[Closed] Dredd. Any good?

hora - Member

He once wore boots two sizes too small to stop him 'thinking too much' about what he was doing.

I remember that one... Sad wee story, Dredd's mentor/senior judge recommended it to him as a way to avoid having doubts about the job. Part of the Democracy run-up maybe? He died at the end, just short of retirement, "still wearing those boots".

en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Democracy_(Judge_Dredd_storyline)#section_3

Good rereading again 🙂

I take your point, but I do so tire of "origin movies". Having the first movie as a standalone action flick is a good move I think; exploring the character would make for a good sequel.

I agree but some insight into his psychology could have added a bit more dimension although that clearly wasn't the film they were trying to make here.

Thing is, with Dredd you basically need the years of him being a **** in order for the evolution of his character to work... If you have an hour of him being a fascist then the next half hour of him being a sandal-wearing pinko will have less impact.

Though they could easily have played with the exceeding the law theme, that doesn't need so much establishing. Dredd's story's often doing the wrong things for the right reasons after all, he'd never have been a judge if he didn't think the judges are needed.

Random comment No. 42 - Brian Bolland is the best Dredd artist. That is all.

Well i watched it... I thought it was ok but too similar to the far superior The Raid!

"Friend" on FB "not a patch on the stallone version, hardly any action, crap!"

Me "you a 2000AD fan? Its pretty faithfull to that"

FBer "what's 2000AD?"
🙄

PSA - its now £5 in Sainsburys.

Its a real stark-contrast to the first Dredd movie isn't it?

I like it. Not sure I like the outfits and I do think Urban hasn't got a strong enough chin but...

It took me right back to my childhood when I was a Judge. Sly Stallone didn't.

I do think Urban hasn't got a strong enough chin

veedubba - Member
A mediocre buddy cop movie set in a towerblock.

But in fancydress.

This.

Anderson was brilliant. I thought she'd be piss-poor.

Me "you a 2000AD fan? Its pretty faithfull to that"

the art direction in the stallone version is spot on, makeup on the angel gang was brilliant shame about the rest.

I thought it was awful.

Too reliant on 3D so if you don't have that the weak story shines through. The 'mega city' was downtown South Africa with a couple of tower blocks stuck over the landscape in post production. At least the Stallone one was 'futuristic'. This did seem to have been set in the year 2000.

Urban must curse his agent for that one.

a lot of sci fi movies in the last few years have 2000ad references, from set and prop design, to story lines. looking back at some of those early progs, its easy to see how unique it all was. wish i hadn't given all of mine away. still mow i'm all growed up, i can buy this sort of stuff
[img] [/img]

Karl-Heinz Urban is my current fave action man.
I thought he stood out in this despite the bad storyline.

It was FAR from perfect but I am GLAD that they made it.

All my bloody life I'd been waiting for 'a Dredd film is being talked about' bollocks! 😆

I wish they'd do it as a tv series a la Game of Thrones instead.
It needs a lot of time to build up the environments and characters.

I haven't seen the new one, but I thought the Stallone one got a lot right even though overall it was poor.

I can't understand why they'd make it humourless, my memory of the comics was that they were quite funny. I guess they were trying to compete with Dark Knight.

I'm looking forward to seeing it though.

I can't understand why they'd make it humourless

Dredd has a couple of line.

Stallone had the chin, but was crap. The ABC warrior was excellent, Stallone's sidekick was crap. The Angels, especially Mean Machine were excellent, everything else was crap.
I thought Urban Dredd's outfit was excellent, not shiny Hollywood clean like Stallones, and the scars on his helmet just rounded the look off.
Also, his delivery of THE line sounded way better than Stallone's imitation of a performing seal. "Ma-Ma is not the law. [b]I[/b] am the law"
Actually, Urban's chin reminded me of Carlos Ezquerra's Dredd.

finally saw this last week

liked it alot

Captures the hard b*****d violent Dredd spot on. The slow motion blood splatters are straight off the page.

The thing about Dredd is it's been going so bloody long there are so many ways to do it. I mean for example I read it mostly in the early nineties and alot of the art then was these full page colour images of the city with these mahoosive curved blocks, e.g. the latter Chopper storyline (anyone notice the graffiti?), or Bladerunner but in the daylight. That's just not going to go into a film unless its got Tom bloody Cruise in it. Where as this film put me in mind of a much grittier, up close, intense, style. I noticed that Ezquerra got a big font credit up front - it's pretty faithful to him - I wonder if he liked it.

ps I liked the Stallone one too, but this is much better

Gibsons' Dredd for the win.

I thought it was poor. Very weak plot and actually quite boring for the most part. Acting was good though and there were some good scenes. I don't really get why people are saying it's faithful to the comic though. Yes, it [i]looks[/i] the same, and was very violent, but it was completely lacking in humour/satire/intelligence which are my favourite things about the comics.

completely lacking in humour/satire/intelligence

It gets a big thumbs up from me! 😀

Karl Urban was superb I reckon. Looked just like Ezquerra's Dredd, as already mentioned.
I used to be a big 2000ad (and Starlord before that) fan and was SO disappointed with the Stallone Dredd.

Very weak plot

Have you seen RAID?!!! Even weaker.

Yes but The Raid made up for that with it's stunning fights rather than just being one dull shoot-out after another. I have watched The Raid several times and would gladly see it again but I wouldn't sit through Dredd again if you paid me!

Having a weak plot is completely inexcusable when there's all the comics to fall back on. Don't get it at all.

^^^ It's madness. There are so many great stories and they come up with something so mundane?

completely lacking in humour/satire/intelligence

Dredd as a character is not funny, that is the point. The best writers got humor from his deadpan total straightness. e.g. Arrest an entire city block. There is some of that angle in this film. The Stallone one played for more laughs and that ended up being it's weak point. So its obviously difficult to get right.

A different storyline would have allowed for more satire / intelligence yes.

grown men intellectualizing bloody comics - I'm off

Utter gash. There's zero plot, zero drama, just explosion after explosion. Shite.

There's zero plot, zero drama, just explosion after explosion. AWESOME!

I don't really get why people are saying it's faithful to the comic though. Yes, it looks the same

Yeah, Stallone one looked like the comic, it just didn't feel anything like it- and let's be honest the judge costume has always been ridiculous, it looks even more ridiculous on film. Urban's Dredd doesn't look exactly like a paper judge but looks a lot more like something that might actually exist.

ScottChegg - Member

Urban must curse his agent for that one.

He loved it and was pushing for the sequels, apparently. And he got a lot of credit and visibility for the role. So, probably not. And sure, it's fair as a punter to criticise the results of the low budget but the industry knows how that works.

it's his first leading role that I can think of.
other than that I've only seen him doing low-profile heroic good guys (Lord of the Rings) and cool bad guys (Bourne Supremacy). He was the stand-out person for me in RED. But that is a particularly bad film.