"KEEP BUSTIN'."

Dredd 3D

Dreddful. Absolutely dreddful. That means good! I really liked this movie.

It’s a coincidence, but it’s kinda cool and weird how much DREDD is like a sci-fi version of THE RAID. Similar premise: heavily armed but outnumbered police team raid a building controlled by a crimelord, crimelord announces over the intercom that they need to be killed, they have to fight their way up to the top of the building to kill the leader. But since it’s sci-fi the brutality and overkill of the police force is part of a dystopian future, the building (called “Peach Trees”) is 200 stories instead of about 30, and the whole thing is sealed behind blast shields so that nobody can get out. Instead of powerful silat skills our protagonist Judge Dredd (Karl Urban) relies on a badass computerized and voice-activated gun with various forms of bullets, explosives and firebursts.

There are a couple other variables that change things up: he’s testing out a rookie partner (Olivia Thirlby, the friend from JUNO, it turns out) who has psychic powers. He’s lugging along a prisoner (Wood Harris from PAID IN FULL). Many of the building’s residents are innocent. But it’s similar in its bleak griminess and unrelenting violence.

There are more effects involved in the carnage – brains splattering, slow motion skin rippling, bullets seen exiting flesh, the harshest body-falling-from-building splats I’ve ever seen in a movie – but it all feels pretty organic, not digital-slick and definitely not soundstage phony like the Stallone movie based on the same long-running British comic book.

Urban plays Dredd more mythic and way more menacing than Stallone. You never see more than his mouth, always curled into an exaggerated frown. In the opening scene his face is in shadow, then he puts on his giant helmet and he never takes it off. He has to act without his eyes – hell, he has to act without his nose. Hiding under that thing he still gives one of his best performances as a heavily Clint-inspired stoic warrior who never succumbs to sentimentality, humanization or trying to learn something. Even when he gets to the inevitable (SPOILER) Clint-acknowledging-respect-for-Tyne-Daly-in-THE-ENFORCER moment he has a long pause, says it in three words behind her back and then walks away. He lets her believe she’s failed and doesn’t need the satisfaction of seeing her happiness when she finds out otherwise. She doesn’t get a chance to bond with him and if she’s touched by the gesture we don’t get to see it. It’s character growth in such a tiny increment that it makes it more convincing. The ol’ BAD SANTA maneuver.

He reminds me alot of Robocop, but he doesn’t have the excuse of being a robot. He’s just very professional and inhumanly serious about following the rules. And like ROBOCOP this a future where crime has gotten so bad that society has resorted to an oppressive, militarized police force. They’re called Judges instead of Officers because they determine guilt and sentencing on the spot. And it seems like most of them are hanging judges.

That his partner is a psychic and uses her powers to save an innocent suspect is a friendly gesture to the audience and our sensitivity about fascism. She’s a rare type of mutant, so it’s an unusual thing that she knows if people are guilty or not before they freeze them or shoot them. Which might be a flaw in this system. Maybe put some tax money into finding more of these mutants.

There’s a part where Dredd refers to somebody as a murderer and it cuts to some bodies on the ground and I thought Dredd himself might’ve been responsible for them, I couldn’t remember. But unless you count that part the movie doesn’t really satirize or judge this system of justice. It just says here’s the horrible world this takes place in, and here’s what happens there one day.

I’ve been thinking about this alot since seeing the movie yesterday: it’s a weird choice to have this type of society and not show its flaws. As far as we are shown, crime really is bad enough to demand this type of law enforcement. When a Judge feels bad about executing a criminal it’s because the guy had a family, not because he didn’t have it coming. Still, I think even with the deck stacked in its favor the wrongness of the Judge system is self evident. It doesn’t need to be pointed out or especially ROBOCOP 3’d (like, there’s a rebel group trying to reform the system or something). That the movie just asks you to go with it makes this vision all the more bleak.

I don’t think Dredd is a good idea for civilization, but I think he’s an interesting character. I enjoy his single-mindedness and lack of self consciousness. In that sense he’s kinda like Blade and Ray Stevenson’s Punisher.

The world he inhabits is obviously heightened, but feels real in a way many sci-fi movies don’t. I guess a medium budget stopped them from doing aliens and robots, but I like that. It’s day time, hazy and overcast, the tall buildings are spread out and the cars don’t fly. It’s not BLADE RUNNER, it’s gigantic housing projects.

GAME OF THRONES flower in the attic/TV Sarah Connor Lena Headey plays the villainess, Ma-Ma. She was an abused prostitute who pulled herself up by the garters and conquered Mega-City One’s drug trade, but she’s no folk hero. She gets high on her own supply and seems to have a death wish more than a master plan. She’s still beautiful but with some serious facial scars. There’s alot of disgusting scars going around in Peach Trees, actually. I’m not positive but this computer operator kid I could’ve sworn had stitches that spelled out a word on his forehead. Dredd has to do some self-surgery too but he seems to have access to better healing agents.

There are many scuffles, mostly pretty intimate, not big show-offy setpiece kinda stuff. Conflicts are resolved in clever, badass ways, and there are some good one-liners. Eastwoodian, not Arnoldesque. It follows proper action movie procedure: builds a good structure, satisfies expectations but not always how you expected. I was hoping Dredd would get dosed with the time-slowing drug Slo-Mo and use it to his advantage in a fight, but maybe that would be too obvious.

I love the smallness of the story. It’s just a day on the job for this guy. The world is not at stake, there’s no chosen one, no prophecy, not even an assassination attempt or a dirty bomb or anything. It’s just the call they chose to respond to, one of several crimes called in at that moment, and they gotta see it through. He doesn’t seem impressed when it’s over, this is just what he does. More comic book movies should use this approach.

Adding to the tense tone is a pulsing electro-score by Paul Leonard-Morgan. But it turns out there was an even better, more John-Carpentery-Tangerine-Dreamy one by some other guys that they ended up not using but they allowed it to be released under the name “Drokk.”

As for the 3D, I’m not sure. For me it had sometimes had blurry spots that messed up the dimensionality, especially in shadowy or reflective parts of the frame. I actually thought it was my tired eyes or a projection problem, but I heard some other people might’ve had a similar experience. I know they used a bunch of different 3D systems and there are different cinematography styles and graininess and stuff, so maybe some of those techniques are not good for three dimensions. But when I wasn’t having that trouble it looked great, well composed, lots of depth.

There are a couple especially good uses of 3D: beautiful slow motion for some drug scenes, splattering blood and brains and teeth, and a really original use for a scene that takes place inside a guy’s mind. Heads are concave and bulging in all the wrong places. Bizarre and unsettling.

The director is Pete Travis, who comes from British TV. His previous features are VANTAGE POINT (the Dennis Quaid suspense thriller that I hate from seeing the trailer too many times, but maybe it’s good) and ENDGAME (drama about the end of apartheid). I would’ve guessed he was a commercial director or something, because it looks so good. Special hats off for the most beautifully photographed horrible villain death I can think of. Screenwriter Alex Garland wrote the novel of THE BEACH and then 28 DAYS LATER, 28 WEEKS LATER and the excellent NEVER LET ME GO. (Hopefully a DREDD/NEVER LET ME GO crossover is up next.)

Apparently there were some power struggles between the two, with Garland ultimately taking over editing from Travis, but it doesn’t seem like that type of troubled production. It seems like there’s a clear vision to it. Whatever happened, neither of these guys seem like the people who would make DREDD, or do this good a job of it. Good for them. I’m sure Dredd’s colleagues Blade and the Punisher are happy to welcome another pulpy, lowbrow, hard-R comic book movie into the world, and so am I.


This entry was posted on Sunday, September 23rd, 2012 at 11:04 pm and is filed under Action, Comic strips/Super heroes, Reviews, Science Fiction and Space Shit. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.

194 Responses to “Dredd 3D”

  1. Woah, I hadn’t heard anything about that alternate soundtrack, some of that stuff sounds AMAZING.
    I’m not surprised they didn’t use it (and the new score is still damn good), but man it would be cool if that stuff got used. I wish they’d do a fan-edit with the alternate music.

  2. No, ”Vantage Point” is not good, you are right to hate it.

  3. Such a shame this hasn’t done good box office, I was hoping for the trilogy the makers were talking about.

    Still, at least we got this and it’s a good ‘un – faithful, violent, to the point – it’s a damn good adaptation.

  4. This is one of those rare movies that sets out with a clear goal and manages to stick to that mission and deliver.

    I really loved this movie. I could see it going up there with Starship Troopers in movies I can watch endlessly.

  5. I guess I’m first to disagree. I personally think this movie is WAY overrated. As someone who has been following the DTV action scene, it seems to me that this is a “slightly better” theatrical action movie, that’s given WAY too much credit. No doubt, the 3D and Slo-mo effects are beautiful, but beyond that it offered not much else. I heard someone describe some of the kills before I say the film, and(with the exception of the bullet-to-cheek stuff that was already spoiled on Ain’t it Cool) every single instance was a disappointment. In fact, with exception of the two major Slo-mo sequences, this film really isn’t THAT violent. Quick cut-aways from head explosion, off-kilter squib shots(how come Expendables 2 got a lot of shit for it’s CGI blood, when this gets a free pass?), and a general lack of visceral BA moments from Dredd had me very disappointed.

    The comparison’s to The Raid are generally mistaken. The Raid had a relentless pace, while this IS draggy at times. No one talks about the dead spots in this, when there are plenty. I was fairly uninvolved in this, until the SPOILER!!!!!crooked Judges arrivedSPOILER!!!!

    It’s pretty funny that this has gotten more acclaim than typical films of this genre. As far as I could tell, the Slo-Mo sequences were the only thing to take away from this, which is barely 5 minutes of the film. It’s pretty hollow.

  6. Are you a 2000AD fan, Gvdobson? Not that your being one or not matters, a movie should stand on its own, but I am and there’s a chance that the movie didn’t drag for me because of the little touches that resonated with my enjoyment of 2000AD.

  7. Man, this sounds way better than I’d heard. The thing that had put me off seeing this one in the theater was that the CGI squibs were pretty distracting, which can be a mood-killer in your average nonstop parade of grisly violence, but if they’re good enough for Vern, they’ll probably be good enough for me.

  8. bullet3: Half of the Drokk duo that made the alternate soundtrack for DREDD is Geoff Barrow from Portishead, whose last album also incorporated Carpenteresque keyboards really effectively. Barrow is also the ringleader behind the Quakers hip hop collective.

  9. I’ve read a lot of the comics and felt that the tone was right, but it was almost an adaptation of the less interesting stories. Dredd had a lot of humor in the books that people overlook. This was missing that pretty throughout. Just a few one-liners, that’s all. It was pretty much devoid of the fascism(with the exception of the executions)that the book used as humor in it’s ridiculousness. My favorite being that comics were a type of narcotic in one issue.

    Also the lack of an interesting villain. Dredd’s Rogue Gallery is almost as massive as Batman’s, yet they went with a fairly one-note adversary. Even the much-frowned-upon Stallone version was bases specifically on a story(albeit a short one).

  10. One extra thing here. It’s far from non-stop violent action. There are lulls in the film, and usually the actual action sequences(there are a couple exceptions)are pretty uneventful.

    I didn’t completely hate the movie. I loved the music, the Slo-Mo and 3D was eyeball poppingly beautiful, and I was pleased that the helmet stayed on.

    I just think this one-sided praise is a little misleading. All I heard about Dredd 3D had me expecting this to be the best action movie of the year. Instead it’s a decent movie at best. Certainly not as terrible as most of the post-action films of recent date, but it don’t hold a candle to Expendables 2, cheesy one-liners or not.

  11. I’m a big action fan as it’s a given being a member of this fine community. I’m also fan of the character and have read my fair share of 2000 A.D. yet I couldn’t care less about seeing this. It just doesn’t grab my attention in anyway. At least the trailers and clips anyway.

  12. Vern – Actually to be fair, even that fascist police state from DREDD seems not effective enough, considering they say only 6% of crime is dealt with. Decent fodder for counter-point in that discussion.

    Also I actually admire this movie’s production design/art direction. It’s subtle, and it does immediately tell you everything you need to know about Mega City One: It’s overcrowded, everybody’s miserable, it’s way way way too big to be govern but there’s nothing that can be done since everybody’s trapped and nobody wants to go out into the Cursed Earth and deal with Fort Knox vampire robots or whatever. I even like how most references/terminology aren’t explained (fans though would) and it becomes part of the tapestry, generalized flavor that tells this world’s story more than the plot.

    DREDD is like all good movie dystopias, you would love to visit and explore, but thank God you don’t have to live there.

    Gvdobson – Even disagreeing with you, I was with you until you said EXPENDABLES 2 was better. Hell no. Really? Really? (Where’s the Miz when you need him?) If anything I admire this sucker for being such a bulldozer no bullshit B-actioneer John Carpenter tradition. For the fourth comic book-based movie we’ve got this year (and fourth good one at that), I admire that this roller coaster ride is only 90 minutes and by the time it started to drag, the movie ends. I can’t remember the last mainstream actioneer release that I’ve noticed that.

