In the dystopian ruin of Mega City One home to eight hudred million people, Judge Dredd (Karl Urban) is charged by the Hall of Justice to take rookie Judge Andersen (Olivia Thirlby) in the field for assessment. Whilst investigating a triple homicide the pair find themselves targeted by sociopathic gang leader Ma Ma (Lena Headey).
Judge Dredd is one of the most enduring characters in British Comics created by John Wagner, Carlos Ezquerra and Pat Mills in the mid 70’s and being a staple of comic 2000AD ever since. Dredd has been adapted for the screen once before in ’95 with Sylvester Stallone playing the title character. This adaptation was considered blasphemous and sacrilegious by Dredd fans due to it’s ham fisted treatment of the source material. With Rob Schneider acting as a bumbling comedy sidekick and Stallone’s Dredd removing his iconic helmet within 20 minutes (something which has never happened in the comics aside from in heavy shadow) amongst other things resulting in bilious diatribes from fans of the character.
So have the team of writer Alex Garland and director Pete Travis managed to erase the memory of Stallone shouting “I AM THE LAW!”?
The short answer is yes.
The first thing that becomes apparent is the almost choking lo-fi aesthetic of Mega City One courtesy of production designer Mark Digby. A sprawling megalopolis surrounded by the irradiated wasteland of the Cursed Earth. As Dredd’s opening narrative puts it,
“Eight hundred million people living in the ruin of the old world. Only one thing fighting for order in the chaos. The men and women of the Hall of Justice.”
An introductory montage of rioting civilians and unrest is spliced with Urban’s Dredd suiting up before a shot of him putting on his iconic helmet from behind. The look of the Judge’s uniform might have been altered somewhat from the look of the comic, the chunky shoulder guards may be gone but it fits in well with the lo-fi stylings and makes things more believable.
The second thing that will become apparent is that life is cheap in the grim future. This take on Dredd’s world is reassuringly brutal and most impressively not been watered down for mass consumption. Engaged in a chase with some heavies on his Lawmaster bike on the bustling roads, his target speeding along in a van ploughs right into an oblivious pedestrian who just becomes a splatter on the windscreen . Dredd’s clipped response “They’ve taken out an innocent, I’m taking them down” cue a spray of machine gun fire to the tyres.
If that doesn’t hammer home the point that we’re not in Kansas anymore then Dredd’s resolution to hostage negotiation will.
Dredd rattles off the basics of being a Judge on the mean streets of Mega City One to Andersen who is just trying to keep pace with Dredd as he marches from the Hall of Justice. Dredd states that due to the vast amount of crime they can only respond to 6% of the calls they receive. “Which 6%?” asks Andersen “Your call rookie” is Dredd’s response and that’s how the pair end up in Peach Trees Mega Block. A 200 storey vertical slum home to thousands of people and where the majority of the action takes place.
Whilst Karl Urban’s gravel voiced Dredd is all battle hardened stoicism with his face permanently obscured by his helmet, Olivia Thirlby as psychic Andersen is the complete opposite leaving her helmet behind as it inhibits her psychic abilities, “a bullet might interfere with them more” is Dredd’s opinion in an example of the dry dark humour which is pitched just right.
There are plenty of stand out moments as the pair find themselves trapped after Lena Headey’s disturbing scarred former prostitute turned gang leader and all round socio-path Ma Ma puts the block into lock down. One being Dredd emerging from an obfuscating wall of smoke and fire and mercilessly throwing one of Ma Ma’s goons over the balcony before retreating back into the smoke whilst Ma Ma and her crew look on. Another being one of the examples of the several different ammo types that the Lawgiver pistol can use with an incendiary round being used to dramatic effect like a miniature cluster bomb with screaming thugs running around on fire, whilst the flames are reflected in the visor of Dredd’s helmet.
The teacher pupil dynamic between the two is interesting to watch especially due to the great dynamic between Urban and Thirlby as they both learn from each other with even Dredd being forced to acknowledge that sometimes another way is best. The rookie Judge being hesitant to shoot her first perp despite him trying to kill her moments ago but having no such problem later show a real shift in perception of the reality of being a Judge. Whilst it might her first day out in the field she can handle herself. The way her psychic abilities are portrayed is well done, especially in an interrogation after Dredd has unsuccessfully tried to get Kay (Wood Harris) one of Ma Ma’s inner circle to talk using brute force.
