TF Issue 187: Is it just me? Judge Dredd...

[cheeseoid1]

It's a perfectly acceptable sci-fi film. Looks good, the score sounds great, Rob Schneider is cool in it. There's a lot to like about it. Yeah, it could've been better, then so could a lot of films out there.

[parochial1]

Great? No.

Worth a slot on ITV2 late night when they can't justify another round of "The Mummy" franchise. Sure.

We all need a little action-adventure mental chewing gum. It's not gonna kick Capra and Park Chan-Wook off the top of my personal DVD chart, but there's nothing wrong with decent renditions of low-brow entertainment. For me, little separates this from Total Recall: kitsch, honest fun.

I loved the comics when I was a kid, and the film fed that nostalgia. It was never literature, it was escapism and so was the film. The ABC Warrior was pretty swish for its day and they picked a strong story from the comics to tease out. Stallone is wooden, but, hey, so's the impassive Dredd!

[LSJShez]

Call me a snob, but at the end of the day, 12 Angry Men has the same running time. I know what I'd rather be watching.

[agentorange420]

not enough drokk, too much crud. looked nice though

[ferrns]

In all honesty it's terrible in terms of dialogue and acting. Plus the story is somewhat lame, but I think it still goes down as a classic. The cyberpunk feel it had was great and the action, however mindless, was good fun. Judge Dredd fails as any form of intellectual or artistic film making, but on the level of good fun and nice visuals it's works great.

[johnneyred]

I couldn't agree more, Judge Dredd's shifts in tone roughly match the violence and strangeness of life in 2000AD's Mega City One. For a Holywood movie it is surprisingly faithful to a degree to the original material. It suffers from coming out after Robocop though. I wrote a piece on Judge Dredd for Culturedeluxe.com http://www.culturedeluxe.com/2011/03...judge-dredd-2/

[mallach]

Much to my surprise lots of people like this dross.

no it wasn't a good film it was even worse than Demolition man and that's not an easy feat to achieve.

i am not a Stallone hater First blood was a great film

and Stallone was handicapped form the start. no Hollywood A-Lister is going to spend an entire film without his face on screen.

Dredd never reveals his face so he was losing the fans from the start.

Stallone was never going to have the presence nor gravitas of Judge Dredd and to be honest he cant deliver a Bondesque one liner either; common to the comic and an essential part of Dredd's character.

the story was too much of a mish mash of elements of the comic and so lacked any real coherence so became just a formulaic sci-fi chase movie.

but all that could have been rescued but for the killing blow that was the talent free Rob Schneider, why anyone thought there needed to be comic relief ( i am assuming that's why he was added ) is beyond belief as generally dystopian futures don't come with a laugh track.

it would be like adding the Chuckle Brother's to the Watchmen.

So no not a good film although I seem to be in a minority

[olsquareeyes]

The film will probably be remembered more for Dredd's controversial unmasking than the quality of the acting, action or script. Despite only watching it once - upon its initial release - there were a number of memorable scenes and the first film I saw that featured a gun that could shoot around corners (Wanted, Blade anyone?) and to use the 'man on the right side of the law, framed, and trying to clear his name' schtick (Minority Report, Face Off anyone?). Still, didn't make my movie collection though...

[JustinSupremacy]

Lets put aside 'Judge Dredd's' failures as an adaptation aside and look at it as an action flick on it's own terms. It's bland and heavily cliche'd while the action scenes lack any sense of style and are poorly concieved. There's no sense of vision or directorial stamp while the script leads us through a Hollywood by numbers narrative. 'Demolition Man' was quite similar but way more fun. For me the only guy who should play Dredd has to be the awesomely chinned Ron Perlman. Picture that!

[Lizhawkins]

Congrats to fortunesfool, gordonmclean, bevnjas, Oui3d and jeffbiscuits for getting your Judge Dredd comments in the mag! (See page 161 of issue 188 - subscribers copies go out on 17/11/11, issue goes on sale 24/11/11).