:18)
A few other things I came across here as I researched this film. It received mixed reviews. That's not surprising. But critics generally praised Dennis Leary's intense villain performance. I disagree completely with that. I thought he was a horrible choice for villain. The film's tension and atmosphere. Okay, maybe.

It's dark visual urban style. Yes, it is dark. too dark. It's it's difficult to see some of the scenes.

Other criticisms we saw here, familiar plot elements, yep, thin character development, definitely, reliance on action thriller conventions, yes.

Jon (35:55)
to a point where we just basically saw the same scene five times and called it a movie.

And everything we watch here in the Rock N' Roll Theatre, my brother scours your internet to find a one-star review. I'm sure Judgment Night has quite a few one star reviews out there, so let's hear one of them.

Mark (36:09)
We are looking at the internet movie database for this one. January 30th, 2026. This is recent. The user

Jon (36:15)
Whoa, okay. From nineteen ninety three to twenty twenty six. All right.

Mark (36:19)
is Wendy YB. One star out of ten. The title dumb dumb dumb. It goes like this.

This dumb group of friends made terrible choices, but the dumbest choice was made by me when I decided to watch this movie.

Seriously, this movie was so terrible. I'm not sure where this fight was supposed to take place, but let's pretend it was at the United Center. Chicago traffic can be really terrible. If you are going to a big sporting event like a prize fight, you better leave early and you would not drive a Winnebago to the fight. There is no way they would be able to park that at the United Center.

If they were driving on 290 and took an exit, it can be a little sketchy, but not anywhere close to how this movie portrayed it. Also, the United Center is pretty close to 290. Cabrini Green is the opposite direction of the United Center. Did the moron driving not know where the fight was? I could not be on the protagonist's side because their choices were so, so, so bad.

Maybe it is because I don't like when people are late, but also Chicago was portrayed incorrectly. No one would take a Winnebago to a fight. Zero users found that helpful, four thumbs down.

Jon (37:58)
How did zero users not find it helpful? There's a ton of good traffic tips and ways to get around Chicago built into this review. So I really like this review. Normally I don't like the one star reviews, but this one has some really practical information for it. And yes, you made a dumb decision watching this movie, perhaps. I had to watch it twice for this podcast.

Mark (38:15)
Looking at the lasting legacy of Judgment Night. So it's developed a cult reputation among fans of gritty urban thrillers and nineteen nineties action cinema.

Maybe. One thing I did like here, I did like the idea of everything happening in one sequence. I think if you do want to do an intense action movie, that is a good idea. It just wasn't well executed here.

It's a time capsule of early nineteen nineties America. Yes, it does have a very early nineties feel. Some of the settings, the cars, the clothing, even Emilio Estevez's haircut, it does feel early nineties.

And as you've heard on this episode, the soundtrack is now considered one of the most important stepping stones towards the rap rock and new metal explosion of the late 90s. However, I have to say, and as you've heard so far, the movie has nothing to do with the music. There is nothing involving music in this movie. If I would maybe make some suggestions to the directors or a director out there who's looking to do a redo of Judgment Night.

Maybe have the four friends, I don't know, maybe they're in a band together. Maybe the movie begins with them practicing in a garage or something like that. Then they decide to go to a concert, maybe a really big concert at the United Center to go see one of the artists on the soundtrack, maybe, and then maybe they get pulled into some sketchy neighborhood and they end up in a a nightclub where one of the bands from the soundtrack is playing or something, or maybe they just like music or talk about music. This movie has nothing to do with the music.

Jon (39:47)
I think this movie really reeks of we got a bunch of big name actors, so we'll be fine. It'll be a huge hit just because we have all these big names. But didn't work out for Judgment Knight at all. It lost a ton of money and now is only known for its soundtrack. When I think of Judgment Knight, I immediately think of the soundtrack, not the movie. And things like yo, Dennis Leary being the tough guy, like he's a stand-up comedian. He had a huge comedy album at the time. put him in more comedic role. Cuba Gooding Jr., like they said his character's name like once. Steven Dorf went on to be quite a big star in the 90s.

he's totally forgettable. Even forget he's even there. they hinted some maybe troubled backstory to all of these characters, but they never explore it. So you're stuck with just a bunch of names that you know up on the screen. I went and saw it in 1993 when it came out and was hugely disappointed. If you thought it was dark on your TV set, try it in a theatre in the 90s. You could barely make it out. I remember criticizing that at the time. And also that there was nothing from the soundtrack in the movie. It was a really forgettable film. When I went back and watched for the podcast, I didn't remember a single thing about it.

I think there's a totally lost opportunity here. And like my brother said, maybe someone else should take it and revamp it, redo it. have it edited totally differently. Make us actually care about the characters. And if you have all this great music, use it.

Thank you very much for joining us tonight in the Rock and Roll Theater. don't forget, on the way out the door here, if you could like, subscribe, comment, share with a friend, let people know what's going on here in the theatre. we've seen lots of different people checking in from lots of different places all over the world, and that makes us so, so happy. But we're always looking to add more people. We never end up with seats here in the theatre. So let somebody know about us. But for now, the theatre is closed.