Dredd
2012
**
Director: Pete Travis
Cast: Karl Urban, Olivia Thirlby, Wood Harris, Lena Headey, Domhnall Gleeson, Warrick Grier
In the post-apocalyptic future, 800 million people live within the walls of the crime-infested Mega-City One where street judges uphold the law and provide swift justice with their firearm. Judge Dredd and a rookie with psychic abilities are dispatched to a murder scene, but end up playing cat and mouse with a ruthless drug cartel in a locked down tower block (in a scenario which is almost identical to the one in The Raid a year earlier). This is the second adaptation of the 2000 AD comic strip series created in 1977 by John Wagner and Carlos Ezquerra. The terrible Judge Dredd (1995), which starred Sylvester Stallone, was a major disappointment to the fans. This one was scripted by Alex Garland, and it is surprisingly faithful to the gritty, violent and nihilistic worldview of the source material. Although the comic was terrific (at least as a teenager reader), it doesn't mean that the film is any good. The whole concept in fact seems silly, nonsensical and completely fascistic, and Dredd - untouchable and lacking in any human characteristics - is not a very compelling (anti)hero. The slow-paced and clunky set pieces, totally one-dimensional characters and cheesy oneliners make this feel like an action movie from the 1980s. The constant CGI splatter, however, reminds us when it was made.
