The Law Returns. This Time With His Helmet On! Judge Dredd!

[Captaindemotion]

http://www.totalfilm.com/reviews/cinema/dredd

Total Film gave it 3/5

[Reverend]

^Is that a good rating for Total Film, because the review sure sounds fairly positive?

[Captaindemotion]

^It did occur to me also that the actual rating seemed less enthusiastic than the reviewer's description of the movie. I don't often read TF's reviews, to be honest, so I don't know how generous or stingy they are with the stars.

[Captain Craig]

I went to RT just to see if they had a review of the '95 original for comparison and they didn't. Maybe they weren't around then? But then I thought about it, neither was RT so that means they are compiling and assigning scores to films using some other type of metric. I doubt RT is asking for retroactive scores from reviewers since the reviewer is alleged to be the one assigning a "fresh" or "rotten" scoring to their own review of a film.

[Reverend]

Captaindemotion wrote:

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^It did occur to me also that the actual rating seemed less enthusiastic than the reviewer's description of the movie. I don't often read TF's reviews, to be honest, so I don't know how generous or stingy they are with the stars.

Now see, this is why I think rating systems are worse than useless. It's pretty arbitrary and is entierly dependent on the reviewer's personal logic. If you ignore the rating, the film looks good. Indeed the only thing he seems to take issue with (and it's not even much of an issue) is Urban's performance. Everything I've seen and read about this film to date tells me it's a solid, moderately budgeted little action film, which is pretty much what I'd hoped for.

[Lonemagpie]

Dredd's an uncut 18 in the UK, BTW.

Which sadly means our local fleapit won't get it - the *only* 18 rated movie they've had since I moved here in 1999 is Passion Of The Christ, and they only got that cos it was a religious thing...

[Captaindemotion]

^Sucks for people in your area, but otherwise an 18-rated Dredd is good new, IMHO.

[Reverend]

Lonemagpie wrote:

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Dredd's an uncut 18 in the UK, BTW.

Which sadly means our local fleapit won't get it - the *only* 18 rated movie they've had since I moved here in 1999 is Passion Of The Christ, and they only got that cos it was a religious thing...

Oh mate, I don't even bother with the cinema anymore. My local has the most rubbish sound system imaginable. Last few times I was there, I could hear whatever was playing in screen 2 better than what I was watching (Tron Legacy IIRC) which says a lot about the lack of soundproofing. Add to that the uncomfortable seats with no leg room--seriously, I'm only 5'4" and even I feel cramped--the obligatory overpriced food & drink...it's just not worth the hassle.

So yeah, I look forward to seeing Dredd in the comfort of my own home sometime next spring!

[Admiral_Young]

The film's score is online...

http://w.soundcloud.com/player/?url=...ecret_url=true

[JoeZhang]

So there is an Anderson's theme but not a Dredd's theme?

[Admiral_Young]

My guess is that "Dredd"s theme is possibly included in the tracks "Judgement Time" or "Judge, Jury, and Executioner".

Also regarding Anderson's theme, I'm guessing that it is designed for a very specific scene in the film involving her (Reverend and I have hinted at it in the thread before).

[JD]

I've been watching the trailers and stuff again, and I'm seriously tempted to go see this.
The stuff I've seen for the movie has gotten interested in the comics, are there any big must reads that would be a good place to start?

[Reverend]

JD wrote:

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I've been watching the trailers and stuff again, and I'm seriously tempted to go see this.
The stuff I've seen for the movie has gotten interested in the comics, are there any big must reads that would be a good place to start?

Difficult to say, you're talking about several decades of uninterrupted continuity (no magical reboots here!) so there's a metric ton of material out there. It's been my experience though, that while Dredd stories (especially the "epics") contain an awful lot of continuity and callbacks to previous stories, they tend to be written in a way that you don't *have* to have read those already.

Off the top of my head I think 'The Day the Law Died', 'America', 'The Pit' plus that whole series of interlinked stories that went from 'Oz' all the way to 'Necropolis' are usually cited as the "must reads". Personally I think the more recent books have just gotten better and better, but that's just my personal preference. I happen to like gritty procedural crime stories over crazy pulp sci-fi adventure. Fortunately, there's plenty of room for both and more in Mega-City One.

As for a good place to start, I just did a quick search and there's a TPB on Amazon called 'The Best of Judge Dredd'. In addition to the very first strip it includes 'America', 'The Judge Child', 'The Cursed Earth' and 'PJ Maybe' which sounds like a fairly broad taste of what Dredd has to offer.

[JD]

I might have to track that down if I get to a point where I've got extra money for comics.

[Captain Craig]

I'm not going to see it opening weekend but mostly likely will the weekend of Oct 5-7.
A friend is coming into town and wants to see it together. Which is good cause I should be able to use my free Regal movie pass on it by then.