Judge Dredd (DVD)

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ "In the future, one man is the law." ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The story line: The original Judge Dredd character was created by John Wagner, Pat Mills and Carlos Ezquerra in 1977 under the banner of 2000AD. This British cartoon character was an anti-hero based on his creator's own pessimistic predictions for where the world was headed. In the comics Dredd is a dark hero, this is no Superman out to save the pretty girl stuck on the railway line. The movie, released in 1995, starts in Megacity One. A huge fortified metropolis that probably started as ...  Read the complete review

The 1995 release Judge Dredd often cops a hiding from arm-chair critics for being a failed cousin of Blade Runner. Well, I've got the cleats on, and I'm going in to bat on behalf of Judge Dredd. I'm not going to swing at the idea that this film scales anywhere near the heights of Blade Runner, which is a dazzling benchmark in cinematic history, but I am going to suggest that it was never designed to. Ridley Scott's Blade Runner was spawned from Philip K. Dick's thought provoking novel "Do Androids Dream Of Electric Sheep?". Accordingly, the film was deep and meaningful as it delivered its collection of thrills and spills. It's ...  Read the complete review

So how dreadful is Judge Dreadful? Well it's not that dreadful but it's pretty dreadful, the first problem pretty obvious - Sylvester Stallone! Casting the big dumbbell as Dredd could have worked out though. Dredd is man of few words after all and as Stallone is known for his dim bulb slowness then this should have worked out. But Sly is also a dire actor and fails miserably to inject any character and energy into the role, winning the 1996 'Razzie' for this performance. It's essentially Stallone in a plastic suit. There's none of that dry ironic humor Schwarzenegger always seems to inject into this type of action film to make two dimensional characters entertaining and ...  Read the complete review

Sylvester Stallone will never be called a great actor; sure he's enjoyable, and often does a good enough job in a particular role to help us believe him, but he's so wooden and robotic, giving no depth to his performances. Well, this role is made for him! It's the future, and Judge Dredd is a police-man who can decide to kill people as and when he likes, all in the name of the law. Dredd is infamous in the city, and soon becomes the victim of a set-up where he's convicted of commiting an illegal murder. This film is based on the comic series, one I enjoyed as a kid. I have to say that they've done a good job capturing Dredd and his surroundings, and ...  Read the complete review

Director: Danny Cannon Producers: Charles Lippincott and Beau Marks. Writers: Michael De Luca and William Wisher jr Stars: Sylvester Stallone, Diane Lane, Max Von Syder, Armand Assante and Rob Schneider. Released in 1995 and given a 15 certificate, this hour and a half look into the future is based on the Judge Dredd comics '2000 AD'. ** BRIEF PLOT... It is the year 2139 and inside a massive fortress of a city, named Mega City one, people are living in fear for their lives due to the excessive violence which surrounds them. Outside the cities lies a radio-active wasteland, once called The United States of ...  Read the complete review