    This isn’t a great movie, it’s not even a remarkably genre entry, it’s just good. It’s a bronze medal movie, maybe silver if the drug test appeals go through. This could end up being a cult movie.

    It’s funny but as another fan, who actually just recently bought the volume 2* Judge Dredd case files book, DREDD gets Judge Dredd right. Vol. 2 was the one with two early classic storylines you would agree: “The Cursed Earth” and “The Day the Law Died,” both which would be decent candidates for sequel fodder if not for this dreddful box-office weekend.

    For the longest time I always assumed Dredd’s core appeal was that simply yes, on the Dirty Harry parody level but now I think it might be much more complex yet simple: Usually he’s the least developed, interesting element in those stories where the stars are his environment and the colorful (usually deadly) population. But fundamentally, he defines himself by his deeds. No matter the fantastical obstacles and powerful adversaries, Dredd will prevail and enforce the law because he’s a cunning, ruthless, stubborn, tough son of a bitch.

    And that’s what DREDD gets right, with energy those progs (or issues to newbies) project with their serial fashion. We don’t an origin story or a stab at pathos or any of that genre-mandated stuff. I mean that ending with how Dredd defuses the bomb says more about his character than all of the Sylvester Stallone movie with it’s busy busy busy worthless plot.

    DREDD did what it wanted to do: Redeem that awesome character and universe with a decent, honorable adaptation. The ghost of Rob Schneider has been exorcised.

    *=Unfortunately two among the best chapters weren’t reprinted due to copyright, like Dredd’s army fighting fast food-themed motorcycle gangs. (Don’t fuck with Ronald McDonald man.) Or Colonel Sanders the evil scientist.

  13. Broddie – and yet we wonder why good R-rated mainstream actioneers can’t be produced anymore. I did my part, I saw it. Same with Vern. I guess you can enjoy the Netflix luxury while the rest of Hollywood applauds itself that PG-13 is indeed God.

    Vern – btw, are you going to review Clint’s new movie?

  14. Well, I know nothing of this hype and spoilers, I just know I went in not knowing much and I loved it. I don’t remember having a problem with cgi in Expendables 2, but the way the effects are used between the two is night and day. Usually CGI blood is obvious and used to avoid the trouble and expense of squibs, here everything is very detailed and original in its gruesomeness and had to have taken way more time and money than just using squibs. (Although I’m pretty sure there are also real squibs used in many parts.)

    But I hardly saw that as the main appeal of the movie anyway. It’s more like a western. It’s all about this character and the mood and the straightforward mission he has.

  15. I love those Case File collections. Since they are both affordable and comes in chronological order, they are great if you are interested in getting to know the comics. Unfortunatly the McDonalds vs Burger King war storyline was still omitted in one of these collections. But if you can find it somewhere on the internet ( I did) it´s worth a read. Its hilarious! If I remember correctly it was part of the Judge Child storyline, but I´m not sure.

  16. SM – it was from the Cursed Earth storyline, and yes it is indeed hilarious. Rather easy for folks to find if you look for it. (Thank you Internet.)

    I’ve enjoyed those Case Files too. They’re give or take $13 from Amazon, and you get (what it feels like) over 200 pages. That’s a good buy. But for newcomers, I suggest starting out with Caes Files #2, the first one I wouldn’t call worthless or unenertaining, it’s just…well, it began as a one-note parody, the same punchline retold this side of ADDAMS FAMILY or something. It became an adventure/action strip one of many jobs for those inkers and others or whatever, but Vol 2. is when creative fires really started to burn and Judge Dredd became mother f’n Judge Dredd.

    Vol. 2 starts right off the bat with the Cursed Earth storyline, and it’s I can’t remember, 20 chapters? (or 18 if you don’t count the now edited out Burger Wars and Col. Sanders storylines) and each had like were 2 parters. Terrific serial cliffhangers.

    And then right after that, we get yet another epic storyline in The Day The Law Died when Judge Cal goes insane as dictator, even making his goldfish (who is his confidant) his second in command with full bow and ribbon ceremony, even giving his pet a state funeral when he dies. (One upping Caligula, that’s awesome.)

  17. I’d say there’s plenty of flaws and complexity to read into the way the Judge system and society is in general. Like with as mentioned before, they can only respond to 6% of incidents, which you’d think could be handled by simply recruiting more Judges, but then you realise very few people could really be cut out for the job and responsibility of it. Also I think the scene with the homeless guy is the best bit of satire in the whole thing. Vagrancy is a crime, but the punishment is really something you’d think the guy would actually WANT, but Dredd doesn’t seem to get that. On the other hand, having Dredd as the embodiment of the Law shows all it’s well, not positive traits, but it shows how it has limits, like with Dredd saying “I can’t Judge a man on 99%”, and how he handles the juvenile gang members. Garland’s said if they get to do sequels, he’d like to start to have Dreddt questioning his faith in the system. It’s apparently something that’s happened more in the comic in recent years(unlike most comic characters, Dredd has aged along with the titles he appears in).

  18. Case File#1 has at least The Robot War. Thats a classic story.

  19. Shoot – You know I actually forgot about that. Good point, that was a good one.

    Stu – I hate that unfortunately now we’ll never get Judge Death on the big screen. (Then again with Superman movies never doing Brainiac, I feel 2000 AD Fans’ pain.)

  20. RRA – For the record I don’t consider DREDD 3D mainstream because it isn’t. It’s not like it was produced by Lionsgate just distributed by them. It’s why people blaming the poor marketing on them is kinda funny because what did you expect when they have nothing invested in it? it’s not THE HUNGRY GAMES this was DNA Films’ baby.

    I stopped caring about mainstream action movies a while ago anyway. I’ve just given up on them. I still haven’t even seen EXPENDABLES 2 yet. I don’t know if HAYWIRE would be considered mainstream. It’s not from a major studio and I don’t know what your criteria for mainstream would be; but it is the last one I saw and I did enjoy it but also the first one I went to see at the cinema since the original EXPENDABLES.

    On the other side of that coin you have movies like this one. Indie action movies from other countries. Now a lot of them do hold it down on the entertainment front like a good action movie should. The problem is a lot of them also end up looking & at times being generic as hell and to me this one is no exception. The trailer did NOTHING for me because it was cliche piled upon cliche upon cliche with the promise of cliche in 3D. Same thing with the clips I’ve seen online. Eh. It’s not something I’d invest my matinee money in personally and it’s not like my $6 or $13 (3D) will make a dent anyway.

    It’s just not something that screams MUST SEE at the cinema to me. Especially when there’s a new movie by PTA out there that I still haven’t seen. It’s not UNIVERSAL SOLDIER: DAY OF RECKONING we’re talking about here or something.

    The thing is this Judge Dredd is a great character. One of the best creations of the last 30 plus years but also an archetype that only truly functions when juxtaposed against his surroundings. The world of the Mega-Cities and the Cursed Earth is a character itself. It helps break the monotony of this overtly fascist walking cliche. Essentially the personification of Wagner’s satirical views of the dangers creations of American govermentalized sources of power could be. Especially from a governmental system pushed beyond corruptions bounds.

    There is so much richness in Mega-City One itself. Every block is like it’s own dinstinct universe and so much you could play with contrasting this tool of a capitalistic and fascist justice system against the city itself. ROBOCOP comes to mind of course when it comes to seeing the potential of something like that.

    Sure there are one shot stories where Dredd is reduced to one location and just showcased as a character himself for the show; instead of his reactions to his world as a whole like in the much more interesting epic stories. This movie was even based on one of them. They work within the comic book format of storytelling cause it’s a different narrative for THAT medium though. It’s not one regularly explored too much in the medium dominated by superheros.

    It’s interesting to see an old school John Carpenter-esque story told with the dynamics of caption boxes and panel and page layouts with imagery you could absorb for as long as you want by staring at them. But when you see it within the cinematic format it’s just another pea in the pod.

    It doesn’t appeal to me and probably a lot of other people since it’s not making bank at the flicks because having a gritty looking character with a gritty voice in a gritty looking world with generic “dystopian” backdrops. It seems old hat and not like an interesting source of entertainment for a night at the movies.

    It’s not something that really stands out because it’s something people have already seen before countless times. Makes it just look like another DIE HARD clone. “But people love DIE HARD” you say and “Everybody on this site for the most part loved THE RAID” you continue. “DIE HARD had John fucking McClane who was the opposite of a one dimensional cliche character” I retort and finish with “THE RAID had some badass martial arts choreography to give it a spike of freshness”.

    Dredd was intentionally created to serve as a cliche. Those stories are satirical at heart and when you rob them of what makes the satire pop and reduce it to another generic looking action showcase then it doesn’t stand out at all. People ignore it because there is no real appeal. Now I’m glad you enjoyed it and felt it was worth the time but without all the colorfulness of the mythos there is no real appeal for me.

    A mix of the production design and values of the Stallone movie with the characterization of this one and a great scope of just exploring the metropolis would’ve been the ideal Dredd movie for me. Still essentially another “Day at the office” type deal but with much more interesting scenery with the flying cars and congested looking skyline because it’s cluttered with so many buildings and characters roaming around and countless block wars and chaos in a city that only looks great from a distance. With a lot of the wackiness of the pulp magazines that 2000 A.D. was influenced by intact like crazy technology and diverse and epic sense of adventure.

    Nobody would fund that movie though and that’s why this one was made stripped down to the core the way that it is which in turn makes it look like a bunch of other movies you’ve before. Which is why I think this could only really work within the animation format. An adult styled animated series where you don’t have to worry about really big budgets and could really get away with something that resembles the scope of the greatest Judge Dredd stories. Cursed Earth and Death Judges and all that good stuff.

  21. Broddie – “mainstream” by my rule of thumb is any movie released in 2,000+ (or very close to that) at the same time.

    So…you don’t trust Vern or me?

    As for the environment, I dunno after thte TOTAL RECALL remake, to be honest I wouldn’t mind if I never see another flying car in a “future” movie ever again.

  22. RRA – No I’ve agreed with your opinion and Vern’s opinion many times before. I’ve no doubt it probably IS a good movie in it’s own right. But if something just doesn’t appeal to me then it doesn’t appeal to me.

    I’ll catch it on video soon enough I’m just in no rush to really go all the way downtown (which is far from me and an 2 obnoxious 34 min train rides every day as it is) during the morning time to see it either.

  23. I thought it was a decent action cop movie. Urban is convincingly tough and Thirlby is convincingly human. The action is fun on occasion and Dredd’s hardass attitude can be funny sometimes. However, there a bunch of things that keep it from being great:

    -Boring setting. Nothing but rotting brown-gray rooms and rotting brown-gray hallways.
    -Repetitive action. You get a lot of scenes where Dredd points and shoots with ease. He’s barely ever challenged.
    -Not enough of the black comedy satire and sci fi weirdness that make the comic really special. When you take that away you’re just left with Dredd. He’s a badass and all, but he’s a pretty one note character. He has no personal life and barely any feelings.

  24. As a long time 2000AD fan I really enjoyed this. I did think they missed one perfect opportunity to nail the Dredd character, though…

    MINOR SPOILER: when he rescues the hostage in the mall/food court at the end of the first shoot out, she thanks him for saving her. At this point the Dredd in the comic books would have charged her with some unrelated crime, like running a food stand without a licence or some such. It was such a perfect opportunity. Actually, the way scene just ends with her thanking her hero is so un-Dredd that i’m half convinced that he did charge her with something in the original cut.

  25. Anyone here played the DREDD VS DEATH videogame that came out maybe 8 years ago? I did not play all that much but at first it was pretty cool arresting perps and using the lawgiver and all its different functions, but when you got to use more powerful weapons you sadly never used the Lawgiver again. At least I didn´t and then it started to become more of a standard shooter. A shame really. Just stupid to give Dredd more guns. His Lawgiver is made to be utilized in different circumstances. Has he ever used any other gun in the comics? I can´t really recall that he did

  26. Blapps – its quite possible. Apparently some reshoots/pick-ups were done last winter, so you might be right. (If I remember correctly, they added the bomb plot device in those reshoots.)

    You make a valid criticism. (I didn’t notice at the time because I was too impressed by Dredd’s aim.)

    “He’s a badass and all, but he’s a pretty one note character. He has no personal life and barely any feelings.”

    Wadew – you mean you wanted him to be like all those other superhero movies we got this year? Sure I liked them all, but DREDD is refreshing for being free of pathos and angst and all that shit. Doesn’t meant I want a DREDD treatment for every comic book property, nor a Nolanized/Marvelized treatment for everyone either.

    (Seriously that paticularly is what pisses me off about Internet nerds. They want bologna for every movie sandwich, I prefer a deli approach to the genre.)

