Post by CmdrKiley on Oct 2, 2012 18:27:09 GMT -5
Dredd 3D Have you seen it? You should. It's a great shoot'em up flic that keeps you on the edge of your seat.
It's not the Stallone flic you saw and didn't like some 14 years ago. It's no camp, all in your face gritty violence, tense edge of your seat action, and tuff-guy one-liners. It's not a chic flic, it's not a date flic, it's not some artsy over the top stunt flic, it's an in your face action movie made for guys who like action movies (and play games like action movies). It reminded me of the first time I saw Robocop. If you like movies like Dirty Harry, Robocop, and Die Hard then you'll love Dredd 3D. It's like they took Dirty Harry and turned him into Robocop and locked him in the Nakatomi Builiding with about 200 floors of gang banger druggies gunning after him (from zip guns all the way up to 20mm Vulcans!).
The movie is a bit low-budget, production costs were about $45 and it was filmed in South Africa, but they maximize bang for buck (literally) and come out with a far better quality film than most Bruckheimer flics. The low budget seemed to actually make it better, the setting didn't seem to far in the future and gave it a more set in reality feel to it. Not a lot of high tech gadgets either. They really didn't even dress-up any cars to make the look "futuristic". I recognized an old Toyota delivery van from the 80s in it. Pretty much everything was beatup and run down. Some of the street scenes were stock shots that could have been seen anywhere today (including Detroit). Arial views of Mega City One were done with CG and looked like a mix of contemporary buildings and some of the structures one would expect in the comic. Overall, MC1 is much smaller than the comic as well (described as rangeing from Boston to Washington DC rather than from New York to Florida). Costumes seemed more practical than the over the top straight from the comic look, which added to the realism.
The plot was kept simple and contained. Rather than taking a bunch of story arcs from the comic into this epic world changing event and craming as many characters from the comic into cameo scenes like the Stallone movie, this is pretty simple and focused. As Dredd says in the end "Just another drug bust." In fact the plot seems like it started from a game scenario. Player 1 Objectives, kill 2 Judges, prevent boss's lieutenant from getting getting arrested. Player 2 Objectives, escape, hold out for back-up, or fight your way to the boss on the 200th floor. A game scenario, I'd love to play out (hmmmm....Rezolution, Necromunda, or Judge Dredd Miniatures....).
I always say, a good superhero movie must have a good super villian to make the hero look even better. The villian, Ma Ma played by Leena Hensley, was one brutal nasty bitch and good foil to Dredd's cold hearted enforcer of law.
Carl Urban played Dredd perfectly. When I read that the comic was a spoof of Dirty Harry, Urban's portrayal made far more sense as he seemed to channel Clint Eastwood at times. Especially the ending when he finishes off Ma Ma, seemed right out of a Dirty Harry movie. On the other hand, Stallone's portrayal now seems even more silly. I can see why all the Dredd heads hated that movie despite the fact that it captured the look of the comic. Stallone was channelling Stallone. Furthermore Urban was doing it all with the helmet on at all times (chin acting) while Stallone had his helmet off most of the time (something the comic Dredd never did). Overall, I think this movie captured the spirit of the comic without copying it.
Judge Anderson, played by Olivia Thirlby (whom just seemed to have some stunning eyes), was the character development in the flic. A nervous rookie who get teamed up with the near inhuman Dredd and ends up in over her head while locked in the worst tennament tower in Mega City One. She picks learns to harden up, use her talents, while showing enough spunk to impress Dredd, while still keeping her humanity in the end.
I ended up seeing it in 3D, as it was the only show available at the time for me. Normally I choose not to do 3D. The nice thing was this movie used 3D quite creatively and didn't make the movie about 3D stunts, like the recent Resident Evil movies. Most of the movie the 3D really didn't make a difference, but the Slo-Mo scenes were quite cool being enhanced by 3D. You see the action from the point of veiw of a druggie high on Slo-Mo (shockwaves rippling through bodies as the bullets pass through them like in those high speed photography films of bullets hitting targets, spewing blood and guts out of the exit wounds) So see it either way you prefer.
Overall, I loved this flic. Soundtrack was pretty damn good too. From what I hear, despite the great reviews, it's not doing so well in the box office. That's a shame compared to high dollar garbage that's been dump out lately. Watching this movie has really given me the urge to bust out my Rezolution stuff.
