Reaction & Review | Judge Dredd

Welcome, one and all, to "Tales of the Longbox" here on Reaction & Review. Tonight, ladies and gentlemen, I'm gonna be covering a movie from 1995. That movie is "Judge Dredd".

Now, I've mentioned before in this series that I've seen the 2012 "Dredd" movie quite a few times already. I believe that it was a really good introduction to the Judge Dredd character, and Karl Urban was the perfect choice to play as Judge Dredd. And I, like many others who've seen that movie, am very disappointed that we're probably never going to see a sequel to that movie because of how poorly it did in theaters. However, I am not here to bitch about that. Point is, I really enjoyed the 2012 "Dredd" movie, because it's just that fucking good.

Now, while I have seen that movie quite a few times already, I never actually got to watch the other "Judge Dredd" movie that came out in 1995, which also stars Sylvester Stallone. And I'm not totally sure why. I think part of the reason was because, way back in the day, I had heard from other people who said that this movie wasn't very good. So, I ended up avoiding it for the longest time. However, thanks to my repeated viewings of watching "Dredd", I was beginning to draw interest in watching the 1995 movie. The only problem was that I couldn't find a copy of it. Thankfully though, my local video store was actually carrying a copy of this movie on their shelves for dirt cheap, so I picked it up, and the rest is history.

Like I said, the only things I really know about this movie is that it stars Sylvester Stallone. And I also know about certain lines from this movie that people use to quote way back when. I am not going to spoil what those lines are. All I can say is that they had something to do involving the law. That being said, I am curious to find out how those lines fit within the actual context of the movie. I'm also curious to find out if this movie is any good or not. I kinda have my doubts, but who knows? This thing could genuinely surprise me by being really fucking good. So the only way I'm gonna find out if this movie is any good at all, is if I shut up, and I push play, and I'm gonna do that right now. So, without further ado, it's time to kick back, relax, and check out "Judge Dredd".

11 minutes later

You know, guys, out of all the guns that I've seen this early on in the movie, the one gun I like the most is the one being used by Judge Dredd. Seriously, guys, I would love to have a gun like that in my possession.

19 minutes later

Well, guys...I just find out Dredd's method of towing a car. The answer? Blowing it the fuck up. That was awesome.

6 minutes later

OK, I have a bit of a dumb question here. So, the prosecutor just released evidence that Dredd's gun was used on the day he "murdered" the reporter and his wife. Isn't anyone going to ask what Judge Dredd was doing on the day those people got killed? I understand that his testimony alone probably wouldn't stand up in court, but I still believe that it's worth asking. Especially considering that he's obviously being framed here. Just thought I'd mentioned mention that, because's it's kinda bugging me a bit.

6 minutes later

Wait, so even though Dredd's sentence has been carried out, and his position as a judge has been stripped away from him, nobody bothered to clean out his locker? I admit, I don't completely understand how a Judge works in Mega City, but I'm pretty sure that if you're gone from the force, then that means your belongings should either go with you or be discarded entirely. Just saying, it just seems a little bit odd to me that nobody bothered to clean out his locker.

17 minutes later

You know, guys, out of all the plot-twists I was expecting from this movie, that twist was certainly one I wasn't expecting to know about Dredd. And no, I'm not gonna tell you what it is, you're just gonna have to watch the movie for yourself.

7 minutes later

Jesus Christ...OK, I was able to tolerate Rob Schneider's character in this movie for a time, but now, he's starting to get very irritating, very quick. And the sooner that he's dead, the happier I will be. Granted, I don't think he's going to die, but it would make me happier if he did.

The Review

Well, guys, that was "Judge Dredd". Let me go ahead and shut the movie off...OK. So, where to begin with? Well, going into this thing, I was expecting this movie to kinda suck. Because, like I said earlier, I had heard a lot of people say that this movie is crap, and that there's nothing redeemable about it other than a few decent lines. Well, after watching it, I actually wound up really enjoying it. I'm actually kinda surprised by that. I wasn't really expecting it, but this movie did just that.

