The Judge Review Part 1
I Judge thee…mediocre.
All four of my regular readers will have heard me whine about how boring mediocre movies are to watch and (more importantly) to review. I don’t do this for money but because it is fun and when the writing becomes a chore I tend to have “What the hell am I doing with my life” moments. Movie that are great are fun to watch and decently fun to review and movies that truly suck are morbidly OK to watch (in the same way you slow down to check out a traffic accident on the side of a freeway) but super fun to review. However when a film opts to sit dead center on the fence (or in this case on the fence but lean pretty precariously over to the suck yard which in my neighborhood was ours) this job suddenly turns into a job.
I’m was at something of a loss as to how this film could have come out so poorly. It couldn’t have been cast better. Robert Downey Jr. is one of the modern great actors and Robert Duvall the consumante professional actor. The writer Nick Schenk wrote Gran Torino, one of my favorite films. Then I looked at the director David Dobkin, realized he directed the Change-Up and Jack the Giant Slayer and the mystery was solved. He seems to be the master of movies with an interesting idea and a few decent moments but then suck and die like a banana slug in a salt factory.
And this film did have a few good moments, almost all of them reserved to the courtroom. Most Americans enjoy a good court drama and have a love of seeing justice delivered (image courtesy of the Punisher t shirt category). The scenes where Robert Downey Jr. is in court trying to defend his father and out trying to solve the mystery of what happened are downright intriguing. You care about Robert Duvalls character and if you loved Tony Stark you are in for a toned down version of him as the worlds greatest defense attorney. The whole thing had a cool True Believer vibe (the James Woods True Believer. Great movie IMO) that was great.
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The Judge Review Part 2
However the writer and director must have gotten a bad batch of Cliche-b-Gone® because this film was rife with it. Each cliche more trite and boring than the last and each giftwrapped in another sub plot. The sub plots had sub plots. There was the ex girlfriend who might be the mother of the protagonists illegitimate child (who wants to be a lawyer and made out with Downey in a skin peeling scene). There’s the long suffering older brother taking care of the youngest Asperger brother. There is the broken relationship between Downey and Duvall as well as the miserable upbringing Duvall delivered. There is the errors of the past coming back to haunt Duvall and Downey both. There was Downey coming to doubt his integrity as a lawyer. There was the whole “I hate the small town I grew up in but secretly love it” thing. There was a cancer sub plot. There was Downey’s divorce from his wife and his attempting to build a better relationship with his daughter, who also is bonding with Duvall. The list goes on and on and each one getting only about five minutes of screen time before fading out sort of resolved but not really. It was like watching TV while your dog chews in the remote control, constantly changing the channels.
The net effect of all these sub plot was a movie that seemed to lack direction. It also had the pacing of a sick man suffering simultaneously from the worlds worst case of diarrhea and constipation. The whole film moved in fits and starts. The film ran 141 minutes and you will experience every one of them with excruciating slowness.
The characters, while well portrayed, had the stink of cliche about them. 
Downeys was pretty much the slightly less flamboyant Tony Stark: fast talking wise guy with no respect for anyone else (image courtesy of the Iron Man t shirt category). Duvall was the crotchety old man who wasn’t going to change for anyone and was going to do things his way come hell or high water. The prosecutor was the weaselly lawyer out to get Duvall just to put another trophy on his bookcase. There wasn’t a single character who didn’t fall out of another dozen other movies.
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The Judge Review Part 3
Again for all that it wasn’t irredeemable. The courtroom scenes were cool and in spite of playing cartoon cliches both Downey and Duvall delivered solid performances, as did the rest of the cast. The mystery of what happened was intriguing. If you could fast forward through anything not involving the case you could see a really cool 20 minute short.
The story. Hank Palmer (Robert Downey, Jr.) is a high priced defense lawyer who learns that his mother died. He goes back to the one horse town he grew up in and has to deal with his ornery father Judge Joseph Palmer. The Judges worst enemy gets run down and the Judge is charged with murder (Judge Death image courtesy of the comic book t shirts category. Sorry but I couldn’t resist). Hank has to defend the Judge in spite of the fact that Joseph really doesn’t seem to care and also has to deal with about 100,000 other sub plots that rise to the surface to clutter up the screen.
So worth seeing? Meh. Depends on your inclination. If you are a fan of Robert Downey Jr. maybe. If you have a really poor attention span and like the idea of 25 After School Specials packed into one movie sure. However if you were hoping for an in depth drama or crime story with a concise story that ties up all its loose ends give it a pass. It’s not Gran Torino or Sleepers. It’s not even the Incredible Burt Wonderstone. I can’t say it sucks, but I can say it disappoints in it’s mediocrity. 2.5 of 5 Phasers.
2.5 of 5. Meh
the Infamous (and mediocre) Dave Inman
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Star Trek Retrospective: Episode 19 Tomorrow is Yesterday
I did enjoy this one as a kid. My father was in the Air Force and I liked jets a lot. As a movie reviewer I also have to say this is an example where a voice over monolog is well placed. The plot device of the Captains Log as a monolog is a great Star Trek trick and by using it at the beginning of this episode to replace filming the actual accident that sent them back in time they saved a lot of time.
The problem with this one is the very loose approach to the Butterfly Effect Spock takes. Sure Captain Christopher didn’t do much but just by not being on the planet things could have changed dramatically. If he hadn’t been on line at the bank one day someone might have gotten out 30 seconds sooner and been hit by a bus that would have otherwise not happened. This was kind of the whole point behind City on the Edge 
of Forever so I guess I have an issue with them changing time travel mechanics 9 episodes later. Also the “go super fast to travel back in time” was totally lifted from Superman. I like to see more imagination. (image from our collection of Superman t shirts)
the Infamous Dave Inman
