The Age of Commercialism

Excellent but underrated film

Absolutely brilliant

The story, direction, characters, and writing/dialogue is akin to taking a tranquilizer shot to the neck, but everything else was so well done.

(Flash Review)The execution of this movie felt more appropriate mid-80's than mid- 90's. I expected more from it. First off, those costumes. Really?! Judge Dredd's costume looked very flimsy and weak; like an obvious prop. That led me to pick apart other parts of the movie. Such as the futuristic vehicles and their tacked on accoutrements. Never looking as if they were from their own world but yanked from reality. The comedic one-liners were so bad. All blatantly related to being a judge or the legal system. Something the writers quickly came up with one night after a few cocktails. I grimaced more than chuckled and each one followed a dialog pause so each one was telegraphed. Onto the plot and I'll admit I have no idea this was a comic book until the movie started. The Earth has become a desert and people live within crime-ridden, walled cities with a police force called The Judges. They are allowed to stop criminals as well as judge their crime and punishment at the scene. Of course there is a battle for power and shenanigans are pulled that effect Judge Dredd's reputation. Will he overcome and will the truth be uncovered? Overall, the was a lot of popcorn action and bad dialog but it was brainless amusement nonetheless. The best part about watching it was getting to clear a movie out of my streaming queue that I had light interest in seeing after 20+ years since its release.

This film was panned pretty heavily by critics when it first came out, and like a lot of movies I've held off watching for just that reason, it turned out to be entertaining enough to have disregarded the naysayers. What you have to do perhaps, is go in with the idea that the film makers were going for camp value by putting Judge Dredd on screen, and in that regard, the picture can probably be deemed a success. Sylvester Stallone was a solid choice to portray the title character because he has that brooding, stoic look going for him, and who better to effect a character with no emotion who's only interest is in carrying out the law.Armand Assante, who portrayed Stallone's brother in 1978's "Paradise Alley", is teamed back up with him as a brother again of sorts. It's revealed that both were the experimental result of the Janus Project, a government program gone wrong and put to rest nine years earlier. Judge Dredd was the intended outcome of Janus, but Assante's Rico had a programming anomaly that made him a violent criminal. As I write this, an inconsistency in the story presents itself, in as much as Rico knew he wasn't human, whereas Dredd did not. I didn't pick up on that while watching, but it's more than evident if you think about it.The biggest surprise for this viewer that the movie had to offer was the strength of the supporting cast for what's nominally a popcorn flick promising over the top action and a requisite amount of explosives. You've got Jurgen Prochnow, Max von Sydow and Diane Lane in principal roles, no slouches when it comes to actors who've made their mark in much more prominent films. The one concession to the popcorn crowd would have been including Rob Schneider as somewhat of a comedic sidekick to the droll Judge Dredd. There were any number of times I thought Dredd might have squashed him like a bug, but in the end he served a fanboy purpose.I think I may have read all of one Judge Dredd comic book, so I don't know if humor played any part in their regular story lines, but I did find the occasional cultural references in the picture to be amusing, like the street corners of Abbott and Costello and Burns and Allen. I found Rico's comment about guilt and innocence to be a matter of timing as quite an intriguing concept, and even though the Mega-City presented in the story appeared to be entirely lawless, I found the admonition to 'Be kind to each other' played over and over again on the city's broadcast system as more than slightly ironic. However someone still needs to get back to me on the idea of 'recycled food'. What the heck would that be?

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.

