Nerd Movie Reviews

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.

(continued)

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