DREDD
[Film stats: Earned $13.4M domestically (with a budget of $50M… eek). Got 79% on Rotten Tomatoes and 72% on Flixster.]
Hello, all!
I freaking love this movie. It’s a real pity that it bombed at the box office, because it is such a great, efficient sci-fi actioner… and so much better than the earlier Stallone version, JUDGE DREDD. That one was dreck. Entertaining, pulpy dreck… but definitely dreck.
The plot, at least per our friends at the IMDB, is as follows: “In a violent, futuristic city where the police have the authority to act as judge, jury and executioner, a cop teams with a trainee to take down a gang that deals the reality-altering drug, SLO-MO.”
Admittedly, that sounds either a bit cheesy or a bit pedestrian, or perhaps both, but this flick moves along at a relentless pace. It’s hard to imagine the cutting room floor when it was edited, because there’s not a lot of fat at all on this film, which barely pauses throughout its runtime. It isn’t just some run-of-the-mill sci-fi actioner, either, instead being fairly ambitious in its cinematography, especially during the “SLO-MO” sequences.
In case you want to see what I mean, I’ve embedded a trailer for the film below:
Maybe it was the “3-D” thing that kept audiences away, but while that shtick has been used to abysmal effect in such shlock as JAWS 3D or FRIDAY THE 13TH PART III, it enhances this film. Obviously, if you don’t have a 3-D TV, you won’t get to experience it in its original cinematic quality, but that doesn’t mean that it isn’t a fantastic flick… because it is, 3-D or no 3-D. Still, it bombed, so maybe audiences felt like they had to be familiar with the “Dredd” universe as presented in the comics [and there’s no shortage of nods to that universe in the film]. Happily, you don’t need to have any familiarity either with those comics or the aforementioned Stallone version of the character. In fact, it’s probably better if you’re not familiar with either. If you have some experience with either one, though, you may well appreciate Karl Urban’s performance as Judge Dredd all the more. Like the film, he’s brutal, tough, and doesn’t waste any time.
One last theory before I stop slobbering about this film, and it’s that another film with a similar plot might have stolen its thunder. Like the old coin-op Kung Fu game, you’ve got your heroes fighting their way up to the top in THE RAID, too, but while THE RAID got a sequel, DREDD did not. There was a pretty significant effort made by fans of the film to get one made, but it eventually fizzled. Maybe one day, some Hollyweird executive will revisit this franchise and give it another shot [with better marketing]. Until then, this one is plenty good on its own.
Enjoy!
P.S. For those of you who give this one a shot and enjoy it, you may also want to check out ROBOCOP [the Verhoeven version from 1987, not the dreadful remake] or DEMOLITION MAN.
Other films recommended:
[Day 1 - BARTON FINK; Day 2 - CENTURION; Day 3 - THE BABADOOK; Day 4 - RISEN; Day 5 - CHOPPER; Day 6 - ZERO EFFECT; Day 7 - IN BRUGES; Day 8 - HOUSE OF GAMES]
[Film stats: Earned $13.4M domestically (with a budget of $50M… eek). Got 79% on Rotten Tomatoes and 72% on Flixster.]
Hello, all!
I freaking love this movie. It’s a real pity that it bombed at the box office, because it is such a great, efficient sci-fi actioner… and so much better than the earlier Stallone version, JUDGE DREDD. That one was dreck. Entertaining, pulpy dreck… but definitely dreck.
The plot, at least per our friends at the IMDB, is as follows: “In a violent, futuristic city where the police have the authority to act as judge, jury and executioner, a cop teams with a trainee to take down a gang that deals the reality-altering drug, SLO-MO.”
Admittedly, that sounds either a bit cheesy or a bit pedestrian, or perhaps both, but this flick moves along at a relentless pace. It’s hard to imagine the cutting room floor when it was edited, because there’s not a lot of fat at all on this film, which barely pauses throughout its runtime. It isn’t just some run-of-the-mill sci-fi actioner, either, instead being fairly ambitious in its cinematography, especially during the “SLO-MO” sequences.
In case you want to see what I mean, I’ve embedded a trailer for the film below:
Maybe it was the “3-D” thing that kept audiences away, but while that shtick has been used to abysmal effect in such shlock as JAWS 3D or FRIDAY THE 13TH PART III, it enhances this film. Obviously, if you don’t have a 3-D TV, you won’t get to experience it in its original cinematic quality, but that doesn’t mean that it isn’t a fantastic flick… because it is, 3-D or no 3-D. Still, it bombed, so maybe audiences felt like they had to be familiar with the “Dredd” universe as presented in the comics [and there’s no shortage of nods to that universe in the film]. Happily, you don’t need to have any familiarity either with those comics or the aforementioned Stallone version of the character. In fact, it’s probably better if you’re not familiar with either. If you have some experience with either one, though, you may well appreciate Karl Urban’s performance as Judge Dredd all the more. Like the film, he’s brutal, tough, and doesn’t waste any time.
One last theory before I stop slobbering about this film, and it’s that another film with a similar plot might have stolen its thunder. Like the old coin-op Kung Fu game, you’ve got your heroes fighting their way up to the top in THE RAID, too, but while THE RAID got a sequel, DREDD did not. There was a pretty significant effort made by fans of the film to get one made, but it eventually fizzled. Maybe one day, some Hollyweird executive will revisit this franchise and give it another shot [with better marketing]. Until then, this one is plenty good on its own.
Enjoy!
P.S. For those of you who give this one a shot and enjoy it, you may also want to check out ROBOCOP [the Verhoeven version from 1987, not the dreadful remake] or DEMOLITION MAN.
Other films recommended:
[Day 1 - BARTON FINK; Day 2 - CENTURION; Day 3 - THE BABADOOK; Day 4 - RISEN; Day 5 - CHOPPER; Day 6 - ZERO EFFECT; Day 7 - IN BRUGES; Day 8 - HOUSE OF GAMES]
