Dredd (2012)

[Rusty]

A friend at works adores sci fi and violent action films.  Since Septemeber, I've insisted how brilliant Dredd is, and that I was convinced he'd really love it.  Well, he saw half of it the other day, but fell asleep and described it as 'boring'.
Youngsters, eh?

I've a mate that did the exact same thing. He said it was a let down and had turned it off with about half an hour left of it to go. He then tells me that Dredd was good himself, and that he liked the story and the look of the film, but then said about "the tough rookie cop" load of bollox as he put it. So, he basically got the gist of what Dredd was aiming for with Dredd himself being the anti-hero and Anderson being the tough woman role that doesn't need saving, which is exactly her character anyway. He then texts me later to say that he has the other half hour on. It was such a disappointment that he had to go back and finish it off, eh.

[Stan]

It's kind of a double edged sword. On the one hand you'd hope there's aren't too many lost DVD sales with people watching it early on the internet, but on the other it's also helpful to have more positive word of mouth coming in just before the release (which is the reaction I've seen by a long chalk). My brain doesn't really have the computing power to figure out whether it'll have an overall positive or negative effect. I'm thinking it'll be close to even or a little under.

[radiator]

Word of warning to those considering buying the French collectors edition of the Dredd Blu Ray - it's a metal case rather than a steelbook, the text on the spine will probably go the wrong way up if its there at all (exactly the sort of thing that would bother the sort of person who collects steelbooks!) and apparently French discs usually have hard subtitles (as in ones you can't switch off).

Apparently play.com are 'considering' a UK Dredd steelbook, and a German steelbook is quite likely, but we'll find out in March when it comes out there.

[James Stacey]

HMV have been steelbooking a lot of releases recently so its possible they might with this one

[Stan]

I think I'd actually like to watch the German version without subs. It's not like any of us wouldn't know what they're saying anyway.

[Spikes]

Think ill buy whatever Blu-Ray is on the shelf in HMV on the release day, but i would like one of those Steelbooks for Dredd.
Do Steelbook versions usually come out on the first day of release, or do they tend to come out slightly later?

[radiator]

Both.

Generally I only buy old favourites that are reissued with a steelbook, like Total Recall (1990), Akira  and The Terminator - films that I genuinely love and will watch over and over again, but lots of new releases get them too - even the bloody Sweeney is getting a steelbook edition. I make exceptions for newer films like The Raid which has insanely gorgeously designed packaging.

As I understand it, Play.com do loads of exclusive steelbooks for films from the Universal and Paramount studios, while HMV do likewise for iirc Studio Canal and Lionsgate.

[Spikes]

Steelbooks do look the biz, dont they. But ive seen very few of them, if any, on the shelves at HMV, so im guessing they sell out quickly.
But as one of my mates works in the stockroom at HMV... jobs a good 'un - hopefully!

[MR. ELIMINATOR]

Someone's put the ending scene up on youtube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cuMUIOROhQM

[Zanti Misfit]

Wow!  I've forgotton how trippy, dream-like and surreal it all is. (beautiful, too.) Can't wait for the Blu-Ray.

[Stan]

They could've waited a week.

[Michaelvk]

Someone popped up on my timeline an hour ago saying how awesome Dredd was, as well as Looper. The only possible way they could've seen it was via illegal download. Now it's an instance like this, with Dredd, that we all feel how frustrating this torrent business is when it comes to a movie that deserved to to better at the box office, but didn't, and is now effectively being thieved (arguably due to poor timing on the DVD sales..). Agree with me or not, it prompted me to post the following status update:

Here's the thing, guys.. I've started to see from a few sources that people are seeing Dredd via torrent downloads. It's great that they're all enjoying it, but.. Dredd failed to reach its box office targets (it made just shy of $31 million, for it's $45 million budget). For whatever reason this may be, from the US market not understanding who the character is, the 18 rating, to arguably piss poor marketing. But there's a lot of people who were hoping to see a sequel happen straight off the bat. This means that the production would most likely come back to where it was made, which is Cape Town Film Studios. Movie making is a business like any other. It's there to make money. If someone doesn't buy a product, then the person selling it will stop making said product and sell something else. As far as the investors go, a torrented movie doesn't bring in any revenue. So if, say, 1000 people who've seen the movie, only 600 have seen it by purchasing a movie ticket, dvd or rental, and the minimum required for a sequel was 750 people, then they say fuck it, we didn't get our investment and profit off of this, we're not going to do THAT again. This means that the movie WON'T get a sequel, which WON'T come back to South Africa, which then WON'T employ several hundreds of local artists and crafts people.

With a movie like The Avengers, which has a PG13 rating, several other movies leading up to it all with massively popular well known characters and massive merchandising potential, they're going to make their money back in spades, and won't be as hurt by torrents. But a smaller, independent film like Dredd, it gets a savage kicking if the same number of people who torrented The Avengers do the same to Dredd. People can have that attitude that the distributors and studios get all the money, which, ultimately is true. But they're also the people who fund what comes next. So if you're fed up with crap like Beverly Hills chihuahua or some lame umpteenth sequel movie about dancing flashmobs full of angsty teen douchebags, have missed the movie at the theatre (because the experience is awful or you never got the chance) then at least wait until it hits the rental/purchase circuit.

I'm not directing this at a single individual, it's a rant about what ultimately happens if people essentially can't be arsed to spend less than the cost of three king steer burger combo meals for a DVD copy in their droves. A single drop of water doesn't do any harm, but a rain storm washes away villages.

[Michaelvk]

FYI, a King Steer combo meal is a combo meal from a South African fast food chain. It costs R65, which is about £4.70.. An average DVD on new release would cost in the R150 to R200 (£11 to £15) range..

[Goaty]

[JOE SOAP]

Agree with me or not, it prompted me to post the following status update: