Dredd

Combining the words “Judge”, “Dredd”, “Sylvester” and “Stallone” send a shiver down the spine of most cinemagoers who handed over their hard-earned back in 1995. Not only did that film piss off legions of hardcore Dredd fans for messing around with the visual look and characterisation of its main protagonist, but even for viewers who didn’t care about that kind of thing the film just outright stank anyway. So much so that it virtually killed British director Danny Cannon’s career in Hollywood (though he had subsequent later success on the small screen with the CSI franchise). Therefore, when it was reported in October 2011 that the director of this new vision had been locked out of the editing room and that the writer was claiming a co-directorial credit, it’s fair to say that when posters started appearing in early 2012 saying “Judgement is coming”, enthusiasm was muted to say the least. What a surprise it is then to report that Dredd is one of the best films of the year. How did this happen, then? The storyline first: Set in a future America, Mega City One is a sprawling metropolis where chaos reigns and criminals rule the roost. The only police on patrol are the “Judges”, who dispense justice as judge, jury and, on occasions, executioner. During a standard patrol Judge Dredd (Karl Urban) and rookie Judge Anderson (Olivia Thirlby) find themselves locked in a 200 storey concrete skyscraper and under attack from resident drug lord and unofficial building landlord Ma Ma (Lena Headey) and her cronies. Aforementioned writer of this said blast of fun is Alex Garland, who went through a number of drafts before settling on this one (with assistance on some dialogue from Judge Dredd creator John Wagner). What makes his script work is that there is no hanging around. A voice over sets the scene and there’s little back story to worry about. What we have is 90 minutes of ultra-violent mayhem, but undercut with a script that knows you can’t just have scene after scene of things exploding. Despite the carnage, Garland peppers the story with explanations as to why it's knife, gun or grenade time and drops in pieces of character development every now and then. As mentioned above the film is violent in the extreme in many places, but the irony here is that it’s actually the perfect antidote to the nightmare of virtually all action films of recent years that have been toned down in order to get the dreaded (by audiences) / crucial (by the studio) lower certificate. Such tameness is forgotten about here and it’s refreshing to see. On the acting front there will be plenty of interest in Urban’s portrayal of the titular character. As you’ll probably already be aware Urban does keep Dredd’s helmet on throughout the running time, but this isn’t a problem for Urban (who is actually quite a chameleon when you check out his film career thus far) as even hidden away he still embodies what Dredd is all about, plus, of course, he has a jaw that could crack open a walnut on its own. Thirlby provides decent back up as the new officer on the beat and Headey adds some genuine menace as the unhinged villain of the piece. On the down side some people may have preferred the story to have a bit more satire and humour and there’s definite echoes of The Raid here, though it should be pointed out that Dredd’s script was completed two years prior to Gareth Evans' film. As for the director that was allegedly locked out, that was Pete Travis. Who, you may ask? With only one feature film to his name (that being 2008’s Vantage Point), it does appear to be an odd choice (first refusal to direct was given to Duncan Jones, but he said no despite loving Garlands script). Whatever the goings on behind the scenes, Travis and co have still managed to deliver a film where the cast, action and effects are all at the higher end of the range and much like 2011's Rise Of The Planet Of The Apes, there’s nothing better than when a film from which you were expecting little, deliver loads.

The OC Film Sting Final Verdict
I enjoyed this so much I can’t recall now if I watched this in 2D or 3D. There can’t be higher praise than that, surely? Rating: 8/10.