While it’s inevitable that after any successful big-budget exploitation flick, low-budget imitations will follow, Judgment Day is much more than the Armageddon-in-the-Hood movie it’s being packaged as.  Like 1998’s big world-destruction flicks, Judgment Day involves a huge piece of rock heading towards Earth and bound to destroy all human life.  However, the meteor here is really just a plot device to get several characters where they need to go.

    After a small chunk of rock destroys a South American town, the U.S. government becomes aware of a much larger one heading our way just a few days behind it.  The only definite solution to the problem is a previously-rejected (due to political reasons) line of defense orchestrated by college professor Linden Ashby (Johnny Cage in Mortal Kombat).  The only problem is that the prof has been kidnapped by cult leader Mario Van Peebles, who claims that the meteor’s destruction of life on Earth is part of God’s master plan and must take place as planned.

    A short period of fretting about a security leak later, defense secretary Max Gail picks out lone FBI agent Suzy Amis to team up with imprisoned ex-cult member Ice-T to find the cult’s base of operations and save Ashby, no matter what the cost.  Amis and T become typically reluctant partners (though the transition between enemies and friends, for once, isn’t jarring—the two begin the movie as more leery colleges than arch rivals, so a bond between them makes sense) as their hunt goes on.

    From there on in, it’s fairly typical buddy movie fare, but Amis is a very talented actress who manages a big-budget level performance, Van Peebles is in fine form as the cult leader, the always-welcome “Tiny” Lister contributes a decent supporting role as lead henchman to Van Peebles’ Koreshian madman, and even Ice-T gains some credibility.   Along with some well-shot action scenes and a bit of clever dialogue, there’s a fair share of humor from a comic relief informant and, as per movies like this, a huge city is sacrificed.  (This time it’s San Francisco.)

    No, Judgment Day doesn’t have the budget to be a proper end-of-the-world flick, some plot points don’t make much sense and a needless cameo by Coolio is pretty pointless, but director John Terlesky knows how to make this sort of thing work.  It’s a well-acted, nicely-paced little thriller that, in a better time, would have gotten some sort of theatrical release.  In a lot of ways, it’s considerably better than the sappy Armageddon and the distracted Deep Impact, and while some of its more clever points are stolen from other movies, at least they’re not swiping the dumb ideas for once.