Created by comic book writer John Wagner and artist Carlos Ezquerra, and first appeared in the second issue of 1977's 2000 AD, a weekly British science-fiction anthology comic book magazine. Judge Dredd is that magazine's longest-running character. He became so popular, that in 1995, a movie was made about him with top action star, Sylvester Stallone in the main role. Directed by Danny Cannon, and set in the not-so distance future, Earth has become an uninhabitable wasteland. While some humans manage to survive in the barren "Cursed Earth", the majority of humanity resides in huge Mega-Cities where crime has risen to ungodly levels due to over-population and the lack of resources. To combat crime, the traditional justice system has been replaced by a corps of Judges whose role combines those of police officer, judge, jury, and executioner. This is the world that Judge Joseph Dredd (Sylvester Stallone) lives. Things get worst for Judge Dredd, when a former Judge name Rico (Armand Assante), escape from prison, and frame him for the murder of a new reporter. Now imprisoned, Judge Dredd must go against the system of law, in order to prove his innocent, while also stopping Rico from his evil plan of taking over the world. Without spoiling the movie, too much, I have to say, the plot has way too much elements from a bunch of different arcs from the comic book, including The Return of Rico (Dredd's corrupt twin brother Rico returns from a prison colony to get revenge), The Day the Law Died (an insane and tyrannical senior Judge seizes power), The Cursed Earth (Dredd traverses the bombed out territory outside the city), The Judge Child Quest (Dredd encounters the cannibalism family), and Oz (Dredd thwarts a plot to conquer the city with an army of clones). It was a mess. It lead to many plot-holes, like how Judge Largo's DNA (Max Von Sydow) isn't shown to be relation to Dredd in the trial, nor the fact, that the Janus cloning project was hidden from most of the Judges. Also, when you think, deep about it. It doesn't much sense for them to have this technology in the environment in which this movie is set in. How did they do it, with limited resources!? Also, why? Over-population is already a problem. Why, add more people? Yes, I guess, it would be, easier to control the population, if you replace them, with mindless clones, but if they had the power to genetic engineer people, you would think, maybe they would use that resources for better use; like I don't know, solving the barren wasteland, by genetic engineering food and crops. In my opinion, this cloning sub-plot seem unrealistic and ridiculous, for even for the Dredd comic. The whole cloning arc was never my favorite from the comics. Nevertheless, I also didn't like some of their changes from the comics like how Judge Griffin (Jurgen Prochnow), is now a villain. Wasn't he originally part of Dredd's main allies in the comics? Honestly, they should had call him, Judge Cal in the movie. It would make more sense since he's a villain from the comics. Another thing, I didn't like, about the movies, is how Dredd is willing to kill his former buddies, the judges in able to prove his innocent. He rarely did that in the book. Isn't the point of this film is show that Dredd can act more human, rather than a totalitarian figure piece? He seems more-cruel now without the law, then the beginning of the movie. Despite the over-used of catch phrases and one-liners and the slurping of certain words, Sylvester Stallone does make a good Dredd. He does have the built at the time. I just wish, the movie didn't allow the character to removing his helmet, because he never does in the comic books. Another thing, I wish the movie kept, was the Rated R violence. It need to be grounded and gritty. This movie should had never been PG-13 with the over-the-top and clichés action. The source material was mature, gritty and gory for a reason. The world is supposed to be dark and depressing. The Judge Dredd comic strips were originally conceived as UK satires of the Thatcher government and its authoritarian police like state. It was then put in a Reagan-era fantasy about the liquidation of the underclass. It's supposed to incorporating obvious fascism, but it's never truly mention in the film. Instead, the movie makes the Judges seem like the good guys. Also, the movie made Mega City look way too futuristic, for a society that is supposedly on the brick of collapse. As much, as those things were jarring. The worst thing about this movie had to be the Rob Schneider's comedy relief character, Herman Ferguson. Yes, I know that his character was in the original comic, but Rob Schneider's performance as Fergie is annoying. Plus, his character in this, is pretty much, useless. In the comic, he was a muscle bound mutant, not a wimp. There is little to no reason for Dredd to care for him, here. I know, a lot of critics, has also bash, Armand Assante's performance as the villain, because how hammy, he was, but in my opinion, he was alright. The world of Judge Dredd is full of out of their mind, villains. I just wish, the movie choose Judge Cal over Judge Rico. It would make the film, a lot more fun. Overall: The film has a certain comedic and entertainment value that for reasons, outside, my views, people has find fascistic to the point that it has been call a 'guilty pleasure'. However, I don't share that same view. In my opinion, the movie is garbage. If you want to see it, go ahead, but in my view, check it out 2012's Dredd, instead. It's closer to the source material than this trash. This movie is dreadful.