Caffeinated Clint
I remember going to see Danny Canon’s film adaptation of “Judge Dredd” at the old Village Cinema Center in Bourke Street on it’s opening day in 1995. Truth be told, I wasn’t that familiar with the source material – that being a comic – and thus I wasn’t completely appalled by what I saw. In fact, I didn’t think it was too shabby a movie. Yes, it was hammy and sure, Sylvester Stallone wasn’t exactly hitting ’em out of the park with his performance, but as a throwback to the old pulp Saturday matinee type of fare once occupied by the likes of Flash and Flynn, I thought it did the trick. A decade plus on though, it’s now clear I’d be drugged pre-view because the flick really doesn’t hold up. In addition, having grown to know more and more about the “Judge Dredd” comics, it’s clear the filmmakers didn’t much give a shit about the fans.
Lionsgate have sensibly decided to reboot the film franchise, losing Sly, Rob Schneider’s corny sidekick, and maintaining the mystery of the character by gluing his helmet on for the duration of the film, and bringing in Kiwi cool-cat Karl Urban as well as “Game of Thrones” hottie Lena Headey, playing the Judge and Rogue, respectively. “Dredd”, from Pete Travis, had a great script – really slick “Die Hard”-esque concept where the Judge’s are trapped inside an apartment complex that’s under lock-down by the villains inside it.
Hopefully the movie didn’t sway too far from the shooting script. Here’s the trailer :
