10 Wildly Underrated Action Movies Of The 90s

On their way to a boxing fight, a group of men take a wrong turn into the ghetto and witness a murder. Because the murderers follow the ultimate bad guy motto of "leave no witnesses behind", they attempt to hunt down and kill them. And with that, the chase is afoot.

This simple idea - man as the most dangerous game - shows up in a staggering number of 90s action flicks (Hard Target, Surviving the Game, etc.), but none execute it as well as director Stephen Hopkins, who would later gain critical acclaim for the first season of 24. Hopkins is somehow able to make a showdown between Emilio Estevez and Denis Leary boil over with tension.

This downright random cast, by the way, is likely why Judgment Night never got much love upon its release. And yet, the relatively fresh-faced appearances of Stephen Dorff, Jeremy Piven, and Cuba Gooding Jr. (fresh off A Few Good Men) are exactly what make this such an intriguing watch.

Piven is given ample screen time to do his smarmy used car salesman schtick, Gooding puts his wide-eyed, puffy-chested overacting to especially good use, and Leary brings the same manic, belligerent energy that made his stand-up routines so popular, but adds an exciting layer of menace to the whole thing.

And not for nothing, the movie's soundtrack is possibly the best thing to come out of the 90s.