Movie Reviews

Does anybody still remember that terrible movie with Sylvester Stallone? If one movie deserved a remake, this was it! This time around it’s Karl Urban (Lord Of The Rings, Star Trek) who gets to wear the helm. Contrary to Stallone he never takes it off though and does most of his acting with his jawline. Wait, does that sound weird?

Anyway, our future isn’t exactly looking bright if you have to believe director Pete Travis. People live like beggars in one huge, derelict city with only the Judges upholding the law, acting as judge, jury and executioner combined in one single job as a convenient way to save money. Judge Dredd is teamed up with newbie Anderson (Olivia Thirlby), who also happens to be somewhat of a clairvoyant. Together they respond to a triple homicide in Peach Trees, a bigass apartment block that is ruled by crime queen Ma-Ma. She deals in a new drug called Slo-Mo, which reduces reality to a fraction of its normal speed. I don’t know why anyone would want to live their life slower when it’s already that shitty but hey... it does make for a couple of really cool scenes!

To make a not so long story even shorter… Anderson gets a first day on the job from hell when she ends up locked up in the building with Dredd and they have to find a way to survive. They do this by killing a shitload of people in one straight-forward and überviolent scene after another. While very reminiscent of “The Raid” from a couple of months ago and lacking the satire of the original comic, “Dredd” is a highly entertaining action flick with the kind of gratuitous violence that made 80ies movies so much fun.