VIDEO: Judge Dredd (1995)

by · September 24, 2012

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Here’s Cecil’s take on Judge Dredd, the 1995 movie adapted from a British comic, starring  Sylvester Stallone, Armand Assante, Rob Schneider, and Diane Lane.  

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  • Liam Barrett

    Stallone DOES have rather dreamy eyes. Never noticed that before.

    • Cecil_Trachenburg

      He wore blue contacts to make his face “pop” more than normal.

  • Faroe93

     It is nice review it is nice to see taht someone else then me is a fan of the 1995 Judge Dredd movie but I cod not hear any of the movie’s dialog in the review

    • Cecil_Trachenburg

      Weird. I know some of the dialog was only coming out of the left channel but it was still audible in the mix.

  • Muthsarah

    Your production notes segment (half the gorram video) was amazing, and I think it helps a lot to clarify what went wrong with the movie: it clearly missed its sell-by date.  I never read the comics, so I have no opinion about the adaptation, but I could tell even when I was a child that it was an 80s movie through and through.  Yeah, Robocop beat it to the punch and set the standard for tongue-in-cheek futuristic vigilante-as-cop movies, and the industry moved on by the mid 90s.  Demolition Man was silly too, but I suspect that with a more serious (?) work like Judge Dredd, audiences in the post-T2 world wanted a darker movie.  If the film wanted to go for funny, it should have taken a cue from Assante and well over the top, balls-to-the-wall action camp a la Commando.  Screw the moral police, make it fascist and make it fun.  The audience’ll get it.  But with the HUGE budget of 90 million (back when such budgets were rare), they locked themselves into trying to please everybody, and we know how that tends to go.  Good 80s filmmakers like Carpenter or an early Cameron coulda made something like this on a much smaller budget (with the added bonus of being either ingeniously campy or technically magnificent, respectively), and pre-T2, the audience’s expectations for costly special effects wouldn’t have been so high.  Again, it just took too long.  But a 1985 Judge Dredd would have probably been a highlight of a very good decade for this genre.

    And Sly really needed to NOT meddle in the making of a movie series that wasn’t his own.  I suspect he’s responsible for more than just that little kiss.

    So, while you didn’t convince me to change my mind on the movie (and I have seen it recently), and while I was impressed with your documentary-style elements here, I just don’t think you did enough to defend the film’s major faults (and not just the fanboy quibbles at the end).  The whole movie was outdated and got caught in an unhappy medium: not cheesy enough to be funny (and not funny enough to be funny), but not dark enough for the audience to take it seriously.  It’s not a horrible bad flick, but it’s not a good one either.

    • Cecil_Trachenburg

      There was a brief point where Cameron was in negotiations to produce but he left and had no involvement. (it was simply a timing thing, he did like the property) There are so many times where if something would have happened it would have boded well for the film but for whatever reason it didn’t happen. (if it came out before Demolition Man for example, people would consider DM a ripoff of Dredd)

      It was rumored that Canon had so much trouble with Stallone messing with the editing of the film that he swore to not work with such high profile actors again in the future. (I try to not put rumors in my videos, which is why I only briefly mentioned that he and Stallone butted heads)

      For as much as I do enjoy this movie I am glad that they didn’t bring Neumeier on board, otherwise we may never have had one of my all time favorite movies.

      The bottom line is I think it is an entertaining film that gets an unfair treatment. I know not everyone will agree but at least you can see that their heart was in the right place when this whole production came together.

  • I know this is another little, trivial thing but that’s Ian fucking Dury at 3:40! One of my favourite songwriters and was unfortunately struck with polio at the age of 7 (I do recommend Sex and Drugs and Rock n Roll, the biopic starring Andy Serkis as Dury. It made me buy his Greatest Hits right after watching it). That’s why you can see him looking a bit slanted and only see movement from his right arm since the left side of his body was completely paralyzed.

    Yeah a bit too much analysis about someone who was only on screen for about a minute befoe being killed but I just thought that was cool. Good take on this film anyway Cecil.

