Stallone IS Judged Dreadful (Judge Dredd (DVD))

Member Name: blissman70

Product:	Judge Dredd (DVD)
Date:	30/03/09 (102 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: not bad opening scenes

Disadvantages: everything apart from opening scenes

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 America', where more violent conflicts are regularly being fought.
The only people who are stopping the population from complete annihilation are specially trained and heavily armed police officers known as Street Judges, who act as Judge, Jury and executioner.
One of these Judges in particular is feared by the entire criminal population and admired by many other Judges, he is the highest ranking Street Judge, with many years service... his name is Judge Dredd (Stallone) and he has his own quick style brand of justice.
But as much as Dredd is feared by the criminals he is also loathed by his superiors, who think of him as a threat to the future of Law enforcement, especially Chief Judge Griffin (Prochnow), who, with the help of Dredds 'clone' brother Rico (Assante) decide to discredit Dredd.
So with Dredd now being seen as a criminal he is sent to a prison outside the city, only for fate to intervene, allowing him to be able to try and clear his name, proving who the real criminals really are, unwittingly revealing the full truth about the future of Law enforcement in Mega City One.


** IN CONCLUSION...

OW MY GOD..! What on earth was that all about? And why did Stallone offer to take on the role as Judge Dreadful?

I usually like Stallone as an action actor, although maybe in need of some actual lessons on the vocal side of acting. The majority of his previous movies have been entertaining and filled to over flowing with everything a good movie needs... come on, think of the Rambo's, Daylight, Cliffhanger, Demolition Man, they were all filled with good action...although some other of his movies are borderline, such as Get Carter, Tango and Cash or even Cobra.
But Judge Dredd and its rather bad look into the future has to be the worst movie Stallone has put his name to...even worse than F.I.S.T., Stop or my mom will shoot and even Over the Top, (which was well Over the Top).
His acting in this movie mainly comes across as more wooden than a figurehead carved on the front of a ship, in some scenes a figurehead would have done a more convincing job.
Although you really can't blame this terrible movie on Stallone alone, if someone needs to be blamed then it must be the people who thought that bringing a comic action character like this and making a movie out of it would be a good idea. Some people should never be given that sort of power.

Anyway, enough about Stallone and his attempts at ruining his career, more about the actual movie itself...

The opening scenes do make you think that this could be one of Stallone's better action movies as it opens well, with some good futuristic action coming from the gun toting muscle man, although seeing only his wobbly mouth underneath his helmet is a comical sight indeed.
The introductory shoot out between the insane gangs and the even more insane Judges really giving you the impression that you will be in for 90 minutes of 'settee bouncing' action, especially when Dredd turns up to take control of the situation in only the way an action hero can...
But sadly, once the opening scenes pass by then this movie goes downhill quicker than a fat man on a greased up toboggan (no offence to fat men, I'm one myself). The action only coming back in patches, every so often, so do keep your eyes open because if you blink you'll miss it.
There are a few good fights scenes, but not as many as you would expect from Stallone but there is simply too much unnecessary 'padding' forced into this to make it thoroughly enjoyable rights through. Out of the 90 odd minutes on screen there is possibly fifteen to twenty minutes of what can be called 'good' entertaining action.

In all, it is like the writers took the scripts from several well known movies, stuffed them into a blender and pulped them until this diabolical attempt at an action movie seeped over the top of the jug, totally forgetting the actual comic book character with which this movie was supposed to follow.
Everything about this movie just screams 'abysmal', with a capital A... the storyline, the general acting, the scenery and even the actual costumes are a joke...
Maybe it would have been better portrayed if the powers that be had used cartoon characters or CGIs to create a splendid animation type movie instead of using actual actors, (even the Simpson's would have made this one more likeable), especially as the story line itself seems a little too far fetched even for todays audience.
This is one of them things that should have stayed confined to the pages of a comic book.

If you feel the need to be tortured for an hour and half then you can get the DVD from www.amazon.co.uk for under £4... And for this you get a few extras such as

The making of the Movie (which is more fun than the movie itself)
Some biographies from cast and crew
And an interactive menu.

Value for money..???
I could think of better things to do with my four quid.

Summary: And the Judges verdict is worse than dreadful..????