It's not the Stallone flic you saw and didn't like some 14 years ago. It's no camp, all in your face gritty violence, tense edge of your seat action, and tuff-guy one-liners. It's not a chic flic, it's not a date flic, it's not some artsy over the top stunt flic, it's an in your face action movie made for guys who like action movies (and play games like action movies). It reminded me of the first time I saw Robocop. If you like movies like Dirty Harry, Robocop, and Die Hard then you'll love Dredd 3D. It's like they took Dirty Harry and turned him into Robocop and locked him in the Nakatomi Builiding with about 200 floors of gang banger druggies gunning after him (from zip guns all the way up to 20mm Vulcans!).
The movie is a bit low-budget, production costs were about $45 and it was filmed in South Africa, but they maximize bang for buck (literally) and come out with a far better quality film than most Bruckheimer flics. The low budget seemed to actually make it better, the setting didn't seem to far in the future and gave it a more set in reality feel to it. Not a lot of high tech gadgets either. They really didn't even dress-up any cars to make the look "futuristic". I recognized an old Toyota delivery van from the 80s in it. Pretty much everything was beatup and run down. Some of the street scenes were stock shots that could have been seen anywhere today (including Detroit). Arial views of Mega City One were done with CG and looked like a mix of contemporary buildings and some of the structures one would expect in the comic. Overall, MC1 is much smaller than the comic as well (described as rangeing from Boston to Washington DC rather than from New York to Florida). Costumes seemed more practical than the over the top straight from the comic look, which added to the realism.
The plot was kept simple and contained. Rather than taking a bunch of story arcs from the comic into this epic world changing event and craming as many characters from the comic into cameo scenes like the Stallone movie, this is pretty simple and focused. As Dredd says in the end "Just another drug bust." In fact the plot seems like it started from a game scenario. Player 1 Objectives, kill 2 Judges, prevent boss's lieutenant from getting getting arrested. Player 2 Objectives, escape, hold out for back-up, or fight your way to the boss on the 200th floor. A game scenario, I'd love to play out (hmmmm....Rezolution, Necromunda, or Judge Dredd Miniatures....).
I always say, a good superhero movie must have a good super villian to make the hero look even better. The villian, Ma Ma played by Leena Hensley, was one brutal nasty bitch and good foil to Dredd's cold hearted enforcer of law.
Carl Urban played Dredd perfectly. When I read that the comic was a spoof of Dirty Harry, Urban's portrayal made far more sense as he seemed to channel Clint Eastwood at times. Especially the ending when he finishes off Ma Ma, seemed right out of a Dirty Harry movie. On the other hand, Stallone's portrayal now seems even more silly. I can see why all the Dredd heads hated that movie despite the fact that it captured the look of the comic. Stallone was channelling Stallone. Furthermore Urban was doing it all with the helmet on at all times (chin acting) while Stallone had his helmet off most of the time (something the comic Dredd never did). Overall, I think this movie captured the spirit of the comic without copying it.
Judge Anderson, played by Olivia Thirlby (whom just seemed to have some stunning eyes), was the character development in the flic. A nervous rookie who get teamed up with the near inhuman Dredd and ends up in over her head while locked in the worst tennament tower in Mega City One. She picks learns to harden up, use her talents, while showing enough spunk to impress Dredd, while still keeping her humanity in the end.
I ended up seeing it in 3D, as it was the only show available at the time for me. Normally I choose not to do 3D. The nice thing was this movie used 3D quite creatively and didn't make the movie about 3D stunts, like the recent Resident Evil movies. Most of the movie the 3D really didn't make a difference, but the Slo-Mo scenes were quite cool being enhanced by 3D. You see the action from the point of veiw of a druggie high on Slo-Mo (shockwaves rippling through bodies as the bullets pass through them like in those high speed photography films of bullets hitting targets, spewing blood and guts out of the exit wounds) So see it either way you prefer.
Overall, I loved this flic. Soundtrack was pretty damn good too. From what I hear, despite the great reviews, it's not doing so well in the box office. That's a shame compared to high dollar garbage that's been dump out lately. Watching this movie has really given me the urge to bust out my Rezolution stuff.