TL;DR – A film that combines great action, compelling characters, visual storytelling, and creative worldbuilding making it a must watch
Score – 4.5 out of 5 stars
Post-Credit Scene – There is no post-credit scene
Review –
There are some films out there that just don’t find their audience the first
time around, yet over the years they build upon and continue to find their
voice as a slow burn. These are films that are often referred to as Cult
Classics. Today I want to take a look at a film that is both of these things.
It is an action film, both beautiful and violent, it is a look at society, and
also is the home for some of the best one-liners in cinema.
So to set the scene, in the far future the world has been ravaged by war with
people crowding into mega cities where violence and murder are commonplace.
Long gone are democratic governance and due process, replaced with the Judges.
These are judge, jury, and indeed sometimes (a lot of the time) executioners.
They have the power to hand out justice as they see fit, only answering to
their other judges. One such Judge is Judge Dredd (Karl Urban) who is tasked by
the Chief Judge (Rakie Ayola) to give a new recruit Anderson (Olivia Thirlby)
an evaluation. She had marginally failed the final test but she is the best
psychic the Judges had ever seen so this is her sink or swim moment. They can
pick anything to respond to so they choose Peach Trees a mega block with 75,000
residents where ‘Ma Ma’ (Lena Headey) had just killed three men and made an
example of them. Judges rarely come to Peach Trees, but when they capture one
of her key lieutenants Kay (Wood Harris) alive and take him away to be
interrogated, Ma-Ma locks down the entire block forcing the Judges to fight
their way out.