  27. Blapps: HOTSHOT is actually a reshot scene. The original scene had the perp running through a crowd of people and Dredd shooting through a woman to take down the perp. He does the DEFENSE NOTED thing with the perp and executes him. Then he tells the freaked out woman that it’s only a flesh wound and she’ll be fine.

  28. I guess I was jumping the gun there. But, really, the Lawgiver is what you associate mostly with Judges ( not Judge Judy,mind you) that its hard to remember anything else.

  29. wadew – Interesting. I would love to see that deleted scene. (Which sounds pure Dredd.)

  30. RRA: That’s not what I was saying at all. I’m fine with Dredd being a one note lawman, but when you strip the movie of all the black comedy satire and sci fi weirdness of Mega City One, you’re removing a big part of what makes the Dredd comics special.

  31. Wade – I understand that, but you know what? You won’t like this, but I think Stallone’s movie caught up too much on your point. Spent so much time with flying cars and robots and so forth that there was no room for you the viewer to care about Dredd and his story.

    If there was going to be sequels, you could go all out nuts if you wish since you would’ve established that this Dredd is one bad mother SHUT YOUR MOUTH!

    But they won’t happen. Oh well.

  32. I think they tried to do that in the first 15-20 minutes of the Stallone movie, but then it turns into a standard “Underdog Sly has to fight his way back to the top” film with a comedy sidekick.

  33. Shoot- Oh, you’re right. He’s always stuck mostly to the Lawgiver in what I’ve read. I was just highlighting that when he does use something else, it’s in extremely special circumstances, like the stub gun basically being a necessity of fighting a World War. I did actually find it odd though in DREDD how ammo was a real issue, but he continually failed to pick up the guns the dead perps had been using. Anderson uses what she can find in the climax, but Dredd just sticks with his Lawgiver.

  34. Screw the haters, at least Fake Gene Shalit(https://twitter.com/FakeShalit) likes it
    “Who am I to Judge? DREDD 3D is Urban decay at its best! A Headey sci-fi actioner that’ll have you spilling your popcorn Olivia pants! “

  35. The Original... Paul

    September 24th, 2012 at 1:12 pm

    Broddie:

    “The trailer did NOTHING for me because it was cliche piled upon cliche upon cliche with the promise of cliche in 3D.”

    Well yeah, but for me the same was true of films like “Chronicle”, and that was great. To me. I’d actually go see this one based on reviews alone, if it wasn’t for one simple fact: it’s the first film EVER that I’ve wanted to see that’s coming out in 3D and not 2D. (And I mean that literally – there was a 2D version of “Avengers”, there was a 2D version of “Batman Versus Bane”, etc. There’s no 2D version of this one.) FUCK THAT.

    I’d ask the marketers if it was worth the premium 3D price to lose potential customers like me who regard it as a downgrade, not an upgrade; but the bad box-office performance would seem to answer that question anyway. The fact that the trailer made the film look a whole lot more terrible than it probably is, judging by the reactions of Vern and others who’ve actually seen it, probably didn’t help either.

    In short, however good this film is (and most people seem to like it), it’s also a classic example of how not to market a movie. Makes me feel kinda sorry for the people who made it, if it genuinely is going to bomb. Not sorry enough to pay the 3D premium though.

  36. Broddie, I think you spent as many words on saying you were not interested in seeing the movie as I spent on trying to explain how good it is. Personally I have very little interest in seeing the epic sci-fi movie you describe, to me THAT is the cliche of comic book movies. Name one other comic book based movie that’s like this: the character already exists, they do their job for the day, no huge stakes. There might be another one but I can’t think of what it is. It’s not Batman, Hellboy, Punisher, Blade, Iron Man, Thor, Hulk, etc. Always an origin story, a bomb, an invasion, a prophecy. Even cop movies it’s the biggest case of their lives, the one that blows everything open. Exactly what you say is cliche about this is a total breath of fresh air and unlike most of what has been made for a long god damn time.

    Anyway, you’re gonna like it. Don’t front.

  37. Haven’t seen it yet but was a fan of the comics as a kid. Dredd, for me is not about the Otto Sump stuff, more in its original flagrant political stance.

    If any of you are remotely interested, look up John Wagner’s previous comic ‘Action’ (which got banned for violence). Action was freaking amazing, it had Dredger (name seems familiar – violent, above the law, fascistic, British Dirty Harry cop is hero), Hook Jaw (violent killer shark is the hero), Death Game 1999 (violent Rollerball type thing), Hellman of Hammer Force (violent German Panzer Commander is the hero – Ach! Britisher Tommies in skirts, they fight like devils!!!!), Kids Rule OK (violent anarchistic, apocalyptic Omega man type scenario). And there was a violent football (soccer) strip called Look Out for Lefty. Even the title of that has great connotations! No wonder Thatcher’s lot feeaked out.

    I loved it. Got banned and the creators went on to 2000AD and Dredd with his summary executions. Presumably science fiction violence is by definition harmless.

    Also Judge Dread was a naughty and rude reggae/ska musician working in the UK in the 70’s. Routinely banned. Had a hit with ‘Up with the Cock’.

  38. »It’s a coincidence, but it’s kinda cool and weird how much DREDD is like a sci-fi version of THE RAID.«

    Great to hear this, I loved THE RAID. Sounds like a great time at the cinema, but it turns out I have to wait till November when it’s released in Germany.

  39. Great review Vern. I also really enjoyed this movie. I am not a Judge Dredd fan, and I was worried that the films similarities to THE RAID: REDEMPTION set it up to fail by comparison, but I was really impressed. It is a great looking film, with clear and at times amazingly staged and executed action and visuals. Urban does seem to be channeling Eastwood. His portrayal of Dredd has a really Dirty Harry meets Robocop feels to it. Actually this could have just as easily been a Robocop film. You could swap out the character of Judge Dredd and replace him with Robocop and barely even have to alter the script. I am also happy to say that my concerns about how the film would stack up when compared to THE RAID were completely forgotten not long into the film. Dredd does share a similar premise with THE RAID: REDEMPTION, but it is presented and executed in a completely different way. THE RAID: REDEMPTION is a relentless survival action film (on the commentary track for TR:R director Gareth Evans refers to it as a survival horror film), but DREDD takes the premise and executes it much more like a DIE HARD film. In TR:R the swat team knows what they are getting into and when the shit hits the fan all they can do is try to survive, but in DREDD the judges are just in the wrong place at the wrong time and when things go sideways at first their only option is to try and survive but unlike TR:R there is a turning point in Dredd where the hero stop stops trying to just make it out alive and he goes on the offensive. (Super mild SPOILERS) By the third act of DREDD it is the villains that a concerned with their survival not Dredd.

    PS: The 3D looked great except for a few murky parts caused by shadows.

    PPS: Broddie the trailer is what made me want to see this movie.

  40. The Original… Paul

    I saw it in 2D, man. I think you just have to look around.

  41. I was very impressed by the simplicity of this movie, it was old school cool. I also watched Sly version on blu-ray, it was for a review, and I can safely say that this new version is the exact opposite in almost every way. Where Stallone was broad, Urban is understated, the effects were big the first time around, now they are minimal. Everything from the “humor” down to the cinematography are just about opposite from before. The 3-D did suck, though, it gave me a headache.

  42. I’ve seen one or two nerds call ROBOCOP a really good Judge Dredd movie.

  43. That’s funny, cause based on what we’re hearing/seeing of the new Robocop, this Judge Dredd movie seems like a way better Robocop movie than the reboot will be.

  44. Robocop was indeed heavily influenced by Judge Dredd, so much so that when it came time to make a Dredd movie, they had to go out of their way to not seem too Robocop-y. Though, they did have some meetings and work with the writers of Robocop.

    The new Robocop script is pretty dreadful, but it does some interesting things with the character of Lewis and the first 10 pages and last 30 pages are even pretty good.

  45. I agree that a day in the life stories are often the best way to experience Dredd.

    Bury my Knee at Wounded heart is one of the best Dredd’s soft side stories.

    Where he does the right thing for a victim of social inequality and then sends them to prison for twenty years for having infringed on the world of the privileged.

  46. I will always have a soft spot for Monkey business at the Charles Darwin block. That shit was hilarious!

  47. I found this page from the story. Funny shit “Creep´s want a banana”
    http://www.comicartfans.com/gallerypiece.asp?piece=901367&gsub=109776

  48. Bad grammar on my part. it should say “Creep wants a banana”

  49. I picked up the alternate soundtrack, and in a weird way it’s made me skeptical about DREDD again. Any movie that would go out of its way to not sound like this album has got to have some serious fear of success.

  50. The league of fatties…a slightly larger budgeted sequel could do so much never mind a mega budget.

  51. Mr. M, I really want to check out the alternate soundtrack. I really liked the one in the film. It has a great John Carpenter vibe to it. I curious to see how the alt soundtrack is different.

  52. I haven’t heard the actual one yet because I’m always hesitant to listen to a soundtrack before I see the film it belongs to because it tends to be distracting when a piece of score that’s supposed to be mostly subliminal suddenly leaps out as a song you put on a mixtape. But it’ll be interesting to hear it for comparison.

  53. The Stallone/Canon version actually killed 2000AD for me.

    They released a watered down Kiddy companion comic but also revised the tone of 2000AD.

    Not sure if it ever recovered by teenaged Imshi was shattered. There’s actually a few studies on Judge Dredd in the field of sociology (mostly postmodern shit) I remember reading one years ago that highlighted the failure of the makers of 1995 version to grasp the extent to which Dredd is an Ironic (and frequently fourth wall breaking anti-hero).

    Also as noted on HDTGM the production design was all excess all the time.

    And they misused a character Bane style (in Batman & Robin not TDKRisesfromakneeinjurythenfallswithabackinjurythenrisesagainandtakes earlyretirement).

  54. I remember reading a newspaper comic strip adaptation of the Stallone film, and it was actually a bit of an improvement as it was much shorter, more brutal, and they actually killed off Rob Schneider’s character at the end…or maybe that was the novelisation?

    One weird character trait displayed by Dredd is in the “Judge Child” story where he openly has it in for a Judge under his command purely for the fact he has a mustache and refuses to shave it.

  55. Used to read a friends Judge Dredd and 2000AD comics ages ago. And the blue soldier with the talking guns. I was going to let this one slip by, but if Vern gives it a Clint Eastwood comparison, I’m sold. After all, I didn’t get the X-men until Vern pointed out the Clint Eastwood with claws bit.

    Here’s a question Dredd fans: When people got put in the cubes, were they frozen like Demolition Man, or just sat in there?

  56. Just sat there. They’re very small cells, basically.

  57. Schneider’s character was supposed to die. Test audiences didn’t like that, so they shot a scene with Schneider on a stretcher.

  58. You had the isolation island,also. The Devil´s Island. In the very first episode, you just stranded them in this big island in the middle of the city. It was a pretty shitty solution, really.

  59. Yeah like Stu said, its just slang for their small cube-shaped cells.

    Well I saw DREDD again, with my Mom* who knew nothing about the comics just that Stallone movie. She liked this, “alot better than the old one because it made much more sense, and it knew when to end.”

    Also I have a question: When Dredd throws that guy over the balcony, why didn’t he shoot Ma Ma when SHE WAS RIGHT THERE? I’m just guessing he didn’t see her.

    *=What? At an age when most kids are stuck watching Barney, she was taking me to R-rated action movies. Ah, ROBOCOP 2…

  60. I can’t decide what’s more depressing: DREDD bombing this weekend or that a wretched, useless movie like the new RESIDENT EVIL movie (in 2nd weekend) outgrossed it.

    Interesting there’s been this argument recently that the Hollywood-produced modest budget movie is now “Dead.” Either budget-busting blockbusters (THE AVENGERS) or micro-budget indie movies (END OF WATCH) are making profits anymore.

    Bilbo – If you want an excuse not to see DREDD, just say so mate we won’t bite. But just know this aint another spandex movie or whatever, this is a good shoot-em up. You know, one of those sorts of movies that this whole local community has built our cool little monastary around.

  61. RRA, I agree that it is sad that DREDD is not doing better at the box office. DREDD is great hard R action entertainment, and fans of hard R action films should support the film while it is theaters so that we get more quality hard R action flicks like this in the future.

  62. Wait, RESIDENT EVIL outgrossed DREDD?! DREDD has not hit SwEden yet, but this is the most depressing news a Judge Dredd-fan can get. Seriously how fucking stupid are people?! At this point they would know that fucking RE franchise is garbage and YET they go see Milla Jojovich?? IDIOTS!!! I seriously cannot fathom how peopla can embrace that fucking chickenshit pussy asshole franchise! Its being going on for 10 years or so, they should…..oh hell…I give up. Conglaturations,idiots…you have officually won. Good luck,cocksuckers! You have proven the shitty cultrue from which you stem!

  63. I can’t understand how a franchise like RE that keeps pumping out one uninspired underwhelming film after the next continues to get theatrical releases when it should be a DTV series of films.

