Dredd

I ran into a conundrum with my movie backlog rules over the past week. I referenced here before how I watched a couple of my backlog picks here with downloaded commentary from the fine folks at Giant Bomb.Commando is one of my all-time favorite old-school action films, and I had a Giant Bomb commentary for it I was sitting on for a few years. The problem was I already watched my BluRay copy before so it was not a true backlog entry, but watching it with the commentary made it seem all-new again! The Giant Bomb commentary was a hoot, and the perfect complement to the nonsensical action and super macho one-liners that dominate Commando. I would feel I would be betraying the essence of this blog by dedicating a full entry to a movie that is not in my backlog box, so I compromised and just dedicated this introductory paragraph to Mr. John Matrix and will dedicate the rest to a more contemporary nonsensical action film I watched soon after the Schwarzenegger classic in the form of 2012’s Dredd (trailer).

Now some of you older folks may be thinking of the 1995 Judge Dredd film starring one Sly Stallone. Both the 1995 and 2012 Dredd films are adapted from the super-popular European line of comics based in the 2000 AD universe. The Stallone version is a bit more cheesy and hokey like a lot of other Arnold and Stallone classics in the 90s were. The 2012 version is a grittier, darker take on the comic where in a post-apocalyptic future the police are authorized to act as judge, jury and executioner. Karl Urban exchanges his stethoscope for the iconic Judge Dredd helmet in the lead role! He is taking rookie Judge Anderson (Olivia Thirlby) out on an assessment mission to see if she can pass her final test to become an official judge.

The problem is Anderson picked the wrong call to answer as they wind up at the mega-apartment-tower complex called Peach Trees which is ruled by a gang responsible for manufacturing and dealing the latest drug craze, SLO-MO. The judges apprehend a perp who the gang lord Ma-Ma (Lena Headey) realizes has vital intel she does not want to risk getting spilled to the police. This leads to Ma-Ma gaining control of Peach Trees and locking the judges inside the tower and ordering her endless number of underlings after the judges in an all-out assault. Peach Trees is 200 stories tall, so the film sees the judges work their way up the complex while facing off against everything Ma-Ma throws at them.

Dredd nails the dour futuristic look it is going for. It is the ideal setting for the duo to unleash hell on their pursuit of Ma-Ma. Dredd and Anderson make optimal use of their personal ID-locked guns that feature several types of ammo and unique features that the judges make sure to take advantage of. The action in Dredd is gritty and intense almost immediately after the lockdown commences with just enough sparse moments to give an opportunity for a breather before pumping up the next firefight onslaught. A certain scene involving the futuristic equivalent of Gatling guns is one of the showpiece action scenes of the film.

Karl Urban is an awesome Judge Dredd! He absolutely nails the vintage Dredd grimace and keeps it locked nearly throughout the entire film! Initially Dredd’s ‘grimace’ is outright silly, but as the film went along I ‘got’ how a Judge’s life in a crime-ridden future could result in wearing a permanent grimacing look on Dredd’s face. Dredd only sprinkles in a couple trailer-worthy one-liners, but does them at the best possible moment for maximum badass effect while avoiding the campiness factor that was prominent in the Stallone film. Urban is perfect with his blunt, to-the-point responses with Anderson and has a great mentor/novice chemistry with her. Anderson has some unique abilities I will not spoil in this entry that Dredd shows off with fantastic cinematic flair.

I first saw this when it hit theaters in 2012, which also was around the same time as the cult Asian hit, The Raid. The Raid features a swat team moving up a gang-ridden tower doing all kinds of sick karate fight scenes as they move their way up towards the final crime boss confrontation. Dredd is almost like this, but in a post-apocalyptic setting with sick-futuristic guns! It was like the 1998 near duel genre release of Deep Impact and Armageddon, but exponentially better!

The BluRay of Dredd has seven behind-the-scenes features totaling 41 minutes. Five of them are short pieces under three minutes each. Of those five I would at least check out the one detailing Dredd’s gear breakdown. The two primary extras I highly recommend are around 15 minutes each and one is about the origins and history of the comic book series and the other is about the special effects and cinematography of the film. I never read the Judge Dredd comics before so the breakdown of the history of the comics I got a lot out of, and hearing the special effects artists detail how they made their world come to life on screen was also fascinating.

If you cannot tell by now, I love my ridiculous action films. They can come in the form of 80s over-the-top action ala Commando, an insane nonstop barrage of karate fights ala The Raid or in the form of two judges waging war on a gang with all kinds of twisted weaponry and skills at their disposal ala Dredd. I would recommend Dredd is at its best viewing experience at night with the sound cranked up and probably one or two adult beverages consumed beforehand.

Other Random Backlog Movie Blogs

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12 Angry Men (1957)
12 Rounds 3: Lockdown
21 Jump Street
Angry Video Game Nerd: The Movie
Atari: Game Over
The Avengers: Age of Ultron
Batman: The Killing Joke
Batman: Mask of the Phantasm
Batman V Superman: Dawn of Justice
Bounty Hunters
Cabin in the Woods
Captain America: Civil War
Captain America: The First Avenger
Captain America: The Winter Soldier
Christmas Eve
Clash of the Titans (1981)
Clint Eastwood 11-pack Special
The Condemned 2
Countdown
Creed
Deck the Halls
The Eliminators
Dirty Work
Faster
Fast and Furious I-VIII
Field of Dreams
Fight Club
The Fighter
For Love of the Game
Good Will Hunting
Gravity
Guardians of the Galaxy
Hercules: Reborn
Hitman
Ink
Joy Ride 1 & 2
The Interrogation
Interstellar
Jobs
Man of Steel
Man on the Moon
Marine 3-5
Mortal Kombat
National Treasure
National Treasure: Book of Secrets
The Replacements
Reservoir Dogs
Rocky I-VII
Running Films Part 1
Running Films Part 2
San Andreas
ScoobyDoo Wrestlemania Mystery
The Secret Life of Walter Mitty
Shoot em Up
Steve Jobs
Source Code
Star Trek I-XIII
Take Me Home Tonight
TMNT
The Tooth Fairy 1 & 2
UHF
Veronica Mars
The War
Wild
Wonder Woman
The Wrestler (2008)
X-Men: Days of Future Past