    • Cecil_Trachenburg

      You know, I had a feeling he was somebody. He just had that presence that was beyond just misc gun store clerk. I’ll check out the movie.

      Thanks 🙂

      • The_Stig

        Hate to nitpick, and I may have to re-watch the movie but I’m pretty sure it was a pawn shop, not a gun store.

        • Cecil_Trachenburg

          derp, my bad. Oh well, it was around 8 here and I just woke up.

          • The_Stig

            Bomar forgives you.

  • edharris1178

    Good stuff, man.   I sort of figured the Joan Chen character was kind of shoehorned in for some reason.

    •  I always figured she was just there to give Diane Lane someone to fight in the finale. Because they can’t have a woman fighting a man, that would just be silly, she’s a just a girl after all! 😛

      • Cecil_Trachenburg

        Women and men fighting in a movie? What is this madness! 😛

        • edharris1178

          Yeah, next thing you know everything will be shot in 3-D…Oh, never mind.

    • Cecil_Trachenburg

      They said the biggest argument the entire production had was the inclusion of Ilsa. The writer demanded the character to be in the movie because it was completely necessary for Rico to have a sidekick. (I completely disagree and side with the director on this) Canon ended up making the ABC robot Rico’s sidekick because it made more sense with the character. He hated humans for the most part, why all the sudden should he have a love interest?

      • The_Stig

        I actually had no problem with Ilsa (the fact that Joan Chen is one of the most beautiful women in the world certainly didn’t hurt). Rico was a Judge, not a scientist. He might have been evil but he still needed somebody who knew how the damn cloning equipment worked.

  • Sand Ripper

    You didn’t address the rumor of Stallone standing on boxes to look taller than Diane Lane. 😉

    This movie wasn’t bad, although I’ve never had the urge to watch it again. One thing I do remember about it was Schneider or Stallone (can’t remember which one) saying that was going to “kick Batman Forever’s ass” at the box office.

    Too bad that the latest Dredd movie tanked financially although they could have seen it coming, since Judge Dredd (the character) has virtually no name recognition in North America.

    Edit: One other thing I just remembered. Years ago, a friend and myself used to play Quake III a lot, and he always used a custom-created Judge Dredd model; not only was it a great model of Judge Dredd, but it even used Stallone voice clips from the movie, so you’d hear Stallone yelling “I am the law!” and “Prepare to be judged!” while running around with a BFG. 😉

    • Liam Barrett

      I think the guys behind the new Dredd are smart enough to realise they’re going to make the majority of their money in DVD sales, rentals and digital downloads. They’re also setting their sights realistically low, saying they’ll push out a sequel if the film makes a combined 50 million in America.

      • The_Stig

        I’m really really really hoping the new Dredd does well and gets a sequel because the new Dredd is really really really good….even if they do get the Judge costumes wrong. Though you can excuse that due to the limited budget. They couldn’t exactly get Versace to design the costumes like its blockbuster predecessor did after all (one of the only things the ’95 film actually got right).

        Frankly, I think people wouldn’t have harped on the Stallone helmet issue if it was a better movie, and honestly I think it’s a pretty decent, fun action movie that’s not as bad as its reputation states. 

        • Cecil_Trachenburg

          I’ve heard nothing but good things about Dredd. I want to see it but considering theaters have already began to drop it I may not be able to get to it while it is still on its run.

          • The_Stig

            Keep trying. The theaters dropping it already is not a good sign.

          • Cecil_Trachenburg

            If I can I’m going to try and catch a matinee on Sunday. Although my luck would be it is out of theaters by then.

          • Muthsarah

            I saw the movie last night.  It’s really good, and it feels NOTHING like the Stallone movie.  Depending on how attached you are to this silly version, this might be a bit of a transition to you.  As rumors state, it is very similar to The Raid (which I saw months ago, and was stunned giddy by), but only in the environment and the general intensity/simplicity of it being set in one really tall building.  The fact that Dredd is set in the future, and there’s more hardware, special effects, yadda yadda, it still FEELS different enough that the similarities are not an issue.  Again, I don’t know the comic books, but I did really enjoy the movie.  Excellent pacing, not a lot of wasted time, really a very short movie, well-trimmed, doesn’t try to be anything it doesn’t have to be.  Just a very R-rated action movie that just wants to be an entertaining action movie, and succeeds brilliantly.