  64. Rehydrated Dehydrated Pirate Paul

    September 25th, 2012 at 3:26 pm

    Captain – I have two multiplexes within walking distance of my house, and an arts cinema about an hour’s drive away. There are other multiplexes in Cardiff but they play exactly the same stuff as the Swansea multiplexes do – namely, Dredd 3D, no Dredd 2D, and not a whole lot else that I’m interested in.

    RRA – your Mom sounds cool. When I was that age my mother took me to see the “Care Bears” movie. Yeah, if you ever wanted to know how I ended up as obviously fucked-in-the-head as I am, there’s your explanation right there.

    Although she also let me watch films like “The Thing” and “Total Recall”, even though she would never watch them herself. So I give her props for that. And really, what harm could a few nightmares about my eyes being sucked out of my face or Wilford Brimley putting his hand through my face do?

    (It’s just dawned on me that all of my childhood nightmares featured facial trauma. I’d like to know what an amateur psychologist would make of that one.)

  65. Interesting point (hope I didn’t miss it somewhere above): Alex Garland points out that a big part of the success of this thing is that against all odds it wasn’t a big studio cash grab. It was actually an independently financed British film, merely distributed by Lionsgate in America. Interesting interview overall, and explains a lot of why this movie is so surprisingly good.

    http://www.movies.com/movie-news/alex-garland-interview-dredd/9651

  66. Seriously. There hasn’t been a good RE movie yet, although the third one was close enough to passable that it’s admittedly pretty cool ending got me to watch Part 4 (sort of how the ending of CHRONICLES OF RIDDICKULOUS got you hungry for another one, even though the one you just watched was terrible), thinking maybe they’d pull a FAST & FURIOUS-style franchise reinvention/escalation. But no. It was just more of the same synthetic calorie-free action-horror substitute. I won’t be fooled again.

  67. SMK – To be fair, only by $500,000. (But still, CRIME!!!)

    But thoes movies do well because those movies are sorta like their big budget cousins in Bay’s TRANSFORMERS: They think for you, they feel for you, they laugh for you, they blah blah they require zero brain power or visceral involvement for you. It’s brain food for morons. And also as mindless action extravaganzas, they do ridiculously well overseas, specifically in Asia.* So America can’t be blamed for this one.

    *=5 movies, all together cost $250 million. If RETRIBUTION does similar business of the last RE movie, that series will have grossed $1 billion. I hate Anderson, don’t like that series (and I really tried to give RETRIBUTION a break in a B-movie junk sort of way yet it still defacated in my cereal), but one must give him credit for overseeing undisputed successful franchise, and giving his wife a job when nobody wants to anymore.

  68. “Also I have a question: When Dredd throws that guy over the balcony, why didn’t he shoot Ma Ma when SHE WAS RIGHT THERE? I’m just guessing he didn’t see her.”
    Well I think by that point he knew he was low on ammo, and killing Ma Ma would have merely been a waste of a bullet without solving the bigger problem of the rest of the gang.

  69. I was hoping I would catch some AVGN audience with my mis-spelling. Especially the Conglaturations part. But you can´t win them all,I guess.*sigh* My last post relied on that….

  70. Rehydrated Dehydrated Pirate Paul

    September 25th, 2012 at 3:45 pm

    And Shoot – aside from the whole 3D thing (I don’t know how many people have had the chance to see the film in 2D, but it’s not available anywhere within a couple of hours’ drive from where I am right now), can I point out again that the marketing for Dredd has been terrible? When I saw the trailer I thought it looked worse than the trailer for “Prometheus” was. For all that the Alien prequel’s trailer was just cliche after cliche, with not a single original thought or idea evident anywhere, at least the scenery was nice. Which is more than I could say for the “Dredd” trailer.

    To you or me “Resident Evil” may be a terrible movie. But the films have their fans, and the games have their fans, and the people marketing the movie know exactly who they want to see it. “Dredd”, on the other hand, is a hard-hitting action movie that’s marketed as some kind of buddy-cop movie. Honestly, in the trailer that I saw, I think they were trying to market it as an “Avengers”-styled buddy-cop movie or something. Well, I didn’t believe it for a second, and I doubt many other people who saw it did either.

    True story, although I didn’t think of it until I was considering the trailer just now: I first saw that trailer during “The Dark Knight Rises”, and the guy I was with turned to me and commented: “Well that’s one to miss.” And this is a guy who enjoyed “The Avengers”, even enjoyed “TDKR”. He likes comic-book movies and action films. I’d say he’s the exact intended audience for “Dredd”. If that’s how your intended audience reacts to the trailer, is it any wonder that the film flops?

  71. I’m the intended audience for DREDD, and I liked the trailer well enough.

  72. Of course, I figure there should have been more than ONE trailer, total, but at least most of the film wasn’t spoiled by what they went with.

  73. Interesting stuff Mr. S, thank you for the link.

  74. For some reason Dredd doesn’t seem to have gotten very many screens, though. In Seattle, a movie like Resident Evil plays on multiple screens downtown and one in the U-district where the college kids are. Dredd is playing on only one screen between those two neighborhoods, 2D for the day shows and 3D for the night ones. If it’s like that in alot of the world I’m sure that’s part of the reason it’s not doing well.

  75. I am a Judge Dredd fan.And by that I mean most of the original comics. To be fair, the only time I watched dredd in colour was in that awesome Batman collaboration; Batman and Dredd vs the Riddler (or something). I was pretty wicked. I wanna watch dreddon screen and from what I can teel the artisticness of the flick seem fullfilled. When it comes to a RE movie? You can no be fucking serious. It´s annoyingly dumb in every possibly way. My hatred for the franchise is so intense I would have seen every person involved being prosecuted Judege Dredd style:

    P.W,S Anderson? Crime against humanity: 40 years in the coal mine
    Milla Jovovich: Crime against stupidity: 15v years in nearest prostition hole
    Everyonoe else: Basic human decenscy ; 5 years slavery

    AND THAT IS THE LAW!

  76. Yeah, up here in Northern VA there were only a few showings in 2D. I think most theatres had two 2D showings, and unless Vern says the 3D is great I’m usually leery of 3D.

  77. The only reservation I have about seeing this movie is that Karl Urban has the lead role. Nothing wrong with Urban; I think he’s a solid actor who makes every movie he’s in better. The problem is, after watching him play Dr. McCoy is the new Star Trek movie three tears ago, Which is how I see him now… as Bones. His performance was so uncannily similar to what Deforrest Kelly did in the t.v. series— the body language, the vocal mannerisms, the nascent grumpiness, the overall gestalt of that character— that somehow I can’t quite shake off thinking of him as THAT guy since then. I had a similar experience in the past with Gary Cole after seeing him absorb Robert Reed’s Mike Brady persona in The Brady Bunch movie. Go figure.

  78. It hasn’t come out in Australia yet, but there seems to be lots of British pop culture here so maybe it’ll do better.

  79. Holy Shit!!!!! That is my reaction to Dredd. This movie is an old school throwback to the straight up badassness of an old school 70s/80s action movie. What the fuck is wrong with America? Shit like the Hunger Games breaks records and this fucking complete gem of an action movie probably won’t last for 3 weeks in the theater. Karl Urban owned the role of Dredd. Somehow making that big fucking helmet seem like the most badass helmet since Robocop. The sneer that he wears for 100% of the movie goes from slight sneer to I’m going to fucking kill you sneer. Not once does he crack a smile in this movie. Not once does it lighten up. All the laughs I got were of the variety of watching some great kills and dark action. I even hate 3D and loved it’s use in this movie. Bullets flying out the screen and body splattered in 3D, that’s how you use 3D, fuck Avatar. Fuck Stallone for ever fucking up the name Judge Dredd so much that everyone I talked to thought it was a remake of that piece of shit movie.

    Even with the initial bizarreness of it having the exact same story as The Raid, I forgot about that shit after about the first 30 kills by Dredd. Which happens about 20-30 minutes in. They did the character justice and this should have been the original Dredd.

  80. Rehydrated Dehydrated Pirate Paul

    September 26th, 2012 at 5:53 am

    Vern – Dredd is getting a lot of showings over here. Just none in 2D. It’s in all of the multiplexes near me, but only in 3D. And given that I’ve seen short films only in 3D, and eight or so minutes of it was enough for me, there is just absolutely no way I’m paying extra for a format I have no interest in watching a full-length movie in. Right now I think that even the 2D films are too expensive, even in the “standard” seats – the ticket price in my local has just gone up to £7.80, which I think is about thirteen dollars American – which I’d object to less if the experience justified it.

    My problem is the experience is just getting more frustrating. It used to be that the “premium seats” were the ones in the middle. Now they’re from the middle right to the back. Seeing as I prefer sitting towards the back anyway – I just find it more comfortable than sitting closer and looking up – this is an annoying change. The adverts get longer and more annoying, the trailers frequently spoil far too many details of films that I’m interested in seeing, and I’ve even had this happen to me recently: before “The Dark Knight Rises”, they showed a “teaser interview” with Christian Bale and Anne Hathaway (actually a “This interview is sponsored by…”-style advert for some kind of alcopop) that spoiled several plot points of the movie I WAS JUST ABOUT TO SEE. I mean, what the fuck? I’d deliberately avoided ALL spoilers of this movie, and then this shit happens?

    Look, I can deal with about thirty pence worth of corn and sugar being sold for £3.50. Occasionally I’ll even buy it, because hey, it’s part of the experience, right? But the seating shenanigans, the twenty minutes of adverts before the trailers even start, the spoiler-laden trailers themselves, and not even showing films in 2D even when they’re available as such… I have to wade through more and more shit just to see the film I came to see.

    Understand that I want to support filmmakers, I want to support the industry. But I would prefer to be treated as a customer, rather than a commodity, in return. This shit is just not on.

  81. Rehydrated Dehydrated Pirate Paul

    September 26th, 2012 at 6:21 am

    Oh, and the irony is that you guys have convinced me. Everybody who’s seen this movie at least liked it, and some were blown away. I think the overriding theme of what people are saying, including Vern’s review and those in the comments, is that if you go in expecting a hard action movie rather than a comic book one, you’ll get your money’s worth.

    Well, you know what? Sounds good to me. At least good enough to convince me this won’t be another “Avengers” (which I liked parts of but generally thought was overhyped). So I’m game. I’m ready to shell out some cash on this movie and I FUCKING CAN’T.

    What a complete fucking joke.

  82. You know that talk earlier about wishing DREDD had a more absurd environment, unfortunately I’m afraid the Internet would’ve shit all over it. You know what movie made back in the 1990s had the sort of wacky satirical ridiculous environment that suited a Judge Dredd adventure? ESCAPE FROM L.A., which the Internet hated because…because…shit if I know. Yeah a similar reaction would’ve fucked DREDD I’m certain now.

    My fellow Americans for some reason don’t seem to handle satire well unless it’s on-the-nose SNL sketchery crap.

    BTW, ComicBookMovies yesterday published an interesting piece about how PUNISHER: WAR ZONE has become a cult movie and that warms my heart up (right before it rips it out of my chest). General audiences either want Comedies or Actioneers, they don’t want both, or both only if said actioneers have sitcom humor.

    God knows I miss the cheesy one-liners tied into brutal violence, DREDD is a terrific throwback in that regard. (*crush windpipe* Choke on that!)

    Paul – I must say I’m lucky that locally in East TN we don’t have to deal with premium seating or whatever nonsense that you’re stuck with unfortunately. Sorry mate, that does sound shitty.

    Anyway I think you’re right about the marketing. Fans didn’t seem to mind because they simply wanted to make sure (1) Karl Urban keeps his helmet on and (2) he kills a ton of people. But otherwise yeah the marketing felt like the sort you would expect from a September Lionsgate actioneer release. (Didn’t help DREDD’s case that Lionsgate had little incentive to go balls out marketing for it, not like HUNGER GAMES and EXPENDABLES 2 where suits jobs were on the line for those.)

    Anyway my Mom told me back in the day to approach those action movies like cartoons, and you know whether she realized it or not, that’s brilliant because they are you know? Also she told me if any of those movies gave me nightmares (and I complained), I would never see anymore. I believed her.

    Amazing Larry – Dr. Mccoy was the furthest thing from my mind when I was watching DREDD. Don’t worry, be happy, let DREDD help you.

    Mr. Majestyk – RETRIBUTION ends with a big epic tease for #6, and you just know Anderson doesn’t have the skills or grit to pull off that promise.

    Since I saw RETRIBUTION, there was two minor good things I liked about it: (1) the asian lady during a gunfight uses her grappling gun as a gun. We need more of that at the movies. (2) a guy throws himself out into the open during gunfight, you know the sacrificial lamb while taking some bodies with him and he throws his gun up into the air, which then fall back to him…which case he then gets back up and uses same said gun to shoot more baddies before he’s finally dispatched for good.

    So stupid, so ridiculous, I couldn’t help but laugh. I wonder where Anderson ripped that off from?

