Dredd (2012)

[shaolin_monkey]

above post in 'Abelard Snazz-o-vision' brought to you by lackofaneditfunction.

Or, to quote the great sage Kryten: ' Now I realise that technically speaking that's only one flaw but I thought that it was such a big one that it was worth mentioning twice. '

[Richmond Clements]

If you think I haven't mentioned it before, then you haven't been paying attention.

[shaolin_monkey]

Sorry mate, just messing around. I was referring to Danmarr accidentally posting it twice. No offence meant.

[Goaty]

As I was watch Shaun Of The Dead on dvd last night, well enjoyable, and it got Zomb-o-Meter, trivia track featured on the film, I do wish Dredd got that to help us to spot more trivia etc on the film.

That's unlikely to happens so I hope the production company would one day posting the list of trivias for us to check out in the film?

[Definitely Not Mister Pops]

That's unlikely to happens so I hope the production company would one day posting the list of trivias for us to check out in the film?

I reckon this thread has pretty much covered that

[Richmond Clements]

Sorry mate, just messing around. I was referring to Danmarr accidentally posting it twice. No offence meant.

Don't panic! It was a reply to Danmarr, not you! :-)

[darnmarr]

Because this thread can never ever die, I'd thought I'd post up a review of sorts,
(sent to me in an email by a friend) it's positive overall without being a stream of sychophantic praise, and I dont agree with all of it, but I thought he made some interesting points, so I thought I'd pop it on here for other folk to peruse or ignore.

..

I finally sat down to watch the 'Dredd' last week and i finally made time to type you a missive on the very fella on this very day. Indeed it is a missive, not a dismissive, that i'm jotting up now as I did enjoy the movie very much. What i liked most about it all was the squalor, the unremitting dirt of it all - not quite Thunderdome or maybe well beyond it. The general feel of the city was well played and cleverly avoided the hangnail imitation of Bladerunner which dog the look of future dystopias - where Bladerunner gave us neon-night and torrential rain, Dredd gave us sun bleached and dust-choked, Bladerunner's flying cars and industrial-technological plateau, give way to what looks like re-purposed Nissan Sunny's* and an interminable infrastructural apathy, decaying highways sprawling around equally decaying tower-blocks, tower-blocks whose epic sink estate can only serve to aggravate the distance between them and the IKEA-zen-sterility of Bladerunner's corporate interiors. Its all in that step away from noir to pulp, from Marlowe to Callaghan, from grit to dirt that makes it all so delicious and its turn from city to block that defiantly pulls its ass out of Ridley Scott territory, though maybe only to shuffle it's prospects over to prime eightie's James Cameron real estate. That's one of the joys of Dredd in essence it supposed to be  a movie that is derived from a comic book format, and it does do enough to justify this, but in effect it is really a movie that feeds from that pre-digital paradise of the video tape, it is an homage, a cannibalization, a refitting of the golden era of the action movie, that early eighties, the late night mid-week movie, that VHS thrill all over again. There is a definite sense of working to a limited means with the whole affair - a few cutaway scenes are shabbily shot and interrupt the sense of disbelief - but on the whole Dredd does make good on its limited means. In fact i'd say some of the major selling points of this movie for me are how it cleverly manages to get around the problem of how to deliver sci-fi on a shoestring without overly compromising itself. The effects are, well, effective, and seem well considered to make the most of otherwise tired digital technology, the city is not overplayed, the sets and vehicles are solid and delightfully clunky, the action has the toughness you would expect, the costumes were worn and credible enough - and the slo-mo effect was a clever piece of film making indeed. It was there in slo-mo that the visual mesh of comic book and film was at its strongest and plot wise its effects were where I found the most intrigue - did slo-mo provide it's users anything beyond their reality? was it more than a visual hallucinogen for them? was it an antidote to megacity life? or was it simple fix for them and a visual patch for the movie? And there were more than enough patchy moments in Dredd - mainly in the plot devices used to drive the story forwards, inwards and upwards. There were a few shaky moments which i accepted on merit - the judges initial arrest and subsequent hauling around of Ma-ma's henchman Kay, grand it got the story and gave Anderson a face to compose herself against, relieving Dredd from the foils of being overly-communicative- but boy did it feel so forced. Ma-ma's overreaction of locking down the whole block, neat, keeps it all tense, condensed and familiar but did not chime with the idea of her being a ruthless and calculating kingpin. Why kill the Judges?  One shot kill the obviously expendable henchman - she has minions galore surely she could coerce one of them to sacrificing themselves ( or should that be 'himself' were all her hench- peoples hench-men? no hench-women in mamas army?) in a rather blatant assault - surely some lacky could take the shot - take the fall for her: where was her assassin ala Micky Corleone or Fonzie Capone? What about the judges she had corrupted - no joy there? Heck-o why not even fit anyone who could compromise her operation with one of those handy explosive bracelets - just plain sloppy. I think you once said that you felt sorry for her plunging to her rather blatantly just and just blatant end - i'll admit that I could not muster up enough sympathy for her - it just seemed as she said 'predictable' - all too inevitable - a little bit too neat. When Dredd blows a hole in the wall - rather easily too for a tower thats meant to be on a lockdown against god knows what future war - then again they probably did not build those towers to high spec, which would almost make sense and be sort of consistent - they escape to a high rise skate park, get through to control, radio an emergency, then waltz back into the block because they are too exposed, exposed enough for a helicopter evac perhaps? No flying cars, i'll grant them that, but no airborne support at all? - even the cops in Moyross* have helicopter support. Is this lack of aircraft addressed in the movie's reality at all - i might have missed it. As i said though, you just have to accept these things on merit - like most classic eightie's action fares don't stop to think 'why?' just grunt and move on to the next action scene - in this it serves itself well and i'm glad that they have finally redeemed the good name of Dredd from the taint of Stallone. Hope alls well fella,

