Law and Disorder in the Mega-Slums
In a world where the air is probably 90% exhaust and people live in “Mega-Blocks” that look like filing cabinets for the poor, comes Dredd. It’s a cheerful little romp about a future where the police don’t bother with lawyers or judges because they just shoot you on the sidewalk and call it a day. The story follows Judge Dredd, a man who clearly hasn’t smiled since the Nixon administration, as he takes a telepathic rookie into a 200-story high-rise called Peach Trees. It’s supposed to be routine, but since this is a movie, everything goes south faster than a retiree moving to Florida.
It’s 95 minutes of a man in a helmet shooting people in a giant filing cabinet, and honestly, it’s the most productive thing I’ve seen a government employee do in thirty years.
The skyscraper is run by a charming lady named Ma-Ma, who makes a living selling a drug called “Slo-Mo” that makes you feel like you’re living in a car insurance commercial. Once she realizes there are cops in the lobby, she locks the whole place down and tells every degenerate with a gun to start hunting. It’s basically 95 minutes of people getting shot in hallways that haven’t been cleaned since the apocalypse. If you like your action loud, your heroes grumpy, and your social commentary hidden under a pile of spent shell casings, this might be the only thing in the theater worth your ten bucks.
Review by Ben Dover
Let’s get one thing straight: I usually hate these comic book movies. Every time I turn around, there’s some guy in colorful long johns flying through a building trying to save a cat. But Dredd? Dredd is different. It’s mean, it’s ugly, and it doesn’t try to sell me a happy meal. Karl Urban plays the title character, and he’s got the right idea—he never takes his helmet off. I wish half the actors in Hollywood would follow his lead; maybe then I wouldn’t have to look at their Botox-filled foreheads for two hours. He just grumbles and shoots things. It’s the most honest performance I’ve seen in years.
The plot is simpler than my microwave’s instructions. They’re stuck in a building, and they have to get to the top to kill the boss. It’s like a video game, but without the annoying ten-year-olds screaming in your ear. Dredd’s partner is a “rookie” played by Olivia Thirlby, who has psychic powers. Of course she does. Because apparently, in the future, being a good cop isn’t enough; you have to be able to read a criminal’s mind to know he’s thinking about shooting you. Give me a break. But I’ll admit, watching her grow a backbone while surrounded by five thousand armed idiots was almost—and I say almost—heartwarming.
The villain, Ma-Ma, is played by Lena Headey. She’s great because she looks like she hasn’t slept or bathed in three weeks, which is pretty much how I feel every Monday morning. She doesn’t have some grand plan to take over the world; she just wants to keep her drug den running and kill anybody in a badge. It’s refreshing. No monologues about “destiny” or “peace”—just a woman with a scar on her face and a very large gun. The movie doesn’t waste time on subplots about Dredd’s childhood or his favorite flavor of ice cream. He’s a guy doing a job, and that job involves a lot of property damage.
My only real gripe—and there’s always a gripe—is the violence. Good grief, it’s like the director found a sale on red corn syrup and decided to use it all in one afternoon. I don’t need to see someone’s head explode in three different angles to get the point. And the music! It’s this industrial, grinding noise that sounds like a lawnmower choking on a chain link fence. My ears were ringing for three days. But hey, at least it’s not another one of those “sensitive” movies where everyone talks about their feelings for two hours while nothing happens.
Star Rating: 4 out of 5 Stars
The Stars
- Karl Urban (Judge Dredd): The man’s chin deserves an Oscar. He stays behind the helmet the whole time, proving that you don’t need a famous face to lead a movie—just a really good scowl.
- Olivia Thirlby (Judge Anderson): The rookie with the “mutant” brain. She does a decent job not looking terrified while Urban grunts at her.
- Lena Headey (Ma-Ma): A former prostitute turned drug lord. She’s cold, she’s scarred, and she’s a much better villain than any of those CGI monsters in the Marvel movies.
- Wood Harris (Kay): One of Ma-Ma’s thugs. He learns the hard way that you shouldn’t touch a Judge’s gun unless you want your arm to become a decorative wall hanging.