            If anyone reading this likes action movies – whether of the recent sort or the classic 80s style – I’m certain there’s enough for either audience in this movie.  It has all the simplicity of the older action movies and all the technical sophistication of the recent stuff.  Unless you just don’t like action movies, YOU WILL LIKE THIS ONE.  Give it a chance, on the big screen.  3D, if you have the money.  You won’t have a lot of time to see it this way.  It’s a blast.

      • Cecil_Trachenburg

        I’m hoping for a Batman Begins sort of scenario. BB underperformed in the box office and it wasn’t really until word of mouth and then DVD sales kicked in that people saw just how good it was.

    • Cecil_Trachenburg

      LOL god forbid a leading man be shorter than the leading lady

      I believe it was either Canon or Stallone who said that. IMHO I liked it much better than Batman Forever. I thought BF was when they started the slide into the “campy” Batman, something they fought so hard to get away from with the first 2 movies.

      Dredd opened #1 in the UK so at least it is getting some love out there.

      Ah FPS mods. I did something similar only it was with Marathon and sound clips from Aliens.

      • The_Stig

        I should tell you my theory that bridges the Burton-era Gotham City with the Schumacher-era Gotham.

  • The_Stig

    “Good to see Jack in the Box is still around”

    Jack in the Box was the only restaurant to survive the Franchise Wars. So now all restaurants are Jack in the Box.

    You know, I was thinking. The Lawgiver Swiss Army Gun’s voice interface is cool, but it isn’t practical if you give a rat’s ass about not giving away your position. Then again if you’re dressed in that armor, I doubt stealth is a high priority.

    I wonder how many cadets at the academy went back to their dorms and blew their brains out after Dredd’s depressing speech to them.

    My God, how hot was Diane Lane in this one?

    • Cecil_Trachenburg

      heheh, so in the future its Jack in the box and Taco Bell

      I can’t imagine stealth being a huge thing with Judges. The giant gold eagle perched on their shoulder would kind of give them away. The lawgiver gun, while cool, is completely impractical indeed but it made for a cool scene.

      Diane Lane was smokin in this one. It made me want to go back and watch Lady Beware.

      • The_Stig

        I know, right? And how do you fit that many rounds into a pistol magazine? That’s not even including the signal flares, armor-piercing and all the other different rounds the thing is capable of carrying simultaneously. This makes the lawgiver not impractical, but downright impossible.  Also, wouldn’t the DNA tags cause the rounds to get stuck in the barrel?

        This movie had Diane Lane at her smokiest, but Joan Chen wasn’t any slouch either even though her character was totally superfluous. She looked good.

        Two things about the Lawmaster that have been bothering me. A: If malfunctions are common, why are they even in service? Wouldn’t the Judges want their flying motorcycles to actually work since the things can, you know…FLY? They must be manufactured by Jaguar. and B: Why would anyone even bother with ground mode if the damn things can fly in the first place?

        And show of hands, who wouldn’t want an ABC Warrior robot?

        • CDiehl

          I think the flying motorcycles’ tendency to malfunction is why one would bother with using them on the ground. Would you rather have it break down on the street or in the air? If one wanted to inject a small shred of practicality into the story, maybe have judges drive on the streets most of the time, and save flying for when they need it. Maybe Dredd is unique because he was assigned the prototype, which worked, and the others get the shitty mass-produced version. It would also dovetail with the premise of the council wanting more judges.

          Also, with the pistol, once again to inject a little practicality into the craziness, maybe they could have had the different ammo types be kept in separate clips. Maybe most judges carry only a couple clips of some of the special ammo for emergencies or to accomplish specific tasks, but Dredd, being a badass, carries a little of everything.

          Yeah, I really put more thought into all this than the people who made it did.

          • The_Stig

            Is the fact that the Lawmaster can fly not reason enough for the manufacturer to make sure the thing works in the first place?

