Last Wednesday Channel 5 showed one of my least favourite films of all time, then again C5 does screen all the crap movies (ok someone has to show them!). The film in question was 'Judge Dredd' which is about the fanatical law abiding anti hero from the popular comic 2000AD. It stars Sylvester Stallone as Dredd with Max Von Sydow and Armand Assante in the suppporting cast. It was made back in 1995 and directed by Danny Cannon (who?). So you’d think with a decent cast and a wealth of background stories to go on it would be good? Not so.
As a kid I read the Judge Dredd stories for years in the 2000AD comic. A lot of the stories were stand alone episodes but there were also epic stories involving the Angel Gang, Judge Death and the Apocalypse war to name but a few.
Anyway, onto the movie.
Die hard Stallone fans and people that like badly thought out action movies love this film but for me it does nothing to capture the essence of the Judge Dredd character or events in the 2000 AD comics. The film comes across as a turgid as it tries to shoe horn several Dredd stories into one. Stallone doesn’t work as Dredd either as the comics portray Dredd as a mainly taciturn character who is obsessive about the law and thinks nothing of blowing law breakers away, he lacks empathy and though he is athletic he’s not encumbered by layers of muscles. Dredd never reveals his face in the comics either, this just adds to his menacing mystery though he may have revealed his visage in later comics I didn’t read. A good choice for Dredd would have been Clint Eastward who physically resembled him or even better an unknown actor. The Dredd stories always came across as slightly noir set in a dystopian future with the odd hint of dark humour now and again which the movie really didn’t capture, maybe Tim Burton should have directed it? Though the film attempts to transpose things in order to make it work for the big screen it fails miserably, sure mega city one looks like mega city one, the costumes look like judges costumes but the feel isn’t there at all. I guess if you haven’t read any Dredd in 2000AD and you like limp action films then it's ok but if not then this film is truly blasphemy!
Anyway, no offence to Stallone but I want to go on record as saying the film is a travesty of the comics and utter crap.
As a kid I read the Judge Dredd stories for years in the 2000AD comic. A lot of the stories were stand alone episodes but there were also epic stories involving the Angel Gang, Judge Death and the Apocalypse war to name but a few.
Anyway, onto the movie.
Die hard Stallone fans and people that like badly thought out action movies love this film but for me it does nothing to capture the essence of the Judge Dredd character or events in the 2000 AD comics. The film comes across as a turgid as it tries to shoe horn several Dredd stories into one. Stallone doesn’t work as Dredd either as the comics portray Dredd as a mainly taciturn character who is obsessive about the law and thinks nothing of blowing law breakers away, he lacks empathy and though he is athletic he’s not encumbered by layers of muscles. Dredd never reveals his face in the comics either, this just adds to his menacing mystery though he may have revealed his visage in later comics I didn’t read. A good choice for Dredd would have been Clint Eastward who physically resembled him or even better an unknown actor. The Dredd stories always came across as slightly noir set in a dystopian future with the odd hint of dark humour now and again which the movie really didn’t capture, maybe Tim Burton should have directed it? Though the film attempts to transpose things in order to make it work for the big screen it fails miserably, sure mega city one looks like mega city one, the costumes look like judges costumes but the feel isn’t there at all. I guess if you haven’t read any Dredd in 2000AD and you like limp action films then it's ok but if not then this film is truly blasphemy!
Anyway, no offence to Stallone but I want to go on record as saying the film is a travesty of the comics and utter crap.
1 comment:
You say that this film has achieved classic status on your blog yet when I offered to get it for you in the Virgin mega store bargain bucket sale you said you didn't want it, ironic that.
You have a history of picking turkeys out, do I need to name the movies too and cause further embarresment?
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