The Judge

Hollywood makes me sick to my stomach when they put their collective devious minds together and blatantly decide to produce a money grab movie. Now I know that you can argue that 95% of the movies that are released these days fall under this category but there are times when they don't even try to hide their intentions at all. The Judge starring Robert Downey Jr. and Robert Duvall clearly falls under this category. I can just hear the discussion in the board room now "Hey! We need a movie that will make old people with money show up to the theater this fall. Toy Story 8? Nah, Paramount already has that slated for next summer. We need something that mixes As Good As It Gets with Dutch. I got it! Will put Robert Downey Jr. in a movie with Bobby Duvall. Everyone loves Ironman and women still think he's sexy. Plus old people love Bobby D. because he always plays the wise and slightly cranky old man who cackles with his mouth wide open every 5 minutes. You're right! It worked in Phenomenon and Downey's perfectly fine with making crap movies in between his Marvel pics! Let's do it!"

The Judge is the tired old story of the father that was that way too hard on his kids and the emotional distance that's created between them as a result of it. So you can immediately detect the tension that exists between Downey and his father Duvall when Downey has to return to small town Indiana to attend his mother's funeral. Downey is a big time lawyer in Chicago who is known for using his fast talking, sharp wit, and large vocabulary to get his mostly guilty clients off the hook. And he hides behind his work and his success to forget his upbringing and his past mistakes.

As he tries to recreate some semblance of traditional family interaction between him, his brothers, and his father, he learns that his dad is about to be brought up on charges for vehicular homicide; an accident that took place on the night of his wife's funeral. So as he decides and Duvall reluctantly agrees to allow him to become his lawyer, old family issues come to the forefront, secrets are revealed, and skeletons come out of the closet.

I will give this movie credit for having some teeth to the story as certain things are brought to light that can't help but move you emotionally. And I believe that all families can identify with at least one of the many issues that Downey is facing in this movie, so there's that. Also both Duvall and Downey actually try in this movie and neither one of them quite makes a caricature of themselves with their performance; which was my biggest concern going in.

It's just that the score is corny as hell and only people over the age of 65 will connect with it. The courtroom scenes are a little too My Cousin Vinny and I didn't even realize that Billy Bob Thornton was still alive! I still can't believe that he got to bang Angelina Jolie at her peak.

The movie runs way too long and they try and tackle one too many issues in this movie. It's not that it's bad, it's just that it's not anywhere near being good. I'd save this one for a family movie night over the holidays. I rate it as kind of WEAK!