          • CDiehl

            Again, it’s something they could have done something with in the movie. I picture this junk heap of a vehicle being bought by the city government because of a combination of corruption (the manufacturer paid off the council to accept it), desperation (the council needs a vehicle for judges now, not next year when they work out the bugs) and apathy (most, if not all, judges are clones, so who cares if they crash and burn?). I realize all of this is a massive side issue in what was intended as a silly action movie, but I imagine you could tun this into a much more interesting movie by adding details like that.

          • The_Stig

            How very OCP.

          • CDiehl

            When I was writing that, I thought of Ronny Cox in Robocop ranting about “I had a guaranteed military contract, parts and maintenance for twenty years. Who cares if it worked?”.

          • The_Stig

            The old man thought it was pretty important…..Dick.

            Seriously, don’t get me started or we’ll be quoting Robocop in this here comments section all night 🙂

        • Cecil_Trachenburg

          Really tiny bullets? I’m thinking the DNA tags was very tiny as to not get stuck. It was shown larger in the clip for examination purposes. (eh, or more likely that they just didn’t think that far)

          I’ve liked Diane Lane ever since Streets of Fire. She’s always had a very classic sex appeal about her. Joan Chen I never liked. I’ve seen countless movies (Deadlock, Wild Side, On Deadly Ground) where they pushed her as being this incredible sex pot. I don’t see it. She looks plain. Then they put a ton of make up on her and she looks even worse. Just not my bag.

          Good point about the Lawmasters. Considering that this is the device the Judges need to get around why would they have such faulty machinery? They obviously have cars that work, why have these unreliable things for the people who need it the most?

          /raises hand

          • MichaelANovelli

            Personally, I think Joan Chen is pretty hot!

          • The_Stig

            As do I, Mendo. As do I. 

  • Russell Brin (Facebook sux)

    Cecil I hate that you are my favorite reviewer because I watch your videos (even if I don’t comment on them).  Your reviews are always informative and always interesting.  This movie never had any chance of success, it just didn’t.  It wouldn’t appeal to American fans, it wouldn’t appeal to British fans, it might appeal to International fans that have no idea what was going on, but it would all have to be explained.   And in International release, would a fan in say Brazil watch this and think “OMG this is the best movie ever???” I’d venture to say…pretty unlikely.  So if it’s not able to find an audience in the US or the UK, it’s not likely to find success where NO ONE KNOWS WHO THE HELL HE IS…sorry I’ll stop shouting now.  I like every point you made and can’t argue against it so once again, solid review. 

    • Cecil_Trachenburg

      Thanks 🙂

      I think the studio was banking on it appealing to Stallone fans because he was huge at the time.
      Also, character recognition helps but isn’t always necessary. Blade was
      pretty obscure but that went on to be a massive hit.

      • Russell Brin (Facebook sux)

        The early 90s were a weird time for Stallone.  In 1990 he had Rocky V (easily considered one of his worst movies ever), in 1992 he had a failed comedy Stop or my Mom Will Shoot, and followed it in 1993 with two pretty good movies; Cliffhanger and Demolition Man, so at the time fans of his might be hot and cold about what he’d be in next.  That indifference probably played a big role in the overall failure of the movie “eh it’s Stallone in a role I never heard of, and it doesn’t look that good…sorry Sly I’ll take a pass on this until your next Rambo movie”

  • It’s so strange that we had this trend during the 90’s of comic book movies being based on relatively obscure comics.  Tank Girl, Judge Dredd, Steel, and The Rocketeer were all made into movies yet major well-known titles like Spiderman had to wait another decade.  I wonder what caused that?

    • Muthsarah

      Cheaper to license would be my guess.  Though I’m a bit surprised why.  I know that most comic book movies had failed (Superman burned out, Supergirl, Captain America) by then, but I’m surprised Batman hadn’t turned that around.  But if you still assumed that any comic book franchise was fundamentally risky, then you’d probably start at the cheapest to acquire, whereas nowadays that comic book movies are surefire bets (mostly), you’d start at most recognizable and work your way down.