So, let's get into this thing by talking about the writing. And I'm gonna start in a way that I normally don't ever touch upon when discussing writing for movies. I want to start with the film's campiness. You see, guys, a lot of action movies would swing in one of two directions. It would either be completely serious with little to no humor whatsoever. Or it could end up something like the 1994 "Street Fighter' movie, where it ends up being cheesy as hell, while also telling a story that takes itself seriously, but not too seriously. And in the case of "Judge Dredd", this thing certainly leans towards being the latter, where it's just cheesy as all hell, and it has a lot of charm to it as well. Mind you, I personally wouldn't put this thing above the 1994 "Street Fighter" film, but even then, this thing is able to stand it's own as just being a lovable cheesy action movie. And I mostly enjoyed that aspect. We have ridiculous one-liners, acting that is just hammy and laughable, and sometimes over-the-top action sequences that definitely makes this movie worth watching. And that's something that was sorely missing from the 1989 Punisher movie that I covered several weeks ago. Where that thing ended up being another plotless action movie with little to no substance, this movie is going in the opposite direction. Where it has both a story that is mostly easy to follow, and it doesn't end up taking itself too seriously in the process. Mind you, not all of the campiness in this movie works, but my point in all this is that this movie knew what it wanted to be. And for the most part, it totally works.

Our story here is mostly easy to follow, but there were a couple of issues that struck out at me. So, I mentioned earlier that Dredd was standing trial in a murder that he never committed, which was him supposedly killing a reporter and his wife. Basically, Rico, our villain for this movie, was dressed up in Dredd's gear and ended up killing the couple. And while Judge Hershey did bring up the possibility that someone could be posing as Dredd, and they did the whole weapon analysis involving a Judge's weapon, nobody ever bothered to ask what Dredd was doing on that day when the reporter and his wife got killed. I'm going to assume that he's been on duty 24/7, so why did nobody at that tribunal asked him what he was doing during his shift that day? In fact, if memory serves, he was busy training new recruits at the Academy. So why didn't any of the rookies speak up about this? I mean, they're technically witnesses, so why didn't they get a chance to speak out? It just seemed kinda off to me, really, because it seems like that there should've been more to that scene. And I was hoping that by the time the movie ends, we would get some closure in regards to him being framed for murder. Well...a bit of a spoiler here, that plot-point NEVER gets resolved. Instead, after Dredd is being sent to Aspen along with a bunch of other prisoners, Judge Hershey instead goes to his locker to find out more about his past, which then leads into spoilers that I don't wanna get into here. So anyway, to have an important subplot like that just drop, and to have no real payoff whatsoever feels a little bit cheap to me.

Now besides that point, I want to get into the characters. And I'm gonna start with the man himself; Judge Dredd. Now without delving into too much here for the sake of spoilers, I will say that I'm kinda split on the plot-twist involving Dredd. On one hand, it's a bit silly and sorta stupid. But on the other hand, it's a bit of an interesting comparison when compared to the 2012 "Dredd" film. Because in the 2012 "Dredd" film, it was less about him and more about his sidekick Cassandra. You never got to learn about Dredd's character in that movie, and it could be seen by some people as a missed opportunity to expand upon that. Mind you, I am still perfectly fine with how that movie turned out, but I'm just saying that it's something the movie could've expanded upon if they wanted to. But anyway, in this movie, they definitely fleshed out Dredd's character, and it mostly does work, as long as you're willing to accept the plot-twist for what it is. What doesn't work, however, is his companion, Fergie, which is Rob Schneider's character in this movie. I stated it earlier, but I wanted his character to fucking die by the hour mark of the movie. I didn't mind him at first, because he wasn't in the first part of the movie for that long. And I didn't mind him teaming up with Dredd after they were able to escape from some cannibals. But the moment they come back to Mega City, I wanted his character to fucking die. He added almost nothing to the movie itself, other than being worthless comic relief. Which this movie didn't really need, because it was already campy by itself. But adding in Rob Schneider to this movie kinda brings the humor down a bit when he's on screen. However, that's just me delving into acting, which I'll get to in a sec. The only other character worth mentioning is Rico, our villain. On certain occasions, he is there to chew up the scenery. And that could be seen as either a good thing or a bad thing, depending on how you view his character in this movie. Myself personally, it kinda works. I won't lie by saying that I did get a few laughs out of his lines, aside from the obvious 'law' line that he's most infamous for. But again, it really depends on view his character in this movie.

