Image copyright © by Marcus Trahan

The Judge

(2014)

Robert Duvall and Robert Downey, Jr. Gotta be a heck of an acting lesson, right? And it is, as both of them do a great job. The story isn’t quite up to it all, though. Daddy is the small-town judge, son is the sort of defense lawyer you (well, maybe not you, but certainly me) just really hate. Willing to try any dirty trick to get his always-guilty clients off. There is no love lost between them, and the old man doesn’t want his son to defend him when he is charged with murder in a hit-and-run. But the small-town lawyer he does hire is so hilariously incompetent that Pop really has no choice but to switch. Across the aisle is a cold-eyed Billy Bob Thornton, a man with an axe to grind against the whole family. From there it goes along pretty much as you would expect, though the ending did surprise me. A little. It’s really no more than just an okay film with three great actors.