The incorporation of the effects of the drug SLO-MO are definitely memorable, with several scenes showing how things are perceived by the users including a surreal slow motion gun fight amongst others which render ultra-violence into a grotesque kind of beauty via Anthony Dod Mantle’s cinematography.
Despite what the pair go through this is never made out as being a major incident or a one off occurence, it’s just another day at the office for Dredd with the next being just as bad which really goes to the the root of the character and shows Garland’s clear knowledge of the source material.
By far the best thing about Dredd is it’s distinctly streamlined approach. Whilst there are nods to things that aren’t seen like bodies being picked up for resyk there’s plenty of other stuff they could’ve tried to put in but Garland to his credit hasn’t tried to jam everything in. So there’s no Cursed Earth or Dark Judges or Chopper or Judge Cal or any of the numerous other elements which fans would no doubt like to see and Dredd is all the better for it.
Dredd shows how to handle adult oriented comics with style and more importantly how to respect a character’s origins. It should also be pointed out that after seeing Karl Urban as Dredd no other actor could play the role much like Ron Perlman’s Hellboy Urban is Dredd.
JT (Noah Segan) and Rickie (Shiloh Fernandez) are both stereotypical high school drop out losers who spend as little time there as possible. One day they decide to check out the abandoned hospital nearby and have themselves some fun smashing things and taking in the joys of breaking stuff like teenage boys do. After getting bored of smashing things JT discovers a door behind a mound of assorted junk, with some effort they manage to get the door open and in amongst the gloom and various abandoned detritus they find a woman’s body naked and bizarrely chained to a bed, even more bizarrely she’s alive. Freaking out Rickie wants to call the cops and get the hell out of dodge but JT has another plan “We could you know keep her”.
It’s an undeniably dark and twisted affair which plays with taboo subjects like rape and necrophilia and it does have distinct misogynistic overtones. Despite this thanks to writer Trent Haaga it becomes a somewhat more disturbing than normal examination of the boundaries of friendship, male bonding and teenage angst. At what point does your best friend become a stranger? The quest for acceptance from your peers and a desire for a sense of belonging are nothing new and are key themes visited numerous times before but it’s the presentation of those themes that makes all the difference here.
Credit must be given to the young leads with Segan really impressing as the inherently disturbed JT who slowly changes before his friend’s eyes. The pair swear a vow of secrecy about their find but soon their friendship is straining. One scene with JT hidden completely in shadow next to the Dead Girl suddenly appearing out of the darkness like a vampiric Hugh Hefner is genuinely chilling. Things between the pair strain and strain even more until at one point one of them is inviting the gang of jocks, his long time tormentors, to see his discovery in an attempt to gain some sort of social standing within the school hierarchy.
A potent mix of jet black comedy, brutal horror and growing pains drama which will definitely stick in your mind.
Security agent Thomas “Jack” Jackman (Adrian Paul) is sent to a drilling facility in the Sahara desert to find out why all contact with the station has been lost. After battling through sandstorms and searching the apparently abandoned facility he meets the svelte and attractive Jennie (Kate Nauta) a member of the research team based here. Thomas finds himself questioning his own mind after being plagued by horrific visions, what were they drilling for and why is there no record of Jennie on the research team and what happened to the other team members?
There are echo’s of John Carpenter’s The Thing and Paul Andersen’s Event Horizon in this far better than you would expect psychological thriller. It’s opening scenes of Jackman stumbling around amidst a howling sandstorm before finally finding shelter in the disturbingly quiet facility set up the sense of isolation well. The first appearance of Jennie appearing as if out of nowhere is well done and the sense of ambiguity about what’s actually happening is well handled. With Jackman seeing so many jarring and disturbing things you’re wondering what’s real and what’s not just as much as he is as the paranoia kicks in and the stunning Jennie’s advances completely warp his grasp on reality, as he alternates between seeing her as a seductive demon out for his soul, a withered cackling old witch and her regular appearance and it’s never made clear which if any is actually the “real” Jennie.
The numerous and varied hallucinations are well done, from imagining a whole cluster of hands tapping on the windscreen of Jackman’s jeep as he tries to sleep outside amidst a sandstorm to one scene where Jackman faces his demonic self in a mirror, which is reflected into infinity in the mirror behind, and then raises a gun against his forehead and we see tiny flashes off in the far distance, which as they come closer reveal themselves to be gunshots of each of the reflections shooting themselves, to numerous others of his deceased wife shooting herself and his son.
Impressively atmospheric and definitely not one to watch if you’re tired since it will seriously fuck with your mind .
Work Shed 