Dredd

2012 • 95 minutes

About this movie

The future. America is an irradiated wasteland. On its East Coast, running from Boston to Washington DC lies Mega City One a vast, violent metropolis of over 400 million citizens living in perpetual fear. The only ones attempting to impose order in the urban chaos are The Judges. Law enforcers, juries, judges and executioners rolled into one. The epitome of these Judges is Dredd. The Chief Judge gives Dredd a mission. To road test a rookie Judge, the powerful psychic Cassandra Anderson. It is to be a training day. The Judges head for a seemingly routine homicide in the notorious Peach Trees mega-block - a 200-storey vertical slum run by the pitiless Ma-Ma clan. When the Judges attempt to arrest one of Ma-Ma's chief henchmen, Ma-Ma shuts down the entire building and orders her clan to hunt the judges down. Our two judges are now caught in a vicious and relentless fight for survival. Rena Films (PTY) Ltd. and Peach Tree Films Ltd.

Ratings and reviews

Hands down the best Judge Dredd movie you'll ever see. I hear people say this is just a ripoff of the movie Raid but they're wrong. This is its own thing. It has been made by people who loved the comics. They bring them to life in such a respectful way that you have to give it props just for that. On top of that it's just a blumming good movie. I didn't lose interest once and I've watched it more than once. The only bad thing about this movie is that it opens up a world you want to see more movies populate. Apparently it just didn't make the money so that seems unlikely. If you've never read the comics it doesn't matter. It requires no prior knowledge of the comics to get into it. It's a small movie in scope but within that small space it delivers way more than I ever hoped we'd get from a Dredd flick.

Somehow this iteration of the Dredd universe didn't make its money, and so sequels will probably not happen. This is a real shame as I like to think it was not the film 's quality or story that led to this but the marketing and not enough effort to distance itself from the 1995 film. The film is extremely graphic and does lack some of the satire of the comic strip, however it is a thoroughbred shot at making a damn good sci-fi film on what is nowadays quite a low budget. The production crew chose their story very well to allow for a close claustrophobic atmosphere that leans more to rewarding good acting and less on heavy CGI. As a result, you get a well acted film.

This movie is played with a straight bat vis-a-vis the comic book creation and it works well. Great action, true to the original character and feel of the Judge Dredd we know and love, a far cry from the bad taste version by Stellone. Deserved more box office success, I'm a fan and would love a sequel. Top marks. Excellent