What MOVIE(s) have you been....seeing? watching?

Re-watched Dredd, which really is an under-rated gem of a movie. The original Judge Dredd movie made an effort to capture the more outlandish and satirical elements of the Judge Dredd comic, but is hopelessly mingled in my memories with Demolition Man, a similar but worse movie made 2 years earlier. The confusion was driven in part by Stallone starring in both movies and only rarely wearing the iconic Judge Dredd helmet in the Judge Dredd movie. Karl Urban goes the opposite route and commits to leaving his helmet on for the entire movie. Anyway, Dredd revisits the Mega-City One setting as more of a realistic-looking fascist dystopia, spending nearly the entire movie in a single MegaBlock.

Judge Anderson, a psychic who got marginal scores during training, has been given one shift as a rookie to prove herself worthy as a Judge. From there, the movie lurches into a setup that is strongly reminiscent of Diehard but also feels like it would make an excellent scenario for a boardgame or role-playing game or console game. The Judges may serve as judge/jury/executioners for a fascist dystopia, but they are definitely good guys compared to the very nasty villains of this movie. They're such vile criminals that they make Hans Gruber and his crew from Diehard seem almost like boy scouts in comparison.

Although I consider Dredd to be one of my top five comic book movies, it is functionally an action movie set in the not too distant future. As an action movie, Dredd serves up plenty of action, as well a solid story and some decent acting. Although callbacks are generally thought of as a comedic device, they work in other genres and are used well here to make minor elements more meaningful later in the movie. There are some good lines, interesting ideas, and Judge Anderson gets some good character development. Her psychic powers are used just right, enough to move the story along and explore a few interesting angles, but not so much as to overshadow the relentless and grim Judge Dredd. One surprising aspect of the movie is that it is actually downright beautiful in a few scenes, despite the savage and recurring violence.

Spot on, Dredd is pretty fun and I definitely can't remove Judge Dredd from Demolition Man.

I didn't like Dredd and in fact I think the Stallone film is much closer to the 2000AD style. I'd go so far as to say that the only really terminal issue with it is Stallone, who is badly miscast but he looks great when the helmet is on.

I'll have to watch Dredd again some time, I just felt like it went full grimdark when the best Dredd material is more funny than violent.

I really liked Dredd a lot (even saw it in the cinema!), but almost all of the action plot is too similar to The Raid.

Stallone's Judge Dredd had the budget and looked right, but the script and acting were awful.

Probably the best Dredd movie that gets both the satire and the violence is Robocop.

I loved Dredd and would love to see them make a sequel. I did not like the Stallone movie.

One cool thing about Dredd was the HARSH depiction of gun violence. You don't often see that.

Yeah, when half the dude's cheek gets blown out cuz of exit-wound physics, I was immediately thinking of History of Violence which also did a good job at that.

I liked Dredd a bunch but I don't feel like it was underrated. Everyone agreed it was like 4x better than Stallone's pile of total garbage. Dredd was a movie with lots of heart but less brain, and the reviews pretty much said that. Still a good movie. It actually got "certified fresh" on RottenTomatoes which I'm very surprised by. I don't know what it takes to get that, but the movie isn't great or anything. it's just good.

I think Lena Headey is going to be type-cast as villians for quite a while.

I´m with Gregarius here, the best Judge Dredd movie is Robocop.

Gregarius wrote: Probably the best Dredd movie that gets both the satire and the violence is Robocop.

Nailed it. If Robocop had featured Judge Dredd with a Lawgiver and used a more colorful palette for set design, it could have been a perfect Judge Dredd movie.

+1 on the Stallone film being superior to Dredd. It's a much better 2000AD film: ABC Warriors, Angel Gang, Ian Dury, filmed in color, goofy side characters and phrases like 'Cursed Earth Pizza'...the whole package comes together much better.

Granted, Dredd taking the helmet off is very lame, but the Karl Urban film is so humorless and bleak it's unrecognizable as the 2000AD I know and love.

I've read the case for Robocop as a Dredd film and agree it probably is the best so far, but between the two Judge Dredd films proper....Judge Dredd it is!

I'm not a big 2000AD aficionado but the Karl Urban Dredd movie is about the perfect Necromunda movie as we'll ever see.

Judge Dredd is a movie where they get the world right but the character of Dredd wrong. Dredd is a movie where they get the character of Dredd right but the world wrong. I read the Dredd comics for the world not the character, who frankly is quite boring in 99% of stories, so the former is my preferred film.

Ancient_of_MuMu wrote: Judge Dredd is a movie where they get the world right but the character of Dredd wrong. Dredd is a movie where they get the character of Dredd right but the world wrong. I read the Dredd comics for the world not the character, who frankly is quite boring in 99% of stories, so the former is my preferred film.

Good point.

Judge Dredd reminds me of the Flash Gordon movie. The world is so good, but the lead is terrible....and I love that Flash Gordon flick.

Took Emily to see Disneynature's Born in China and although I found it long in the tooth (hilarious!) for such a short film, she absolutely loved it which shocked me cuz it just follows five different species of animals around. I didn't think it would engage her at all but there were some really amazing scenes like a panda mama helicopter parenting her cub that wants to climb a tree SO BAD.

Anyway I'll write a review in two days but during opening week (this week), Disney is kicking a nice portion to animals so good time to take your cubs

Also MAN do the carnivores have a tough time in this flick. Life sure is easier when you eat bamboo

I was looking forward to Free Fire, but it was a pretty big stinker for me. I was with it for a while initially as the bow was being pulled back, but once the arrows (well, bullets) started flying, it was a whole lotta nothing, ultimately. Tedious and boring, even. After the first ten minutes of everyone shooting at each other and dragging themselves around on the ground, I thought, is there anything more to this, and there wasn’t.

I didn’t care about any of the characters, and there was nothing really unique or compelling or clever about it. I got the sense from the trailer that it was going to have more of a humorous vibe to it, but it barely (and I mean very barely) ever did. For something with a similar feel, I’d much rather have seen Reservoir Dogs for the fifth or sixth time.

Over the weekend I saw Edge of Seventeen, a coming of age story about a difficult teenage girl. It's really good, and very funny in non-standard ways. Barney, I think you will love it, although it won't satisfy any of your prurient interests. Hailie Steinfeld and Woody Harrelson are both excellent.

PS- Not one to watch with your daughter, though.