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Judge Dredd (1995) (part 1 of 2)
SUMMARY: Sylvester Stallone goes up against an overacting Armand Assante in the comic book adaptation Judge Dredd. Lots of dead bodies, Rob Schneider comic relief, and gratuitous Joan Chen ensue.
With the new Judge Dredd movie starring Karl Urban coming out soon, I thought now would be as good a time as any to take a look at the first time this character was brought to the silver screen. Strap in, folks, because Sylvester Stallone is Judge Dredd!
The character was created in 1977 for a British comic anthology called 2000 A.D., and has proven to be its longest running storyline. In the comic, Dredd is the ultimate law enforcement officer in a dystopian future, where the people have been moved to “Mega-Cities”, and cops act as judge, jury, and executioner.
The character proved to be fairly popular, even getting a few crossover comics with Batman, as well as our feature today.
In 1995, a big budget movie was put together, and crapped out in the summer, starring Sylvester Stallone, Max von Sydow, Armand Assante, Rob Schneider, Joan Chen, and Diane Lane. It was, to put it mildly, rather disappointing, as its many fans felt it didn’t really reflect the somewhat satirical edge the comic had, and to be fair, after the first few minutes, it does sort of turn into just another Sylvester Stallone movie.
The plot is fairly basic, as we follow Dredd as he’s framed for murder by his cloned brother Rico (Assante) and exiled. He teams up with Rob Schneider (maybe the only time Rob has ever been in a decent movie), and has to fight to clear his name, and stop Rico from creating a bunch of cloned judges that will help him wreak havoc on the general populace, or something along those lines.
I get a kick out of it though, as I am, as you might have guessed from the free rides I gave Rambo III and The Specialist, an unabashed Stallone fan.
I give this one 8 out of 10 Swiss Army Guns. Let’s check it out.
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Ed Harris
A fan of less than great cinema since childhood, Ed divides his time between writing scripts, working an actual paying job and subjecting himself willingly to some of the worst films society has produced.
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