      • Russell Brin (Facebook sux)

        Let’s also not forget that Punisher has had three completely unrelated movies, and they all really failed to perform at the box office (I know I know, the Tom Jane movie had a decent take but considering the budget I wouldn’t call it a super hit movie).  There are some obscure comic characters that did get optioned (Shi, Kabuki, Lady Death) that never amounted to anything.  I’m surprised the Spawn movie even got made, and also that Witchblade got a series on TNT.  I’m sure if Rob Liefeld had his way, there would be a Savage Dragon movie out by now too.

        • Muthsarah

          Don’t forget Barb Wire!  I remember the year that set the box office alight….

          Really, unless you were Batman, the nineties were a terrible time for comic books.  Spidey and Raimi somehow turned that around.  Which surprises me, as the first movie (and the first X-Men) weren’t very good….

          • Russell Brin (Facebook sux)

            Well the irony is that the 90s were a GREAT decade for comic books, but horrible for comic book movies.  I happen to like the X-Men and Spider-Man movies as they were at least taking the properties seriously and weren’t making them mind numbingly stupid.  Also we were forced to see the Shadow reduced to a shadow of his former self.  And don’t get me started on the Phantom and especially the Spirit, the way they presented Will Eisner’s seminal character still angers me to this very day. 

            And I forget Barb Wire, at every opportunity.  Really weird decade for comic books and comic book movies.  Although the 2000s gave us some odd gems like Man-Thing, Elektra and most recently Jonah Hex.  So I don’t think we’re going to get into a golden age of comic book movies any time soon.

          • Muthsarah

            To look at the box office, we’re already there.  Comics (through movies) now have the kind of mass appeal they haven’t had since…ever?  I dunno.  And haven’t they already scraped the bottom of the barrel for franchises?  Short of a combined Justice League movie (which I hear much but see little about), there isn’t a lot left to be mined, is there?  If Green Lantern and any post-2 X-Men movies bomb, just where can the industry go from here, other than just re-launching Spidey, Bats, and Supes every eight years or so?

          • The_Stig

            Blame Batman’s monster success for the state of the comic book film in the 90’s. EVERY movie made during that period copied the ever-loving crap out of Batman, and every comic book movie score was trying to ape Danny Elfman.

          • Russell Brin (Facebook sux)

            There is Dr Strange, Aquaman, Captain Atom, Heroes For Hire, Green Arrow, Ms Marvel, The Atom, Cloak and Dagger, WONDER WOMAN, Tigra, Nightwing, Hawkeye, Hawkman, Cable, and Flash as examples of characters that could work as movies that can be mined for good movie productions.  And that’s off the top of my head.  I’m not saying they would all be commercial successes but they could be good movies if given dedication and appreciation for the source material by whoever worked on them.  And that’s for characters with no movie options on the horizon either.

          • Sofie Liv

             Well, to be really annoying. Just look at Marvel, they proved you can go new places with this.

            They took a huge gamble making a movie out of a hero no one whom wasn’t a comic geek had really ever heard about, Iron Man, and it became a smash hit.

            Then they did it again with Thor!

            Then they took a hero which only ever had one movie before, and that movie back in the day was a box office bomb and has now become infamouse for being one of the big bad movies in supehero movies, yet they went ahead with the new movie anyhows, and Captain America did pretty well.

            HULK, they not only tried it ones, they tried it twice where the movie didn’t earn nearly as much as they had hoped, and yet they still went ahead and included him in the new avengers movie.

            Now they are taking yet another gamble as the super hero team movie. “Guardians of the Galaxy.” is a movie that seems to very much become reality as a director, James Gunn has been announced, this is not just a flimsy rumour, it’s an announcment, and Whedon stands behind it.

            So yeah, Disney Marvel.. likes to gamble and use not as well known names, it’s just a shame Universal is not nearly as good at this.

            Also, every hero can make a good movie in the right hands.

          • Russell Brin (Facebook sux)

            Sofie how much do you think Thanos will play into the Guardians of the Galaxy movie?  Because clearly he is THE power player in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

          • Sofie Liv

             I have no idea, hopefully this big “Share univers” thing wont interfere to much with movie itself and the story it wants to tell.

