Wednesday, May 27, 2015

The Judge 2014


The Judge


     Hank Palmer is a defense attorney in Chicago, he has a wife and young daughter but he’s getting a divorce.  He’s in the middle of a court defense when he receives a call with the news his mother has passed away.  Hank meets up with his father, older and younger brothers at the family home in rural Indiana.  Glen is the older brother and he had a chance as a baseball prodigy but that was derailed by a car accident with Hank driving.  The younger brother is Dale and he is mentally challenged.  Joseph is the father of this clan and he has been a Judge for a long time.  He’s having health problems, suffering the loss of is wife and he is involved in an accident with his car and a man on a bicycle.  Hank is forced to remain with the family to defend Joseph.
     I think this is too long and the editing needed to be sharper.  The beginning sections seem to be boring and need to be shortened to lead up to the real part of the story.  Also, how many times do we need to see the surveillance camera video to ‘get’ it and how many times does the local attorney need to heave on the courthouse lawn?  Does Downey always need to portray hyper-verbal glibness, he sounds like Iron Man or Sherlock Holmes in a courtroom?  3* (This movie is OK)

141 min, Drama directed by David Dobkin with Robert Downey Jr., Robert Duvall, Vera Farmiga, Billy Bob Thornton, Vincent D’Onofrio, Jeremy Strong, Dax Shepard, Leighton Meester, Ken Howard, Emma Tremblay, Balthazar Getty, David Krumholtz, Grace Zabriskie, Denis O’Hare.

Note:  Imdb 7.5 out of 10, 47% critic 73% audience on Rotten Tomatoes, Roger Ebert 2 ½*.

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