  83. ” … after watching him play Dr. McCoy is the new Star Trek movie three tears ago …”

    The only thing that would make this typo better would be if it was AsimovLives who wrote it. Of course, then it wouldn’t be a typo; it would be a Freudian glimpse into his tortured pysche.

    Also, all the folks who have been bashing RESIDENT EVIL movies in this thread might want to check out Red Letter Media’s marathon of the whole series. Funny stuff.

  84. Karl Urban came a long way since he played Julius Caesar and Cupid in XENA.

  85. Paul: The incessant commercials and promotional shit prior to movies is one of the reasons I seldom go to chain theaters anymore. I swear before the screening of INCEPTION that I saw there was 35 minutes of advertisements alone, then trailers. I was exhausted before the movie even began. They also tend to set the air conditioning slightly above sub arctic, which I’m sure the heavier people in the audience appreciate, but it damn near ruins me every time.

    At some chain theaters you can pay extra to see the film without all the obnoxious pre-show shit. Apparently the chairs are bigger too. So first the theater creates a problem by showing too many commercials. Then they offer you an expensive solution to the problem they created.

    Alternately, here in Toronto you can wait a month or two and see the film in a dumpy repertory theater without commercials, which is what I tend to do. Instead of pre-movie trivia, I try to determine what caused the stains on the seats around me.

  86. Jareth – I saw RLM´s video. Their laughter is so contagious. Especially Rich Evans

  87. Shoot: If if was available, I’d probably watch the entire uneditied footage of the Red Letter Media guys watching all four RESIDENT EVIL movies. It would have to be an improvement on the movies themselves.

  88. Making fun of the RESIDENT EVIL movies is like picking on a retarded kid. They’re all bad movies that make no sense, but dumb fun can be had with some of them. Retribution is actually the best one. It has a variety of locations and it keeps the action moving.

    And these movie are still being made because they do big business internationally. If you look at the numbers, more than 70% of the money Sony has made on the RE movies comes from overseas grosses. They do ok business in the US, but Retribution will wind up being lowest grossing sequel in the US. It’ll probably finish with a little more than what the first movie made (40 million).

  89. wade – indeed you can’t argue with their success. (So yes, blame foreigners.)

  90. Anderson said that if they do another Resident Evil it’ll probably be the last one, so that’s a silver lining for RE haters.

  91. The RE movies are not retarded kids. Retarded kids are born that way and struggle to get by in a world that is beyond their understanding without much in the way of support from society at large, lacking the skills and awareness to provide for themselves. They don’t have anything in their favor, which is why it’s not cool to mock them when they can’t keep up.

    The RE movies, on the other hand, are well-budgeted motion pictures made by highly paid industry professionals with full studio support, utilizing easily exploitable elements like monsters, explosions, and hot chicks. They have absolutely everything in their favor and still they suck, which is why it’s totally cool to mock them. They do not deserve to be cut any slack whatsoever.

  92. Mr. Majestk:
    Well… there are a lot of retarded people working in Hollywood.

    I just can’t bring myself to hate the RE movies because
    1. They’re nonsense movies based on nonsense videogames that I don’t really care about
    2. The way Anderson just ignores and throws out things at random is endearingly dumb. It’s like watching an action monster movie written by a 10 year old.

    They’re definitely not good movies, but they can be GOOD-BAD movies at times. On dvd. Or on cable. I have no idea why they’re not DTV movies.

  93. I liked the first Resident Evil. The second bored me so I didn’t bother with the rest.

    That doesn’t make me a bad person, does it? :(

  94. I very nearly made a cunning dart out of work this afternoon for a deep undercover trip to the cinema (without my boss or my wife finding out I was doing something I wanted to do) to see Dredd! Foiled again.

  95. Casey, if like something other people don’t approve of makes you a bad person, then I am a terrible person.

  96. Also, if typos make you a bad person then I might be one of the worst people on the planet.

  97. @Jareth Cutestory: ‘Twas not a typo, bud… but thanks for pointing out the danger in my becoming a sworn enemy of Asi. His loathing of All Things Abrams is well-established. Damn… I didn’t think of that at ALL when I first posted. Well played, sir.

    BTW… “A Freudian Glimpse Into His Tortured Psyche” would make for a great subtitle for the AsimovLives chapter of a future documentary film about Internet nutjobs.

    @RRA: I shall take your advice, and venture forth to see Dredd this weekend, if only to absolve the Urban/Bones interpretational sin that my mind has committed. Thanks, dude.

  98. @Casey: No way, dude. Liking the fiirst Resident Evil and then bailing does not make you a bad person, at all. It heralded Milla Jovovich to her calling as a horror/action movie heroine, much as it did previously (to a lesser & different degree) Jamie Lee Curtis with the Halloween movies. Sometimes you gotta follow the path, and sometimes it leads you.

  99. Fuck, I want to see an AsimovLives documentary more than anything in the world now.

  100. Rehydrated Dehydrated Pirate Paul

    September 28th, 2012 at 10:35 am

    Ok, here’s a plot twist worthy of M Night Shyamalan.

    On Sunday, my mate is going to see “Dredd 3D”. I have agreed to accompany him on this voyage into the unknown.

    In preparation for this expedition, I have looked up “common side-effects of 3D glasses”, which apparently include temporary disorientation, dizziness and blurred vision after use, headaches, mild nausea, spontaneous tentacle growth, and a sudden sensation of weightlessness generally manifesting around the area of the wallet.

    There is only one recorded death that I can find that’s associated with 3D glasses. Common theory has it that this is less related to the glasses themselves, and more related to the multiple stab wounds the wearer was also suffering at the time of his demise. I’m not convinced.

    As pretty much the most vehemently anti-3D guy on the forum, I will let you know how this goes. I won’t say I’m exactly going into the film with an open mind, but… we’ll see what happens.

    But if I happen to develop a third eye in the middle of my forehead as a result of this, I will be saying “I told you so” for at least a month. Expect me to be insufferable. I’m warning you now.

  101. “and a sudden sensation of weightlessness generally manifesting around the area of the wallet.”

    Paul – That’s hilarious. Seriously good thing I wasn’t drinking soup when I read that.

    Anyway I had been careful in my wallet weightlifting when it comes to ordering those Judge Dredd Case Files, but I said fuck it and decided to splurge for Volume 5.

    Volume 5 of course contains “Block Wars” and “Apocalypse War.”

    Hell. yes.

  102. OK I know most of you all don’t give two shits about superheroes or comic book movies or whatever. (Well Broddie likes the books, but movies not so much.)

    But regardless, Vern recently somewhere did mention how anymore such movies try to please fans and try usually to give them what they want, or expect really with such adaptations. Or in essence, try to capture an idea, a taste of why such titles/characters were popular with people in the first place.

    We’ve had four comic book adaptations this year (to my knowledge), and I’ve liked them all and they all fit that criteria I mentioned above. Sure I would even risk Fred Topel’s neverending rage this side of AsimovLives and say I think DREDD is the weakest of the bunch, weaker than even AMAZING SPIDER-MAN (I still don’t get the stupid Internet hatred at that one) if only by a nosehair, but still pretty f’n good.

    We are living in a golden age for such movies, and you know what the irony is? DREDD might be the most positively received by its fans. Sure AVENGERS pleased the Marvel folks, though some now are crying racism at Marvel for why they didn’t do a Black Panther movie instead of that Guardians of the Galaxy picture. Sure TDKR was positively received even if you have a vocal minority who hated it simply because Batman was too Batman-rific by escaping from his hell hole back to Gotham within 24 hours. (Yet these people never ask how those special forces guys got in in the first place.) And well, to say ASM had a polarizing reception would be an understatement. (Anybody who says ASM is “Batman & Robin”-esque obviously hasn’t seen “Batman & Robin” recently.)

    But the 2000 AD fanbase, they were overall generally supportive throughout DREDD’s development and have really liked it, at least from the random forum samples I’ve read. They’ve embraced it, even if the rest of the mainstream apparently can’t give a shit. Sure many wished the environment was more satirical wacky, but that’s more like on the level of “Oh I wish we got that too!” and not like a real severe criticism.

    I find this fucking fascinating, this contrast in fandom reactions. Maybe one reason might be that some groups have lost focus, not seeing the forests for the trees, that sort of context gone when maybe some folks have become fat, entitlted little bitches.

    And then 2000 AD Fans, they’re apparently just happy that a decent movie of their hero/universe was produced after JUDGE DREDD. In a way they sorta remind me of how Batman fans felt after B&R. Definately food for thought.

    Larry – you comparing (unintentionally) RE with HALLOWEEN might be the most depressing thing I’ve seen all day that doesn’t involve commercials begging for donations for hungry kids in Africa inbetween my sports highlight programs.

  103. Rehydrated Dehydrated Pirate Paul

    September 28th, 2012 at 11:43 am

    RRA – thanks very much, glad I give you a smile anyway. :)

    As for your second post though: I don’t think TDKR was positively received, and I don’t think the “vocal minority” are even close to being a minority. My own opinion of it was that even if you disregard the massive technical problems that plague it, it’s Nolan’s worst movie by a country mile; containing a shedload of problems with character, internal logic and story construction that I never for a moment expected to come across from the guy who directed “The Dark Knight”, “Memento” and “Inception”. I know that while some people did like it, a lot of people on this forum alone share my opinion – just look at the comments to Vern’s review – and a helluva lot more reviewers on other sites did also. And if you honestly think “Dredd” is worse than TDKR, then I really hope I end up disagreeing with you, otherwise this is not going to be a fun cinema trip!

    I’m fascinated though… as apparently the only male under the age of forty on the entire Internet who didn’t grow up with comic books, and indeed has never so much as leafed through one – does that make me a neutral party in the whole comic book movies debate? Sorta like Switzerland? Or does my considering – for example – Captain America’s repeated attempts to kill himself over the course of two films as the result of less heroic self-sacrifice and more suicidal mania, make me a nut whose opinion can’t be trusted?

  104. “Sure TDKR was positively received even if you have a vocal minority who hated it simply because Batman was too Batman-rific by escaping from his hell hole back to Gotham within 24 hours. (Yet these people never ask how those special forces guys got in in the first place.) ”
    Well on point one, when I saw the movie a second time I paid attention and the “we’ve only got 24 hours left” scene came AFTER he got out of said hell hole, so no actual foul there. The second one, the Special Forces were posing as either medics or people delivering supplies into the city(which Bane’s forces were allowing).

    One more nerd thing: Volume 5 of that case file also has the second Judge Death story.

  105. Sorry but to say the least, I disagree with alot of the pickyness over TDKR. Except maybe that it did drag here and there, which it did but not the dealbreaker it was for some folks. Off-topic, but if ALIEN and STAR WARS came out today, people would criticize them both for being too slow. (And before locals get upset, no TDKR isn’t as good as those two. Oh no. Not by a long shot.)

    The vibe I got was TDKR was liked if not as much as TDK (I would have to agree) and sure people criticized elements of it, but that’s not the same as I HATE IT or it pissed me off or they’re still talking about how pissed they are about it like they are with ASM.) I think TDKR’s problem was hype, remember people openly speculating that it could earn a Best Picture Oscar nod and like even beat the AVENGERS box-office? Yeah silly shit like that didn’t help the movie any.

    Or more specifically, Nolan’s problem was this: Either you die a hero filmmaker, or you live long enough to be called overrated by the same fanbase. I wouldn’t be surprised if MAN OF STEEL gets killed by the fan community next summer. Just saying. Then DC will be producing Marvel-lite movies, or more GREEN LANTERNs on the horizon.

    Of course maybe I’m more mellow unlike the Internet because guess what, I remember as a kid when BATMAN RETURNS was generally despised and BATMAN FOREVER was considered “good” because it wasn’t as dark or grim or insane (or as awesome) as BR. Even as a kid I thought BR was good despite the hatred it got. The critical reception has reversed in subsequent decades. I suspect TDKR will calm down after a few years, of course I thought the same with PUNISHER: WAR ZONE and it’s still despised so what do I know?

    I can’t pick between TDKR or AVENGERS, both were great summertime spectacles, if approaching the same finish line by different approaches with different goals. It’s Ham vs Beef as far as I’m concerned. (And yet nerds all just want sausage sausage sausage with their movies, that’s why I prefer a deli for superhero movies. DREDD was a great Philly cheesesteak sandwich.) I would rank TDKR/AVENGERS in a tie, followed by ASM (which as a local said it best, it was a decent competent Spider-Man movie) and then DREDD, by a nose hair.

    Oh and Paul, me and Vern don’t always agree in case you don’t realize. I enjoyed DOOMSDAY (Mr. Majestyk did as well), Vern hated it. ‘Nuff said.

