Dredd (15.)
Directed by Pete Travis.
Starring Karl Urban, Olivia Thirlby, Lena Headley, Wood Harris, Warwick Grier and Domhnall Gleeson. 95 mins
Here endeth the summer; a good one for sport apparently (at least for the ones that don’t really matter)* but in the cinemas it was as unremittingly bleak as the weather. Back in the spring films like Cabin in the Woods, The Avengers and Indonesian tower block actioner The Raid seemed to herald an unprecedented summer of smart, thrilling blockbusters. Instead we got a trail of overblown expectations, tired ideas, missed chances and blind alley calamities that unfurled like a compendium of England World Cup campaigns.
Here though to offer last gasp consolation is a classic British comic book character (2000AD’s Judge Dredd) brought credibly and unflinchingly to the screen by a British production team. It’s a small scale triumph, though the realisation of exactly how small that scale is may disappoint.
Sylvester Stallone’s Judge Dredd film was an abomination of Batman and Robin proportions; this gives the character its bloody, maniac due. The helmet remains on throughout. Karl Urban did a fine DeForest Kelly impression in Star Trek and here he plays Dredd as Dirty Harry, which seems about right.
The title says 3D and it sort of means it. You actually notice it in the early scenes. The plot revolves around a drug called Slo Mo, which makes time appear to move hundred times slower. (A nod from screenwriter Alex Garland to Chris Morris’s made up drug Cake in Brass Eye?) The use of 3D to recreate the effect leads to some garishly intense visuals, particularly during an early chase sequence.
Initially, this $40 million production looks set to be an unusually lurid ride but after approximately 20 minutes the main plot kicks in and it turns out to be, more or less, The Raid. Instead of their modest 30 storeys of hell, this offers 200 Mega Block storeys controlled by Headley’s unhinged drug lord. There’s an inevitably sense of disappointment given the adrenaline rush opening and the apocalyptic cityscapes that sprawl across the posters, - the 3D is largely dropped also - but once you readjust your parameters to this new intimacy it is very decent comic book action movie.
It is an unfortunate coincidence (this went into production first) but does make for an insightful cultural contrast: while Asian action film admire heroes who are lithe and skilfully, western audience want a tank in leather trouser, a portable slaughterhouse with a deadpan sense of humour.
* 2012 The summer of the London Olympics and England's limp quarter final exit to Italy in the European championship
Directed by Pete Travis.
Starring Karl Urban, Olivia Thirlby, Lena Headley, Wood Harris, Warwick Grier and Domhnall Gleeson. 95 mins
Here endeth the summer; a good one for sport apparently (at least for the ones that don’t really matter)* but in the cinemas it was as unremittingly bleak as the weather. Back in the spring films like Cabin in the Woods, The Avengers and Indonesian tower block actioner The Raid seemed to herald an unprecedented summer of smart, thrilling blockbusters. Instead we got a trail of overblown expectations, tired ideas, missed chances and blind alley calamities that unfurled like a compendium of England World Cup campaigns.
Here though to offer last gasp consolation is a classic British comic book character (2000AD’s Judge Dredd) brought credibly and unflinchingly to the screen by a British production team. It’s a small scale triumph, though the realisation of exactly how small that scale is may disappoint.
Sylvester Stallone’s Judge Dredd film was an abomination of Batman and Robin proportions; this gives the character its bloody, maniac due. The helmet remains on throughout. Karl Urban did a fine DeForest Kelly impression in Star Trek and here he plays Dredd as Dirty Harry, which seems about right.
The title says 3D and it sort of means it. You actually notice it in the early scenes. The plot revolves around a drug called Slo Mo, which makes time appear to move hundred times slower. (A nod from screenwriter Alex Garland to Chris Morris’s made up drug Cake in Brass Eye?) The use of 3D to recreate the effect leads to some garishly intense visuals, particularly during an early chase sequence.
Initially, this $40 million production looks set to be an unusually lurid ride but after approximately 20 minutes the main plot kicks in and it turns out to be, more or less, The Raid. Instead of their modest 30 storeys of hell, this offers 200 Mega Block storeys controlled by Headley’s unhinged drug lord. There’s an inevitably sense of disappointment given the adrenaline rush opening and the apocalyptic cityscapes that sprawl across the posters, - the 3D is largely dropped also - but once you readjust your parameters to this new intimacy it is very decent comic book action movie.
It is an unfortunate coincidence (this went into production first) but does make for an insightful cultural contrast: while Asian action film admire heroes who are lithe and skilfully, western audience want a tank in leather trouser, a portable slaughterhouse with a deadpan sense of humour.
* 2012 The summer of the London Olympics and England's limp quarter final exit to Italy in the European championship
