First question a lot of you are asking; who or what is Judge Dredd? Well in answer Judge Dredd is a British comic book series. In a dystopian future all of mankind has been wiped out except for one gigantic city. In this city crime is out of control so the people in charge introduce the Judges; Law enforcement officers who can serve as judge, jury and executioner, of these Judges the most feared is Judge Dredd whose unshakable sense of justice make him a force to be reckoned with. Now this is a great concept, especially in the 80s and 90s which were the best age for action movies in my opinion, Sadly this movie had a bit of a rocky production; Director Danny Cannon was in fact a fan of Judge Dredd and wanted to make an adaptation that had the same gritty edge and dark sense of humour as the original comics. As a result the first cut Mr Cannon submitted to the MPAA was NC-17 and had to be tossed back and forth between the two of them to finally get and R rating. On top of that Stallone (who was playing Judge Dredd) and the studio decided they wanted to make the movie into a PG-13 action comedy and the film got hacked up even more. Danny Cannon was so unhappy with the finished result that he hasn't worked with a big name actor since. After all that this movie was a commercial and critical failure, falling quickly into obscurity until certain critics on the internet resurrected it with the reputation as one of the worst comic book movies of all time. And yet
It's not all that bad. This movie could have been awesome; the cast aren't half bad, the production design is great, and the score is cheesy but fun. Unfortunately this movie also has its fair share of bad-in-a-good-way points and just plain bad points. I Love Sylvester Stallone but in this movie his portrayal of Judge Dredd reminds me of Buzz Lightyear done as a live action 80s action movie, which is fun but a misrepresentation of the source material. A lot of the acting in this movie is cheesy, not helped by dialogue that is both clunky and awkward. The scene with the Angel family is weirdly entertaining in this The Hills Have Eyes 2000 kinda way and of course there's Rob Schneider's character. This was a bad idea. Rob Schneider plays a bumbling thief who ends up unintentionally partnering with Dredd. This character is annoying, superfluous, and reeks of studio interference. Bottom line if you're looking for fun cheese you'll like this movie but for fans of either 80s action films or superhero movies this is a miss. Which is a shame because thee are times Cannon's original idea rears its head above all the garbage and you wish you were watching that movie.
Review of Judge Dredd