    As movies go regarding DREDD, I personally thought TDKR had more to offer with higher goals. It was a highly sophisticated, great summertime spectacle, great actors mostly given great shit to work with. DREDD is a straight, honest to God action movie in the classical traditional sense without more lofty (or pretentious) ambitions, and that’s fine because it was pretty good at what it strived to be. I do admire it going R-rated, at a time when R-rating is Kryptonite for your box-office apparently, and that it wasn’t trying to please everybody and not being a lunchbox commercial.

    I mean who gives a shit if I personally liked DREDD more or less than TDKR? I liked them all. I’ll pay for their bar tab.

  106. Stu – Thanks for the clarification. I brought that complaint up because at another message board I visit that is more cinemaphilic and really allergic (to say it nicely) against action movies, well they banged that “24 hour” drum for all its worth. These are the same people who claim blockbusters are murdering the movies (haven’t they said that since the mid-70s?) until they see one that they do like and in true Pauline Kael fashion, it’s now A-OK.

    RE: Judge Dredd Case Files 5 – Really stu? NICE. VERY NICE.

    “I’m fascinated though… as apparently the only male under the age of forty on the entire Internet who didn’t grow up with comic books, and indeed has never so much as leafed through one – does that make me a neutral party in the whole comic book movies debate? Sorta like Switzerland? Or does my considering – for example – Captain America’s repeated attempts to kill himself over the course of two films as the result of less heroic self-sacrifice and more suicidal mania, make me a nut whose opinion can’t be trusted?”

    No more trusted or untrusted than any movie based off a book I never read (and probably never will) like THE GIRL WITH THE DRAGON TATTOO or all those HARRY POTTER movies.

    When you’re in that situation, what can you do but grade the movie on its own level and not worry about adaptation worries?

    Hell funny story: Today at Wal-Mart, bought IT from the bargain DVD bin. Not seen it since I was a kid. Will it hold up or not? Never read that 1000 page Stephen King book nor do I give a shit really.

    It’s interesting you brought up that fandom question Paul: I was amused with all the nerds online who whined after the GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY movie was announced at how they never heard of it. A weird feeling they’re sharing that most folks in general hold I suppose for most comic book characters that aren’t Batman or Spider-Man or whatever.

    Funny enough there was a rumor reported about a Warner Bros. marketing team recently allegedly going into a California comic shop and quizzing the people there, to get a grasp of the landscape of fandom, straight from the cheetos-stained horses mouth. (If you’re not into comics, it makes sense right?)They asked questions like would comic book fans support a DC movie that Nolan isn’t involved with or would they want to see Aquaman in a JL movie, you know shit like that.

    Then (allegedly again) the team started laughing, mocking fun of Wright’s upcoming ANT-MAN because of the name and concept and were quite surprised and stunned to find the fans there were actually up for an Ant-Man movie.

    And I can totally relate to both sides there in that situation. Will I ever read FIFTY SHADES OF GRAY? No. Will I see the movie? Only if we get a porno-chic revival.

  107. Vern – you speak Batman?

  108. I hear that if you look in the mirror and say Batman’s name five times in a row, a dozen nerds show up out of nowhere and hijack all of your conversations for the rest of the night.

  109. Rehydrated Dehydrated Pirate Paul

    September 28th, 2012 at 1:58 pm

    RRA – I have passive-aggressive parent syndrome when it comes to TDKR. I’m not mad, I’m just disappointed. Hey, it wasn’t as bad as “Prometheus”.

    Vern, Griff and Majestyk – it’s a comic book movie thread, unfortunately. Hey, I’ll have more to say on Dredd after I see it on Sunday. Also Majestyk, you gave me a chortle.

  110. I appreciate a fellow who can name check Harry Potter, Stephen King, Ant-Man, Batman, and 50 Shades of Gray in one post.

    but seriously folks, this is why we have a forum.

  111. all roads lead to Batman

  112. I’m sorry Paul, if I had known you hadn’t seen DREDD I would’ve reviewed DARK KNIGHT RISES again so you could participate.

  113. The word Batman should seriously be banned here for a long while. And I’m a Batman fan but really it really is ridiculous how EVERY single comic book related convo goes in that direction.

  114. Jesus did my alter-go-Mr. Hyde unintentionally as the ninja give everybody a secret enema?

    OK I won’t mention the B word or N word or that T word with four letters (that’s really a collection of initials) unless in a review thread that’s related directly to either.

    Broddie – Funny but I noticed nobody complained about me mentioning those other movies that I namechecked. But whatever, that’s besides the point.

    Back to the point, I do find it interesting the notable people online who on Twitter defended DREDD. Duncan Jones quite liked it, as did Mark Millar who just hired by Fox…

    Oh wait, that’s off-topic again, right? Nevermind. Just know some people more famous than us (with exception of Vern) liked it and make me and others feel more righteous.

    Mr. Majestyk – but back to point, you seen DREDD yet? Your leadership is necessary at this moment.

  115. also, “secret enema” sounds like a college prog/art rock band.

    Stu – I quite liked that crossover, though I’ve unfortunately not got around to reading Dredd/ALIENS.

  116. RRA: Batman is just not the hero we need right now.

    Also, going to the movies is a massive pain in the ass and I only do it when I’m 110% psyched about a movie. DREDD sounds good but not “$18.50 after 3D surcharge” good. It can wait for DVD.

    Now that you mention it hardly anything sounds “$18.50 after 3D surcharge” good. I’m basically at the point in my life where I try to avoid activities that require special clothing, and those 3D goggles qualify. You pay extra money to ooh and aah over the opening credits and then you forget the extra D is even there and you’re stuck with a dingy image and some plastic novelty glasses pinching your temples. If it doesn’t have “Avatar” or “Jackass” in the title, my policy is to stick with your standard dual Ds.

    I’d rather see LOOPER anyway.

  117. Majestyk – sorry to hear that you can’t get to DREDD in just plain old fashion (and better) 2D apparently.

    Oh and I hope LOOPER does good. I’ve heard good things, and plus I don’t want another (apparently) quality action/sci-fi release to get screwed over by an apathetic movie mainstream crowd.

    DREDD already out of the Top 10 is just depression on steroids for me.

  118. Yeah it’s difficult to find it in 2D here in NYC. I was actually gonna check it out since you guys keep insisting that it’s definitely worth it but all I found was 3D showings which at the lowest (matinee price) is $13.50. So I guess I’m gonna go see LOOPER instead because I’d only have to pay less than half the price of the DREDD 3D ticket to go see it and I’ve always been into sci-fi Bruce (12 MONKEYS anyway the one with the fake body avatars not so much).

  119. Yeah, I highly recommend LOOPER. My (non-spoiler) review’s in the forum. I liked it enough it made me go order BRICK online.

  120. Rehydrated Dehydrated Pirate Paul

    September 29th, 2012 at 10:58 am

    Vern – Please redirect your snark, because to misquote Green Day, “I didn’t start the fire”. **Looks accusingly at RRA.**

    I will see “Looper” as soon as it comes out over here (which could actually be now, I haven’t checked the cinema times for it).

    It is exactly twenty four hours, almost to the minute, before the showing of “Dredd 3D” that I’m going to see tomorrow starts playing. If somebody wants to start a countdown, that’s fine by me.

  121. Paul – You quoted Green Day on this website? You’re sentenced to a hour in the IsoCubes.

  122. To be fair he “misquoted” the unmentionables. Even that is reason enough to send him to Devil´s Island if you know what I mean. Please come quietly,creep!

  123. @Stu: Where in the Forum is your Looper review? I couldn’t locate it.

    I saw Looper last night. Good movie; very well thought-out and equally well acted. Fine balance between the action and the more somber, introspective moments. Even after seeing this, and TDKR (finally) two days earlier, and Inception, and 500 Days Of Summer… I cannot understand why certain people kick up a fuss over Joseph Gordon-Levitt. He strikes me as a competent actor, but it ends there. Nice to see Bruce Willis in Toned Down Mode, something IMO he does much better now than (for instance) his pair of films with M. Night Shyamalan.

    My personal blurb for the eventual DVD case: “Looper is the tits, even if Piper Perabo’s are too damn small!” [watch & see].

  124. https://outlawvern.com/forum/the-films-of-cinema/looper/
    “You’ll be Loopy for this one! Levittate to it now, before you lose the Willis to live!”

  125. @Stu: To humbly respond:

    “I’m American, honey… our names don’t mean shit”.

    Au revoir, Butch.

  126. Carefull, I Bruce easily!

  127. The Original... Paul

    September 30th, 2012 at 1:36 pm

    [SPOILERS FOLLOW]

    So six people with three miniguns go after three targets. They know what floor of a building those targets are on, and rake the floor with armour-piercing shells, eventually managing to kill every living soul on the floor APART from the ones they were actually aiming at. WORST KILLERS EVER.

    …And that is pretty much all I have to say because I agree with pretty much everybody on this film. Very good action movie, well-filmed, well-scripted. It sets out with a simple goal and accomplishes it very well. My only bugbear is, why didn’t we see more of Ma Ma? She’s nothing more than a backstory and an attitude. What’s driving her now, how’d everybody come to be so afraid of her? I don’t know. It’s a pity because Lena Headey does a great job in this film and I wish she’d had a bit more to work with to flesh out her character.

    Oh, and the character who looked like the most irritating person in the movie from the trailers? Wasn’t. I liked the rookie character. Again, the actress playing her does a great job.

    One point on the philosophy of the movie: What little I know of the Dredd mythos is that he’s a satire of the militarised police state ideal. I don’t know if that perception is wrong or that it was simply abandoned in this film, because here that whole idea is turned on its head by a) having a psychic among the Judges (thereby instantly ruling out the question of “did the Judge get it wrong” – in one scene, Anderson identifies a killer “99%” just from meeting him, whereas in another she identifies a guy who would otherwise have been ruled a felon as a “victim” and lets him go), and b) showing the main danger of the law system to be corrupt judges – the ones who’ve stepped outside of their boundaries – not the ones who stay within those boundaries and dispense justice as part of the accepted order of things. It’s not the system that’s defective or corrupt, it’s a few people within it (and those few are easily dealt with. With bullets.)

    *

    As for the 3D: well it sure as hell hasn’t gotten any better since I’ve last donned 3D glasses. It was distracting, annoying, and I constantly felt as though something was “wrong” with my perception. I don’t know if it was a result of the 3D or the filmmaking but the backgrounds frequently seemed very blurred. (The fact that I had to wear the 3D glasses over my normal glasses probably didn’t help.) Things were constantly shifting “in and out”, even within the same scene – one moment a figure would be part of the background, the next he’d be “in my face”. Going into the film my question was: would the 3D really make any difference to the experience, at least one worth an extra five pounds? Well, it did: it made it worse. Didn’t take too much away from what was a very solid, fun action movie, but I wish I’d had the chance to see it in 2D.

  128. Paul – your complaint against the villain is very fair, I would’ve liked more but then again I liked how the camera focuses on her looking at her nerd henchman, giving off that charisma of don’t-fuck-with-me violent authority that villains of that sort need to work without actually working with much. Funny she’s like the movie overall, good we could’ve had more but not too little.

    And that whole mini-gun sequence, I’m reminded really of PREDATOR when you have a nuclear explosion, yet it can’t cook Arnold when he behinds a good tree trunk. Aliens, your nukes suck.

  129. Also Paul, I do appreciate you actually going to see this in spite of the 3-D you had to sit through.

    I just find it fucked up that in a world when a boring “actioneer” like BOURNE LEGACY limped its way to $100 million domestically, DREDD never stood a chance.

  130. The Original... Paul

    September 30th, 2012 at 3:32 pm

    RRA – Bourne wasn’t that bad, it just lost it at the ending and the total miscasting of Edward Norton. In my review I said it was “worth seeing” and I stand by that. Definitely it wasn’t as satisfying as “Dredd” was though. Without wanting to bring up the dreaded “B” word, I find it interesting that the three comic-book movies I’ve seen this year have all had very different levels of ambition in terms of the vision they had, and that that level seemed to be inversely proportional to their ability to execute that vision well. Dredd had modest ambitions but, in my opinion, very good execution.

    As for the 3D angle, I honestly feel like I sold out. It’s annoying because I want to support this movie – more now that I’ve seen it and found that unsurprisingly, yes, it is really good. But I don’t want to make the 3D thing seem profitable to the execs.

    It’s the first – and going on my experience today, probably the last – full-length movie I’ve seen in 3D. I remember there was this really bizarre argument in one of the Potpourri threads where I pointed out my scepticism of 3D, but I don’t think I quite made it clear that I’d seen some 3D, just not a full-length movie of it. The result was a couple of people saying “You can’t judge 3D before you’ve even seen a 3D movie”. Which is kinda like saying that, no, you can’t say you don’t like to eat dog shit when you’ve only eaten chihuahua shit, you have to eat a Great Dane’s shit to find out if you REALLY like it. (This is not an argument I’ve ever had in real life, by the way.)

  131. The Original... Paul

    September 30th, 2012 at 3:41 pm

    I agree with your point, though. Substitute “Bourne Legacy” for any one of a hundred other terrible films that did much better than “Dredd” and I’d agree with you.