..........

*Moyross is v.much the 'peach trees' of Limerick.

[radiator]

Fair points - thinking about it, it would have been far easier for Mama to just instruct the crooked judges to cap Kay after he was escorted from the building, but I take issue with this bit:

When Dredd blows a hole in the wall - rather easily too for a tower thats meant to be on a lockdown against god knows what future war

Someone pointed this out before, and I'll say that the wall was already significantly weakened by the minigun fire.

[Hawkmumbler]

When Dredd blows a hole in the wall - rather easily too for a tower thats meant to be on a lockdown against god knows what future war

Someone pointed this out before, and I'll say that the wall was already significantly weakened by the minigun fire.

We can indeed see that a ray of light has penetrated it, so it's safe to assume that the wall is week enough at that point to be broken through with Hi-Ex.

[IndigoPrime]

Some fair points, to which I'd add that Dredd running out of ammo was always a bit BWUH?, given that he could at any point have grabbed at least a back-up piece from one of the countless goons he shot. Still, for most of the plot holes, it's easy enough to make a counterpoint:

- Why grab Kay? Because the judges do still have some kind of law they adhere to—they're not just shooting everything that moves.

- Ma-Ma's overreaction I took as her arrogance and also the movie's world being one where the judges are seriously overstretched. "Do you know how often we get a judge in Peach Trees?" is a very telling statement. Perhaps Ma-Ma simply underestimates Dredd. But, yeah, it turns out she's not the best strategic thinker in the world. (Mind you, who said she was? Her blitz through the block appeared to mostly be driven by fear and ruthlessness, not calculating cunning.)

- On the skate park, they could have waited about for an air unit, but I imagine Dredd's thinking was that they'd already come under fire from dozens of goons. Sooner or later, someone would have figured out where they were, and there would have been no escape. If the judges are stretched beyond breaking point in the movie, how long would the air support have taken? Five minutes? Half an hour?

Still, as noted in the post, it's first and foremost a movie that keeps its plot barrelling on, and so sometimes it doesn't entirely hold up to scrutiny. That said, Dredd doesn't fall apart the moment you start thinking about it in any depth, unlike, say, the most recent Batman film or Looper, and so that's a good thing!

[Stan]

- On the skate park, they could have waited about for an air unit, but I imagine Dredd's thinking was that they'd already come under fire from dozens of goons. Sooner or later, someone would have figured out where they were, and there would have been no escape. If the judges are stretched beyond breaking point in the movie, how long would the air support have taken? Five minutes? Half an hour?

And it was a correct assumption by Dredd seeing as Caleb was picking his way through the rubble with his small gang of cannon fodder.

[radiator]

That said, Dredd doesn't fall apart the moment you start thinking about it in any depth, unlike, say, the most recent Batman film or Looper, and so that's a good thing!

Don't forget Prometheus.

Why grab Kay? Because the judges do still have some kind of law they adhere to—they're not just shooting everything that moves.

Yeah, a lot of people didn't seem to notice that during the raid on the drug den, Dredd only executes those that pull weapons on him.

[Richmond Clements]

And one my son pointed out to me: Dredd couldn't "execute Kay on 99%"... but when Anderson does her mind thing on him in the school room, there can be no doubt of his guilt, so why did they not execute him then?

[Hawkmumbler]

And one my son pointed out to me: Dredd couldn't "execute Kay on 99%"... but when Anderson does her mind thing on him in the school room, there can be no doubt of his guilt, so why did they not execute him then?

Thats...a good question. Hostage situation, possibly bargaining with Ma-Ma?

[Molch-R]

And one my son pointed out to me: Dredd couldn't "execute Kay on 99%"... but when Anderson does her mind thing on him in the school room, there can be no doubt of his guilt, so why did they not execute him then?

How does what happened in the school room change the situation, though? All they have now is circumstantial evidence about slo-mo. It doesn't make the extra 1%, it just gives them a guide on what they should do.