Aside from all that, the writing here is pretty good. It feels like a comic book movie that knew what it wanted to be, and that's always a plus in my book. Whether it's accurate to the comics or not is something I can't say. However, like I said earlier, this thing is able to stand out on it's own, and I am totally happy with that. Now as for the acting, well, it ranges from either being incredibly hammy to just being laughable on certain occasions. The two actors that fit this bill are Sylvester Stallone and Armand Assante, the latter playing Rico. Both of these actors are the epitome of hamming up their lines, and it is hilarious to watch these two act. Like I mentioned a moment ago, Rico likes to chew up the scenery and act as goofy as possible, whenever he gives out his dialogue. And Stallone is doing what he does best here. He's also hamming up his lines. And along with his catch-phrases such as "How do you plea?" and "I knew you'd say that", it makes his character stand out in a really lovable way. What doesn't stand out, however, is, once again, Rob Schneider. In almost every scene that he had screen time, part of me wished he would just shut the fuck up while Stallone did the dirty work. And the longer that he was in this movie, I wanted him dead, because aside from his character contributing almost nothing to the actual film, his humor almost brought down the entire campiness of this movie. And to me, it just didn't work. He didn't do a horrible job, mind you, but it's just that his character in this movie was completely unnecessary. If he was in the movie for, like, the first third of it, then I wouldn't have had a problem with that. But since he was in this movie for almost the entire run of it, well, humor kinda dies with him in it. Aside from him, though, the acting is OK from everyone else. The one who turns in the best showing, was Diane Lane as Judge Hershey. And that's mostly because she didn't try as hard to ham up her performance in this movie. Then again, I don't think she could ever out-ham Stallone and Assante, even if she tried. But anyway, regardless of all that, the acting here is fairly decent, save for Rob Schneider being incredibly annoying.

I will also say that the sets here look really good. Especially, again, compared to the 2012 "Dredd" movie, Mega City looks incredibly futuristic, and also really 80's as well. Granted, I understand that this thing came out in 1995, but I feel like that this movie was trying to capture that 80's look, as well. We have guns that are ridiculously big and chunky, costumes on extras that look like they came out of the 80's, and I feel like that this movie was probably unintentionally trying to pay homage to the 80's. Who knows, maybe it WAS intentional. But regardless, that's the feeling I got while watching this movie. The costuming on the Judge costumes look really good, the muzzle flare on the guns are decent, and the blood effects are also pretty good as well. And the animatronics on the robot that follows Rico looked pretty good, also. Overall, this movie looks pretty good for a movie that came out in 1995, even though it might've been paying homage to the 80's, intentionally or not.

Camerawork here is really good. The lighting here is lit pretty well. The sound-mix here is mixed fine. And the score here is not too bad, either. It isn't great, mind you. But for an action movie, it definitely works here. So, I would consider the score and music to be a positive for this movie.

Overall, guys, when all is said and done, am I able to recommend "Judge Dredd"? If you are a fan of the Judge Dredd character, then I would say yes. If you are a fan of cheesy action movies, then absolutely yes. This thing, like I said, is almost on par with the "Street Fighter" movie from 1994. The only thing that kinda stops me from putting it above that movie is mostly because of Rob Schneider. If Rob Schneider had less to do with this movie, then I think this thing would've rivaled the 1994 "Street Fighter" movie in terms of campy, cheesy goodness that this movie oozes from. Mind you now, what is here for campiness is still really good. And like I said, if you like cheesy action movies, then you are probably going to end up adoring this movie. As for myself, I was kinda surprised by how fun this movie really was. Now obviously, I would never say that this movie would be as good as the 2012 "Dredd" movie, but still, I really liked this thing enough to hold on to. And I'm definitely going to be watching it again sometime in the future. Now...as much as I'd like to watch "Dredd" next, unfortunately, I seemed to have lost my copy of it. So, I'm gonna go and try to find that movie somewhere and give it a watch. And if I can't find it, I'll probably just end up watching the 1994 "Street Fighter" movie instead.

Anyway, guys, with that, we come to the close of another Reaction & Review. Until next time, ladies and gentlemen, take care, and I will see you all later. Peace.