    Here’s a bit of irony though. Remember the “Resident: Evil” comparisons that were made earlier on? Well, I spoke to one of the staff in the multiplex after “Dredd”. He said it (“Resident Evil”) made a lot of money on the first week but absolutely tanked after that, losing (he said) over 70% of its previous customers.

  132. Paul – BL was a real disapointment for me. I liked Gilroy’s other movies, but now you wonder about all that shit Greengrass and Damon had been saying about him. Too bogged down by dull, uninteresting plot upon plot set-up, and not enough action (or good enough I suppose) to plow through that murk. (consider how DREDD was light on plot, heavy on action.)

    We may disagree on the other spandex/funny pages movies, but I think I might have to agree with you on DREDD regarding ambitions vs abilities to reach them. I’m almost reminded of when Gene Siskel gave CLASS OF 1999 thumbs up back in the day, saying “it had modest goals but it reached them.”

    That could easily be construed as a backhanded compliment, but I think it’s accurate and good that DREDD does do a good job. Funny I am now actually reminded of CLASS OF 1999 now that I’m thinking about it.

    Sadly DREDD didn’t have a scene with Dredd spanking a juvenile delinquent in front of his classmates. That might’ve improved its box office chances.

  133. I’m not a huge fan of 3D but it’s pretty obvious that some movies make better use of it than others. Judging it based on one movie (or even a few) makes about as much sense as basing your opinon of CGI or even cinematoraphy on your experience with one movie. It’s all just pointing a camera at something, right?

  134. Paul – I was going to say EXPENDABLES 2 instead of BL since I needed a recent action released hit that wasn’t a superhero movie, but I actually sorta enjoyed EXPENDABLES 2, even gave it a recommendation grade at another website I frequently visit. Even though lets be honest, action movies go, DREDD blows EXPENDABLES 2 out of the water.

    Anyway your anecdote about RE sounds quite believable, considering such movies with faithful niche audiences are notoriously front-loaded. (They don’t exactly have much crossover mainstream appeal.)

    But really, call me naive, but I really thought DREDD would do your typical business expected of a Luc Besson production. Not great business, but enough that a sequel would’ve been quite possible.

  135. You can buy glasses that turn 3D movies into 2D ones, if you want to see something that’s only screening that way and can tolerate the extra ticket price:
    http://www.2d-glasses.com/
    Re- the justice system. I don’t think that the idea is that the system is corrupt, so much that it’s falls far short of being ideal, or even all that effective. There’s also a real indication of “missing the point” at times with how the law is applied, like when they threaten a homeless man with…putting him in a safe environment indoors where he can sleep and will be fed for a few weeks.
    I’ve also heard that the opening scene ended differently originally, but they reshot it. Instead of the Hotshot thing, the perp would have been running through a crowd, and Dredd would have just shot THROUGH someone to take him out, then tell the injured bystander”You’ll live, it’s just a flesh wound”. Hopefully a version of that’ll be on the DVD.

  136. Is there still a chance it could be enough of a seller with DVD to get a sequel made though?

  137. The Original... Paul

    September 30th, 2012 at 4:25 pm

    Mouth – if I thought it was a bad USE of the technique then I’d agree with you. I don’t think that that’s where the problem lies though. I have three problems with 3D: it’s overpriced when compared to its competition (2D films), it has no real function except as a gimmick to sell a ticket for the same product for more money, and as a form of technology that you can use to view films it’s inferior to 2D.

    Well #1 won’t change any time soon; there hasn’t been a single review of or comment on a 3D movie, on this or any other site, that’s convinced me that #2 is wrong; and #3 depends on whether the fault for my bad experience was with the film itself or with the technology used to view it. And given that the complaints I’ve listed are the exact same ones as I’ve seen from other people talking about other movies, I’m guessing it’s not the film itself that’s at fault.

    Now it might very well be to do with the fact that I have to wear normal glasses underneath the 3D ones, which is also something I’ve read online. But if that’s the case, how does that help me? I’m one of the millions of people who don’t (in fact, can’t) wear contact lenses; if I take my glasses off, I can’t see what’s going on, regardless of what dimension it’s supposed to be in!

  138. Man, I hate this movie. Everybody loves this thing and I can´t see what´s good in it. I read several Dredd comics when I was a teen, and those comics were crazy and blood comedy. I found this movie boring and humorless. Punisher: War Zone was funnier and “bloodier” than Dredd 3D, and everybody hated it. I just can´t understand that.

  139. The Original... Paul

    October 1st, 2012 at 11:17 am

    Damn, I can’t believe there’s a lone dissenting voice on this film. Who isn’t me.

    Anyway…

    El V, I see your point. This definitely didn’t feel like my “idea” of a Dredd movie – I thought there’d be a lot more satire and a bit more blood (although the movie wasn’t exactly free of the red stuff). That said… I think more blatant comedy would’ve hurt the movie. We don’t need another Rob Schneider version of Dredd.

    To put it another way, I agree on the “humorless” part, but I found it pretty gripping throughout. I guess it’s a case of, what expectations do you come into the movie with, and what buttons do you want it to “push”? It evidently didn’t push the right buttons for you. I can sympathise. It seems like every year there’s at least one movie that I just don’t “get” the way that everybody else does. This year it was “Young Adult”.

    Ah well, sorry you didn’t enjoy it.

  140. EV – You didn’t laugh at Urban’s oneliners?

    “Where’s your helmet?”
    “It intefered with my psychic powers.”
    “I think a bullet to the head would intefere more.”

    (Quotes may be paraphrased to make them even more awesome.)

    “Punisher: War Zone was funnier and “bloodier” than Dredd 3D, and everybody hated it.”

    Bullshit, I liked WAR ZONE.

    The problem could be bias. God knows how many UK reviewers grew up Dredd fans and felt like their hero was redeemed on the big screen. Punisher, doesn’t exactly have that sort of fanbase from my experience.

  141. I know the problem is mine, because almost everybody -including Vern and a lot you guys, people who I respect (no sarcasm here)- like this movie. It’s kind of weird, but I found the movie really boring. What´s next, a realistic and serious Lobo? The oneliners… well, Alex Garland is not Shane Black.

    Anyway, these year I feel like an alien, because I really loved John Carter.

  142. (As always, forgive my English)

  143. Vincento – I guess I’m an anal probing alien too because I also enjoyed JOHN CARTER. I guess that makes me a punk rebel outsider around these parts. (Or not.)

    Also don’t apologise for your English. After Asimovlives, we can’t be that picky.

    “What´s next, a realistic and serious Lobo?”

    Knowing WB? Don’t be surprised.

  144. Vern wrote:
    Even when [Dredd] gets to the inevitable (SPOILER) Clint-acknowledging-respect-for-Tyne-Daly-in-THE-ENFORCER moment he has a long pause, says it in three words behind her back and then walks away. He lets her believe she’s failed and doesn’t need the satisfaction of seeing her happiness when she finds out otherwise. She doesn’t get a chance to bond with him and if she’s touched by the gesture we don’t get to see it. It’s character growth in such a tiny increment that it makes it more convincing. The ol’ BAD SANTA maneuver.

    It’s also a double entendre. Rookie Anderson was sure that she failed, but didn’t care because she no longer wanted to be a Judge. The irony at the end is that Dredd seems to *not* fail her, deeming her qualified by saying, “She’s a pass.” However, this phrase also could be interpreted as “She’s passing on this shit job; it’s not for her.” Clever!

    I enjoyed DREDD 3D thoroughly. I agree with most of the positive reviews & comments here, even the ones that mention Batman.

    No movie this year so far can fuck with PUNISHER: WAR ZONE, though; good try, DREDD 3D, especially that one scene where Dredd maybe coulda shot across the width of the building at the main bad guy and her giant Old Painless but instead tossed a guy over the cliff and walked intimidatingly away in the smoke like a badass, like a disturbingly righteous version of a slasher film’s near-unstoppable killer. Suddenly the scarfaced Ma Ma seemed like the helpless, hopeless victim (right after she had unloaded a comical number of high caliber bullets at dozens of innocents!). Effective, fun, intense filmatism.

    Good scene, that, especially since it tied into his earlier proposed option to “attack” when the rookie suggested more defensive strategies. I don’t hold that against her, though; she redeemed herself by fucking with/up Avon Barksdale. I would’ve enjoyed even more “inside the mind” stuff, but hey I’m happy with what I got because how many movies even give you a little bit of psychic inner-mind material? Not enough, that’s how many.

    I gotta thank RRA for that link way upthread. PWZ is one of those things that just the mention of it gives me this uncontrollable child-high-on-grandpa’s-ole-cough-medicine toothy grin, this warm inner glow that reminds me of the best of ridiculous action cinema. When I simply see the words “PUNISHER: WAR ZONE” anywhere on one of my computer monitors, I instantly react with a rush of fond memories and an intense desire to WATCH IT AGAIN RIGHT NOW OH MY GOD WHERE’S THAT AWESOME GIF HERE IT IS http://thechive.files.wordpress.com/2010/11/parkour_interception.gif LET ME PUT IT ON LOOP FOR INFINITY. What could be better?

  145. I actually only saw this movie because I had a movie pass expiring Sept. 30 and wanted to get the most use out of it by seeing a 3D movie, and Dredd 3D seemed to get the best reviews for use of 3D of any of the movies out that day. (Still kicking myself for not getting to ASM 3D in time…) Anyway, I only thought it was a decent action movie, but did I respect what you pointed out: that’s a movie almost devoid of backstory, just another day in the life of a Judge. This may be the only time anyone will ever make this comparison, but in that sense it reminds me of a Robert Altman movie, The Company, about – wait for it – a ballet company. The movie swoops in without really introducing any of the characters or giving you much exposition, you spend time with them, and then you leave them as their lives continue. On some level, I think that lack shows respect for the audience, in that if you want more, you have to come up with it yourself. Anyway, I found this website when I was searching for discussion of the Jaws 4 tagline, and I’m glad I did. You got yerself a new reader.

  146. Thanks Rick. I always knew the Jaws 4 tagline would get me places. I like the Robert Altman comparison.

  147. I agree that the whole “world is at stake” thing has become a crutch devoid of any real stakes. What’s so great about tv today is they deal with stories that don’t have to be earth shattering, just need to be interesting. Fate of the world just limits you to the same old thing. I hope more screenwriters discover the spectrum of storytelling between boring and the world blows up. Very glad this group appreciates it though.

  148. Ace Mac Ashbrook

    October 6th, 2012 at 2:03 pm

    Got to see this just before it went off my local cinema. Loved it. Thanks for the Clint reference Vern. I’d have given this a miss if I hadn’t read your review. I just watched Lock Out too, well worth a watch if you haven’t yet.

  149. Two articles I found today I liked and worth reading.

    “Do Yourself a Favor and See Dredd 3D Instead of Taken 2”

    http://gawker.com/5949128/do-yourself-a-favor-and-see-dredd-3d-instead-of-taken-2

    “Why Dredd 3D gets women in comics right”

    http://www.newstatesman.com/blogs/culture/2012/10/why-dredd-3d-gets-women-comics-right

    As I said before elsewhere, I’ve not seen TAKEN 2 but really honestly I have little trouble believing that it isn’t as good as DREDD.

  150. I liked what this guy at CBM message boards argued this should’ve been used instead for the teaser trailer, make a point of how this “comic book movie” aint like the rest:

    He can’t fly.

    He can’t climb walls.

    His parents weren’t murdered.

    He doesn’t have an alter-ego.

    He is the law.

    You can’t a problem with that, creep?

    http://www.comicbookmovie.com/fansites/nailbiter111/news/?a=68327#48LuuoHvKe358FDF.99

  151. I’ve just finished reading NEVER LET ME GO by Kazuo Ishiguro. Now I’m excited to see the film version scripted by this DREDD 3D writer.

    It never got a lotta pub that I noticed, but there’s a pretty serious, disparate gaggle of critics who claim it’s one of the best movies of the past several years.

    Vern says here the movie of NEVER LET ME GO is “excellent.” I say the book is “okay, kinda boring, like a less flowery Virginia Woolfe-ian emotional study with a sci-fi hook that is only occasionally successfully engrossing.”

    I’m posting this here for now because I want to avoid the spoilery Vern review that I just googled and don’t remember existing b/c I must have been out of the country or something when it posted (yeah, I know, that’s weird that I’m avoiding a movie review since I already read the book, but I don’t know if the movie is wildly different from the paper version, maybe Keira Knightley uzis everyone dead at the end due to Hollywood!) and I want to remind people to go see DREDD 3D in the theatre if that’s still possible where you live.

    In conclusion, I apologize for telling people to go to the multiplex on Video Store Day.

  152. You know even though I refuse to call the movie by it, there’s something funny and charming about calling a movie with “3-D” in the title. I guess technically FRIDAY THE 13TH PART 3-D is its proper title, even though I’ve never refered to it by that.