Special Effects and Music
The “Slo-Mo” effects were actually… well, they were kind of cool. Everything slows down, the colors get all bright and pretty, and you see blood droplets floating like little rubies. It’s the only time the movie looks “nice,” which is a weird thing to say about people getting shot. The music by Paul Leonard-Morgan is basically just a heavy bass synth that vibrates your teeth. It fits the dirty, high-tech slum vibe, even if it makes me want to take an aspirin.
Complete Synopsis and Plot Breakdown
The movie kicks off in Mega-City One, a post-apocalyptic concrete nightmare stretching from Boston to D.C. where 800 million people live in fear. Judge Dredd is assigned to evaluate a rookie, Cassandra Anderson, who failed her exams but has powerful psychic abilities. They head to Peach Trees, a 200-story slum, to investigate a triple homicide where three guys were skinned alive and tossed off a balcony.
They bust a mid-level thug named Kay and realize he’s part of the Ma-Ma Clan, the gang that runs the whole block. To stop the Judges from taking Kay and making him talk, Ma-Ma takes control of the building’s security system and seals the blast shields. She puts out a hit on the Judges over the PA system: kill the cops, and the lockdown ends.
Dredd and Anderson have to fight their way through waves of armed residents and gang members. At one point, Ma-Ma gets so desperate she uses huge rotary cannons to level an entire floor, killing dozens of her own people just to hit the Judges. Dredd eventually calls for backup, but four corrupt Judges show up instead, having been paid off by Ma-Ma to finish the job. Dredd dispatches them with the efficiency of a man clearing weeds out of his garden.
In the final showdown, Ma-Ma reveals she’s wearing a heart-rate monitor rigged to explosives; if she dies, the top of the building blows up. Dredd, being the stubborn old mule he is, doesn’t negotiate. He forces her to inhale a dose of Slo-Mo and tosses her off the balcony. Because her brain is slowed down, she experiences the 200-story fall for what feels like an eternity before hitting the pavement. The building doesn’t blow up because the signal was too weak to reach the detonators from the ground. Dredd signs off on Anderson’s evaluation, tells the Chief Judge the perps were “uncooperative,” and rides off into the smog.
5 Famous Quotes
- “In case you people have forgotten, this block operates under the same rules as the rest of the city. Ma-Ma’s not the law… I am the law.“
- “Think a bullet might interfere with them more.” (Dredd to Anderson, regarding her not wearing a helmet because it messes with her psychic powers).
- “Negotiation’s over.”
- “Judgment time.”
- “I knew you’d say that.” (Anderson, reading Dredd’s mind for the hundredth time). (Having just been forced to watch the previous Judge Dredd with Stallone saying this line something like 100 times I really enjoyed this callback coming from anyone but Dredd.)
5 Interesting Facts
- The Helmet Stays On: Karl Urban insisted on never removing Dredd’s helmet during the film to remain faithful to the comic books, where Dredd’s face is never shown.
- Whisky Voice: To get that gravelly, bone-saw voice, Urban said he had to drink a lot of whisky and basically scream until his throat hurt. (I guess it was somewhat permanent listening to him today)
- The “Slo-Mo” Sound: The music during the slow-motion drug sequences is actually a Justin Bieber song slowed down by 800%. I knew that kid’s music was good for something.
- South African Scenery: Even though it’s set in the U.S., the whole thing was filmed in Cape Town and Johannesburg, South Africa. Probably because those places already look more like a dystopia than Ohio does.
- Directorial Drama: There were rumors that the writer, Alex Garland, actually directed most of the movie because the credited director, Pete Travis, was barred from the editing room.
Photos
Trailer
Reviewer Notes:
This really could have been The Raid: Redemption part 2 which is probably why its box office wasn’t what it could have been. It literally came out just months after The Raid which is a very similar movie.
41 Million on a 45 million dollar budget and way overhyped the 3d as well when 3d was dying out.
The drug slomo effect is really kind of cool.
Urbans voice today is actually deeper than it was here which is kind of unsettling.
The Slomo bullet effects are really cool here.
That choke on that scene (throat punch) was so brutal, maybe one of the coolest single punch brutality scenes I have ever seen.
They stayed true to the ID part of the gun, but not the 25 rounds from the first movie apparently these guns have around 250 rounds.
I have no idea how this didn’t get a sequel, one of the best action movies in a while.