            Actually, I do believe the biggest danger zone for this project now is for it not to become to comfortable with itself and depend on continuety, the bad thing that could happen now is that the movies will seize feeling like movies and more like fancy TV episodes connected together.

            That’s kind of what happened with the Harry potter movies half way through, they stopped being singular movies and began becoming an exspensive BBC mini-series.. and that’s not a good thing, that’s not what I pay for when I go to cinema and have a huge massive screen to look at. Also did that each movie didn’t felt fully realised, but just a minor part of some-thing bigger I cannot see.

            Hopefully, Disney Marvel will continue doing what they have done up until now, make very solid movies, which each are good movies in their own right, spreading mild back-ground hints to the continuiety that doesn’t really interefere with the movie itself.

          • Russell Brin (Facebook sux)

            I agree with every single point you made, it’s truly tough to imagine a Guardians of the Galaxy holding up on its own.  It’s such an odd choice for Marvel as well, as even in the Avengers: Earths Mightiest Heroes cartoon, they were brought to Earth for a different agenda, so seeing them in a movie would be pretty jarring, unless Marvel somehow got the rights back to Silver Surfer for a good Defenders movie (yes I know I am a one track minded person but if Fox won’t use him someone better!)…ahem. 

            This version of the Guardians of the Galaxy still makes no sense unless Michael Korvac is involved in the story and that only works if its tied into Thanos and the power that Thanos gains somehow…And while I admit that an Ant-Man movie might be impressive and might be pretty damn good its tough to introduce him into the movie roster at this time, other than creating Ultron and ending up fighting him, Skynet style.

          • Sofie Liv

             I don’t know, maybe they genuinly just want to make a cool space battle movie???

            I actually now find it both kind of comforting and endearing that they are willing to put so much money into a movie that doesn’t really have marcheting value if you look at the title only, that they’ll have to make this into a good movie to make that work, and doesn’t just rely on spitting new iron man movies out by the hour.

          • Russell Brin (Facebook sux)

            I think it’s also to give the actors a break to do other movies so they don’t feel tied down to one particular franchise.

          • CDiehl

            I’d say the so-called “golden age” of comic-book movies has peaked. There will probably be a couple more summers with comic-book movies as the tentpoles, and some will be pretty good, but it’s not going to be like this past summer. After that, it’ll mostly be rebooting the old standby’s like Batman and Spiderman once, maybe twice in a decade (my money’s on another Batman movie in about five years).

          • The_Stig

            Barb Wire? You mean the movie Universal dicked over the marketing for MST3K: The Movie for because they thought BW was the safer bet? How’d that turn out?

        • Cecil_Trachenburg

          I like all 3 Punisher movies in 3 different ways. The first is just awesome, the second I think is a good film but didn’t totally feel like The Punisher, and the 3rd was over the top like the first one only with a bigger budget. I’d love to see a Punisher film with Jane done like Dirty Laundry. That would be outstanding.

          Spawn was made off the obscene popularity of the comic at the time (I believe it was the top selling book for a while there) but even still they barely scraped up 40 million for the budget. After some test footage the studio gave them an extra million to work on the cape and give it more life. (which was prominently shown in the scene where he was standing on the cathedral) Even with the dark subject matter (a government assassin back from hell as an agent of the devil, being hunted by a demon who liked to eat human hearts) they pushed for the film to be PG-13. Talk about a stupid move.

          Oh, and Savage Dragon was Erik Larson, not Liefeld. Liefeld’s big one was Youngblood…a movie that could work but as long as Liefeld had as little involvement as possible. A Savage Dragon movie would be awesome and that pains me to say because Larson is a complete asshole. I love the book but can’t stand the creator.

          • Russell Brin (Facebook sux)

            You know, I even knew that it was Erik Larson that created Savage Dragon (I should always double check my facts before I say something stupid), I just equate the two egos to almost equal Todd McFarlanes…almost.  The only Image creators I respect are Whilce Portacio, Jim Lee (gotta love Wildstorm even if WildCATS cartoon was pretty lame at times) and Mark Silvestri. 

