20131114: Movie Review--Dredd

Dredd

1. Production Fundamentals; reception
1. British live action feature length film, 2012, rated R, 95 minutes, action.
2. IMDB: 7.0/10.0 from 131,861  audience ratings.  Estimated budget, 50 million USD.
3. Rotten Tomatoes: 78% on the meter; 72% liked it from 144,432 audience ratings.
4. Netflix: 3.8/5.0 stars, based on 1,258,038 audience ratings.
5. Directed by Pete Travis; screenplay by John Wagner.
6. Starring: Karl Urban as Judge Dredd, Rachel Wood as Control Operator 1, Olivia Thirlby as Cassandra Anderson, Lena Headey as Ma Ma, Langley Kirkwood as Judge Lex.


2. Setup, Plot
1. Judge Dredd is forced to take the mutant psychic Cassandra Anderson under his wing.


2. Dredd and Anderson go after the drug kingpin Ma Ma.


3. There was resistance.


4. Later on, four other judges betray Dredd and Anderson for money.


5. Can Dredd and Anderson prevail, even using every single talent they have as a team?


3. Conclusions
1. Stallone's 1995 effort, Judge Dredd,  was not as pretty; the CGI effects were much better in this one.  The story in Judge Dredd was much more interesting, and there was actual acting in the 1995 version.  


2. In 1995, we had neither the TSA, nor the current search and seizure rights of police, nor Guantanamo-style imprisonment under the Patriot Act, nor the widespread depredations of the NSA, nor the denial of Miranda rights, nor the sheep mentality of surrender-anything-to-make-us-safe, nor the over-arching bureaucracy and arrogance of Homeland Security.  We had those by 2012, when this picture was released.  This hideous film glorifying a fascist police state was well-received; critically, that is.  Go figure.


3. One line summary: Celebrates a fascist police state, and to a lesser extent, drug use.
4. Two stars of five.


4. Scores
1. Cinematography: 8/10 Some of this is spectacular.  The camera work is excellent early on, as is the matching of CGI to real world photography.  The steam punk sets were not as good.


2. Sound: 10/10 Fine.


3. Acting: 0/10 This is a cartoon set to live action format.  What acting?  I usually like Karl Urban's performances, but I could not tell that he was even in this film.  This is the first film I saw where Lena Heady acted.  I had no awareness that an actress was involved in the Ma Ma character; a block of wood might have done a better job. In subsequent films, I have seen Heady do fine work.  Again, what acting?


4. Screenplay: 4/10 Even more stupid than the first film.  In case of a nuclear war, the first area in the USA to be turned into radioactive slag is the mega city that stretches from DC to Boston.  This inverts it, which makes no sense: only the eastern mega city survived.  Unfortunately, the whole plot depends on this.  Further, no one grows food, anywhere, and yet there is enormous wealth and huge numbers of people.  This cannot happen.  There is no place to mine metal and materials for concrete, yet there are all these huge buildings (to house 800 million people) made of metal and concrete.  This is impossible.  The story, given these mortal wounds in logic, moves along fine, as any simple-minded cartoon will.


5. Special Effects: 8/10 Mostly impressive.