    Someday I hope we can get 3-D at the movies and on TV without those glasses. C’mon scientists, get on it!

  153. I rented DREDD this past weekend, watched it, and was immediately pissed that I didn’t see it in the theater.

    Maybe this will have a second life on home video and amass a cult following, similar to ESCAPE FROM NEW YORK. Then, years later, a sequel will be made. And Dredd will surf alongside (then) aging counter-culture icon Trent Reznor.

  154. I also watched it last weekend and liked it a lot. Good, clear action, lots of gruesome moments, a lack of sentimentality, a believable sci-fi world, in and out without a lot of excess baggage. More like this, please.

  155. For comic book purists, there is quite a lot to complain about if you are after a by the book adaption. I was surprised of how much more of a dystopian world compared to 2000 A.D original it really was.

    One thing I liked was how they got the character back to the original concept;judge,jury and executioner that was part at an early stage but later removed the executioner part because it did not fit the tone ( or whatever). But it really works in this grim gritty fuckedup shithole of a city and the tone of the movie.

    But I don´t think it´s as good as some people make it out to be. Its no THE RAID. But its good and Karl Urban is a way better Joe Dredd than Sly.

  156. Only thing wrong with it is that there should’ve been an extra action scene right at the end before they confront Ma-Ma. After the heroes reload their weapons and utter a line like “Let’s finish this!” you expect a bit more than them walking into a room, shooting three guys who run straight into their bullets and then ending things with Ma-Ma in under 3 seconds. Should’ve let her main henchman live until the end for a big fight, instead of getting rid of him so easily halfway through the movie.

    But that really is my only gripe, that there seems to be something missing at the end. Besides that, absolutely fantastic film and one of my favs of the year. I even rank it higher than The Raid.

  157. I read an interesting interview wherein Alex Garland voiced his general outline for a possible trilogy (that will now most likely never happen) and it looked like he was all about going closer into the 2000AD mythos and broadening the narrative a bit, even clarifying that he wanted to eventually introduce Judge Death by the third outing. It sounded like a cool way to handle the character, a cinematic slow-burn to reach the more fantastic aspects of the comics.

    I’d definitely place the viscious hand-to-hand combat of THE RAID above DREDD’s meager fisticuffs, but I really did enjoy DREDD’s kind of detached/matter-of-fact brutality. But since the gamble didn’t pay off, then we’ll never know just how good (or not) the rest of the vision could have been.

    Until someone makes another DREDD movie in 10 or 15 years.

  158. Everybody just buy 5 copies of the blu-ray, that should help

  159. The peeps behind DREDD have indicated that there’s a slim chance that the trilogy may still happen if the BD/DVD sales are (ho ho) mega.

    Saw this again last night on Blu and loved it even more than the first time I saw it. Seeing it in 2D meant I couild actually watch the damn thing properly and there’s some amazing shots in there – namely, some of the slo-mo effects. Great stuff and totally faithful to the source material.

    So yeah, do as Mike A says.

  160. BD playback issues being reported – something to do with having both 3D and 2D versions on the one disc are sending a lot of BD players into overdrive resulting in the film not playing.

    So proceed with caution.

  161. No problem here karlos, watched the 3D version on the PS3 without incident on release day. I didn’t notice any complaints in the http://highdefdigest.com review unlike the one for Total Recall (2012) where I experienced the same audio glitch as everyone else. Is the Dredd issue being reported as problematic on certain players or a general issue?

  162. Clubside – It’s mostly being reported as not playing correctly or not loading on PS3s but also on a few makes of BD player, most notably Sony and LG.

    My copy played fine – until I tried to rewatch and it freezes now. This is on a Curtis player, which are now extinct as a model.

    Think it’s all down to the 3D and 2D not living together in harmony on the same disc.

    Had no idea there was something up with the TOTAL RECALL BD! I was gonna get that, too!

  163. Yeah, the TOTAL RECALL 2012 disc has a massive amount of branching for the two versions. Of course SALT branches even more so that’s hardly an excuse but anyway there are a number of spots where the audio goes out of sync as reported in the High Def Digest review and comments. It only happened to me once and just rewinding for less than a second resumed with the audio fixed.

    I haven’t run DREDD through VidCoder yet but I’ll be curious if the 3D/2D versions are the same m2ts file with an overlay or if they are just layer separated. If they are distinct playlists the bug wouldn’t make much sense.

  164. Thanks for the heads up on the TR BD, Clubside. If the glitch is easily fixable then I’ll still pick it up.

    I also wonder if the 2 versions of DREDD are indeed the same file? I also noticed a few instances where the picture became almost unwatchable for a few seconds – maybe just my player.

  165. Good news, the film’s doing really well on home video:
    http://uk.ign.com/articles/2013/01/23/dredd-3d-prevails-in-the-home-video-market
    So if this doesn’t get us a sequel, then at least the movie has found an audience it deserves to.

  166. Yeah, AICN posted this article today that makes me hope (against hope) that a sequel might happen.

    http://www.aintitcool.com/node/60482

    Quick everyone, buy the Blu Ray for yourself or someone you love.

    Also, my 2D/3D Blu plays fine on my Panasonic and the PS3.

  167. Loved “Dredd”, prefered it to the ridiculously overrated “The Raid”. A film that had a stiff leading Actor, and a silly heavy.

  168. I wish they’d do a fan-edit with the alternate music.
    http://www.xaydungchongtham.com.vn/

  169. 2000AD are going to do a comic sequel:

    http://uk.ign.com/articles/2013/04/11/dredd-3d-sequel-comic-teased

    And speaking of the comics, I recently read the first collection of the “Day of Chaos” storyline, the recent epic which deals with a group of East Meg Operatives orchestrating a retaliation for how the Apocalypse War ended 30 years ago. It’s a prelude, setting the scene with a bunch of stories putting several things in place, including an upcoming Mayoral Election after the last mayor turned out to be infamous master of disguise serial killer PJ Maybe(who’s exploits are also covered). Good stuff all around, and when the East Megs get introduced and have their first skirmish with Dredd, some grisly shit happens.

  170. There is a facebook page petitioning for DREDD sequels called Make A Dredd Sequel.

    Also.the more I watch this movie the more I like it. Finding new scenes or moments that I like all the time. I think i´ve seen it four times and I am first now REALLY loving it. I´m a bit thick that way.

  171. Interesting.

    I wonder how much money the film has made on post-theatrical formats?

  172. I suspect it must have done really well on dvd/blu-ray. I don´t think they would have considered a sequel otherwise.
    It bombed theatrically.

  173. There’s an official petition campaign going to get a sequel since Urban and Garland have been saying fans showing support is crucial to getting it greenlit:
    http://www.tinyurl.com/dreddsequel

  174. The sequel petition has 80,000 signatures.

    http://www.comicbookmovie.com/news/?a=86919

  175. Some studio executive right now: “Oh shit, 80,000 are willing to guaranteed watch another DREDD movie and I’m sure some of them will even pay money for it! Quick, get me Garland and Travis on the phone! Let’s greenlight that motherfucker!”

  176. I’m one of those 80K folks.

    Fuck, if Twohy and Vin get to do their RIDDICK movie, then I gotta believe there’s hope for another DREDD.

    Here’s a copy and paste of the email sent out by the folks (www.2000adonline.com/dreddsequel) running this petition:

    “Thank you – you’re one of more than 80,000 people have now signed the petition calling for a sequel to DREDD! The response to the petition has been just incredible and the endorsement of the owners of Judge Dredd, 2000 AD and Rebellion, has seen the numbers surpass everyone’s expectations.

    But we still need your help!

    On 18th September, we’re encouraging everyone to take part in a massive DREDD SEQUEL DAY OF ACTION – we’ve already made the moneymen who could get behind a sequel sit up and take notice by consistently keeping the DVD and Blu-Ray in the charts on Amazon and now on Netflix.

    We’re asking everyone who’s signed the petition to come together next Wednesday and drive DREDD back up the charts – if everyone who’s signed the petition bought an extra DVD or Blu-Ray (either for themselves or as a present for a friend) or rented/bought it on iTunes and Netflix it will send the loudest signal yet that WE WANT MORE DREDD!

    So spread the word that on Wednesday 18th September, you’re going to bring DREDD back into the public eye! Plus, it’s the day that the new comic book sequel comes out, with lots of media attention planned for this and the campaign.”

  177. Riddick is not half the character of Dredd. Riddick is an easily marketed “anti-hero” with synergetic products behind the character but without the same strong fanbase as Judge Dredd has.

  178. I already own the DVD, so I guess I’ll stream the movie on the 18th to join in this crusade.

  179. So Urban has been saying that there’s talks to possibly do a sequel based on the “Origins” storyline, which is a good one, but it’s REALLY damn ambitious. To do it anywhere near faithfully, it’d feature
    -two different timelines (pre-nuclear war and “present”) and three major settings (Mega City One, The Cursed Earth Desert and the pre-war cities)
    -Karl Urban in a dual role of both Dredd and Judge Fargo (who I assume would also choose to wear a helmet through most of his appearance)
    -A younger actor cast as teen Dredd, and possibly another one as Rico
    -A good actor to play Robert Booth, the last US President and the story’s primary villain, convincing as both a lunatic and charismatic enough to buy as someone who could get to that position
    -depicting nuclear war, urban rioting action and post-apocalypse action and probably an opening action scene in MC-1 (with the requisite amount of CGI, extras, sets and wardrobe that’d call for)
    -possibly more overtly sci fi stuff with Cursed Earth mutants, robots and technology, and maybe tackling the sometimes lighter tone they take with those sorts of things (the FALLOUT games are a good comparison of what the Cursed Earth is like) which the original movie didn’t really explore.
    Overall it’d have to be longer than the tight 90 minutes of the first one and cost way more money to do half-way decently.

  180. Adi Shankar’s animated Judge Dredd webseries about Judge Death has been released:
    https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLIEIzxlknp8ozNEJ4bYD4lYt4skpfqFmh
    When I saw the first screenshots and learned it was animated, I was a bit skeptical, but they pulled off a really unique and twisted adaptation.

  181. Ten years to the day since this was released, and no sequels since. It’s a goddamn shame. Development on a TV series that Urban has said he’d be interested in being involved with supposedly is ongoing, but it’s really dragging along. I hope it makes it as this has a lot going for it and is very relevant to today’s climate.

  182. Yeah, I mean, it was a good movie, but in the end it’s just another movie that blew up in the Nerdsphere but failed to catch on with general audiences. It happens.

  183. It does kind of have the vibe of a movie that has developed such a cult following that nobody remembers it was actually a major flop, like THE THING or BLADE RUNNER. Both of which earned much-delayed sequels that nobody would have thought possible around the time of their release. So it could happen.

  184. I guess Urban’s success as Billy Buther on THE BOYS has something to do with the delay here. But done properly, a series could do for the justice system what PREACHER did for religion and THE BOYS does for politics.

  185. Eh, it’s not like THE BOYS is a 22-episodes-per-year show, so unless he has a contract that forbids him from appearing in another show while he is on that one, I don’t see a problem. Especially in a time where audiences often have to wait three years for less than 10 more episodes, because the star would rather direct an independent film, then work on his first novel and finally go on tour as the keyboarder in his brother’s band.

    I would say the main reason is DREDD being a fan favourite that made even with its kinda low budget comparibly little money, so it’s hard to make business suits excited for a TV-ish show or movie sequel that both need a certain budget, if you have to answer the question: “Is there an audience for it?” with “The movie broke even and once in a while a random standup comedian says on Twitter he is a fan and gets almost 5000 likes and RTs!”

  186. Am equally disappointed DREDD never became the hit it could have been and 10 years on, hasn’t even ascended to Cult Hit status, except as a favorite among Action Junkies. It’s a rock solid effort with great performances, cool action and no narrative flab. It’s a lean, mean motherfucking adrenaline ride. Maybe the pall of the universally panned Stallone version still hung over it and a read of the script and the trailer had a lot of people going…wait didn’t we get this same move, except in Indonesian and called THE RAID?

  187. Dredd suffered from being very similar (by pure coincidence) to The Raid, which was really just a better take on the same basic plot and hit DVD in the US almost exactly one month before Dredd hit theaters. That timing is a real shame, and who knows how well Dredd could have done if it had a chance to stand on its own and not have to sort of compete with one of the biggest word-of-mouth action films to have come around in years.

  188. I think you are vastly overestimating the box office effect of the extremely narrow sliver of viewers who were a. aware of the plot of THE RAID, b. aware of the plot of DREDD, and c. thought two movies about people fighting in a building was one too many. It’s more likely that the Judge Dredd property has always been a niche thing, even within comics circles, and the only knowledge the average viewer had of it came from the terrible Sylvester Stallone movie. Throw in a hero whose face you couldn’t show in the marketing and the R-rating keeping away the 13-year-old boys who should by all rights be the film’s primary audience and it’s a miracle the movie made any money at all.

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