            Onto your other point, making Spawn PG-13 WAS really dumb, glad the HBO cartoon was what it was, an unapologetic view into the world of evil, with hell literally being hellish.  That cartoon was very well done, to the point that of adult super hero cartoons, I don’t think anything has come close.  Maxx tried to be adult but didn’t work as well as Spawn did.

            If they do a fourth Punisher movie it should be a Marvel Max movie, and be R Rated, and feature a cameo with Dolph Lundgren being a bad ass fighting Tom Jane, maybe taking on the role of Vanguard to face off against Tom Jane’s Punisher.  Heck, having Vanguard would play perfectly into an Agents of SHIELD movie, and having Punisher teaming up with Hawkeye and Black Widow to take down the Winter Guard?  Heck yeah that’s a movie I can totally enjoy.

      • Cecil_Trachenburg

        At the time many of the executives at the big comic companies just didn’t want to play. They either wanted too much money to license their characters or just didn’t care. Comics were bank in the 90s and they were making so much money they didn’t think making a movie was worth it.

        The smaller companies wanted to get their characters out there, so that was why you saw The Crow, TMNT, The Mask, etc.

        There is a whole huge story about how Marvel’s Avi Arad spearheaded their movie division and turned the who thing around. I may do an episode on that someday but it will be a really, really long one.

  • Hey Cecil, great review as always! I gotta say I really like all the research you do. I had no idea of the link between Judge Dredd and the original Robocop. The Dredd remake, according to what I’ve ever heard, is one of the best comic-based movies ever made. which brings me to this review… I was actually surprised to hear you find a number of positives with the film. i hated it, but in a way that i hate Schumacher’s “Batman & Robin”: I know it’s bad, but I always watch it when it’s on tv.

    Thanks again for all the background info … and the hilarious “mutant” reference showing Honey Boo Boo’s mom. Classic!

    • Cecil_Trachenburg

       Thank you! While there is a part of me that wonders how Judge Dredd would have fared if it was written by Neumeier, I’m happy it never happened because there would be no Robocop. (one of my top 10 all time favorite movies)

      I’ve heard nothing but high praise for Dredd. Such a shame that a movie knocks it out of the park as well as it did and then goes on to make like 5 bucks in the US. American theater-goers really do deserve the drivel they get because that seems to be the only stuff that actually makes money on a consistent basis.

      Heheheh, the Honey Boo Boo thing was a last minute addition. I needed an image of the mutants from Dredd and while I was looking I saw a mutant that reminded me of HBB’s mom. I knew then I had to throw a pic of her in there. 🙂

  • Tim Terrell

    Good Show. I didn’t hate this movie either. I quite liked it except for Rob S. I can’t stand Ruby Rhod but he was much more bearable than Schneider. Many people complain that the Anthrax song wasn’t in the new movie or this one. Why? ‘Mutants In Mega City One” by Fink Brothers in 100x a better song than “I Am The Law” but you don’t see me complaining that a song that totally doesn’t fit the mood of the movie is not in it.

    • Cecil_Trachenburg

      Thanks! I’ve never been a fan of Chris Tucker and that pretty much stems from his part in the 5th Element. He was good in Friday but that is mostly because Friday is freaking funny. Schneider never bothered me. As goofy as his movies are, they make me laugh. I don’t go around recommending them to people but whenever he puts a new one out I make sure to watch.

      It was a minor nitpick, actually not really a nitpick just a personal preference. I am the law seemed like such a better fit than a song from the Cure. (and I like the Cure but I don’t think Judge Dredd when I hear a Cure song)

  • Guestieguest

    I didn’t care for this movie, even as a kid, and I LOVE great B-movies. This one wasn’t one. Neither was it good enough to be a good movie. It was just predictable and boring. I, for one, really enjoyed every single aspect of “Fifth Element” including Chris Tucker as Ruby Rhod, but here? Rob Schneider is terrible. As he is in nearly everything. The new Dredd movie was a far superior movie even if the comic didn’t exist. This? This was ham-fisted processed cheese. Old, moldy cheese. Not even Velveeta.

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