10s Movie Review - Dredd

Director: Pete Travis
Genre: Action/ Science Fiction
Runtime: 95 minutes
Year: 2012
Starring: Karl Urban, Olivia Thirlby, Lena Heady, Domhnall Gleeson

Description: In a violent, futuristic city where the police have to act as judge, jury and executioner, a cop (Karl Urban) teams with a trainee (Olivia Thirlby) to take down a gang that deals the reality-altering drug SLO-MO.

Review: The first time the comic book character Judge Dredd got a movie, was in 1995, starring Sylvester Stallone. It wasn’t a success either critically or financially. Fans were also not very satisfied with Stallone’s interpretation of the comic book hero. Especially the fact that Stallone’s Dredd took off his helmet constantly, which Dredd practically never does in the comics. Seventeen years later, Karl Urban took on the role of Dredd.
The first thing to notice about “Dredd” is how raw and grim director Pete Travis’ vision of the future is. In a post-apocalyptic future, the population lives close together in megacities, with crime rates as high as skyscrapers. Everything is dirty, people walk ins rags and the poverty is almost palpable. There is very little room for humor, and the jokes that a remade often come at the expense of a poor soul who finds himself on the wrong side of Dredd’s gun.
Urban plays the title role with appropriate authority. His helmet never comes off, but Urban’s jawline is charismatic enough. With few words but many actions, he makes Dredd a determined and unstoppable force. Thus he forms a fine duo with Olivia Thirlby as the inexperienced Judge Anderson. While Dredd deals with the violence in a purely physical way, Anderson uses her feelings and her brain. It provides a nice interaction between the two opposites, and Urban and Thirlby know how to convey the bond of trust that slowly but unspoken develops between the two.
Across from them, the duo faces crime queen Ma-Ma, a violent brute. Ma-Ma deals in a drug called SLO-MO, which causes the user’s perception of time to slow down, making for some nice 3D scene. The two judges find themselves trapped in Ma Ma’s domain, apartment building Peach Trees. This results in cat-and-mouse game, with both sides not shying away from any violence. The action scenes are numerous, rock-hard, and simply but effectively put together. The violence is occasionally quite explicit. “Dredd” has an atmosphere that resembles an eighties action film and it is this no-nonsense approach that makes this film so entertaining.  
“Dredd” barely distinguishes itself from similar action films. Fortunately, it doesn’t pretend to be anything more than that either. This was a great film, not for the faint of heart though.

Rating: 4/ 5