DREDD 3D

 Reviewed by Patrick Gibbs

GRADE: C +

Karl Urban,Olivia Thirlby and Lena Headey

Based on JUDGE DREDD created by Jack Wagner & Carlos Ezquerra

Screenplay by Alex Garland

Directed by Pete Travis

The future United States is an irradiated waste land known as the Cursed Earth. On the east coast of North America lies Mega -City One, a vast, violent metropolis containing 800 million residents where 17,000 crimes are reported daily and "Slo-Mo", an addictive new drug that slows the user's perception of time to 1% of normal, has been introduced. The only force of order is the Judges, who act as judge, jury, and executioner.

Judge Dredd (Karl Uban) is tasked by the Chief Judge with evaluating rookie Judge Anderson (Olivia Thirlby), a psychic who has failed the tests to become a full Judge. Elsewhere, in the 200-story slum tower block Peach Trees, drug lord Madeline Madrigal, known as Ma-Ma (which gets a pretty big laugh if you are a Futurama fan ), infuses three men with Slo-Mo and throws their skinned bodies from the top of the tower. Dredd and Anderson respond and learn of a drug den, which they assault. They arrest Kay, one of Ma-Ma's henchmen, after Anderson psychically detects his involvement in the murders. To prevent Kay being removed from the building and interrogated about her operation, Ma-Ma's forces seize the tower's security control room and seal the building using its blast shields under the pretense of a security test, preventing the Judges from leaving or summoning help. Ma Ma orders that the judges be killed and warns that anyone who helps will be murdered, along with the next generation of their families. From here, the movie becomes one part Die Hard three parts video game  as Dredd and Anderson alternate between being the hunted and the hunters, and we are treated to a parade of increasingly violent and sadistic deaths, some at the hands of the bad guys, some at the hands of the good guys.

This is, of course, the second big screen version of the wildly successful U.K. Comic strip, the first being Sylvester Stallone's big budget version in 1995, which played fast and loose with the source material and failed to please critics or audiences. It's a movie that is uniformly spoken of with either disdain or anger, particularly among fans of the comic, and is beloved by almost no one, which makes it still quite possibly Rob Schneider’s best film.

DREDD 3D is an attempt to take the material back to to it's roots, and to please the hardcore comics fans and is setting out, among other things, to make sure it does not leave itself open to the complaint the first film faced that it was too soft and watered down. “You want violence? I'll give you violence” seems to be the mantra of director Pete Travis (Vantage Point.). Respect for human life is not on the forefront of ANYONE'S minds in this film, although I was pleased to see a modicum of restraint shown when Dredd is cornered by two teens with guns and actually bothers to change his gun to stun instead of showering them with bullets or “hotshots” (a powerful round which seems to be specifically designed to shoot inside a perp's mouth and make their head turn into a volcano, because hey, you never know when you're going to need that.). Also, in one moment toward the end, in a pivotal moment, the morality of these summaries executions is dealt with, admittedly in a somewhat cursory fashion, but it did manage to salvage the likability of the film's strongest character and performance, Olivia Thirlby's Judge Anderson.

The film survives due to fast pacing, exciting action and entertaining performances from Thirlby, Urban and Wood Harris as Kay, the henchman the two Judges have taken captive. The chemistry between these three is surprisingly strong and they make the most out of weak dialogue. Dredd and Anderson make for enjoyable buddy cop team, and some of the interplay between cute and seemingly naive Anderson her tough as nails, bloodthirsty prisoner is fairly entertaining, though it gets harsh and exploitative at times, but whenever she shows him he can't scare her and they she is tougher and far smarter than he gives her credit for, I couldn't help but enjoy myself.

Urban is an extremely likable presence in any film he does, and seems to specialize in channeling other actors, whether it is Tommy Lee Jones in Comanche Moon or Deforest Kelly in Star Trek. Here, he is going back to the character's roots as inspired by Dirty Harry Callahan and bringing a touch of Clint Eastwood to the role, with a pinch of Christian Bale's Batman voice for good measure. The result is a performance that shouldn’t work, and probably wouldn't from any other actor, but Urban has a way of imitating while at the same time making a character his own, Fairing far worse is Lena Headey as Ma-Ma. The talented and beautiful actress is reduced to a one note villain who comes across as a cross between Lucy Liu's O-Ren Ishii and Heath Ledger's Joker, with the exception that both of those actors seemed to be having fun with their roles. Headey is just going through the motions and has given far better performances, but at least she avoid going wildly over the top.

The effects and production design are strong, although we are treated to far too many prolonged sequences from the point of view of those under the influence of the “Slo-Mo” drug, a blatant excuse to show of the 3D that will undoubtedly seem even more tedious in 2D form.

In the end, this is a movie aimed at a very specific audience, and if R rated, ultra violent, bleak comic book sci-fi isn't your thing, stay far away from this one. But if you get your kicks from this sort of thing, or every once in a while, under the right circumstances, find it a guilty pleasure, there is some entertainment value.

DREDD 3D is rated R for constant, graphic, brutal violence, wall to wall profanity, and brief but semi-graphic sexual content (it's so brief that it's frankly hard to call it TOO graphic, but it's not exactly pleasant.).