Judge Dredd

## Summary

**Judge Dredd** is a movie which is based on the popular comic book in a dystopian future where Chaos and order are at constant war, and one super law enforcer can stop that, but now must face his ultimate fate.

## Story

Taking place in the year 2139, the Earth is now extremely hostile for human activity. With no other choice, humans now live in confinement into several cities around the world (now called "Mega Cities") this created a chaos so violent that the original justice system was powerless to stop. But a new justice system comes in and takes it's place, one where standard Police officers can also acts as a Court judge and even an exceutioner, they are called........well, "Judges". In Mega City 1 (formerly New York) one Judge named Joseph Dredd (Stallone) is one of the toughest, meanest Judges around and shows absolutely no mercy to those who would bring chaos. Before he knew it, he was framed for murder. He then discovered that he had an identical counterpart (which he believes to be his brother) who framed him and headed by a once repsected justice named Griffin (Prochnow) who wants power for himself. Dredd must now rely on his fellow Judge named Hershey (Lane) and a hacker named Herman Ferguson (Schneider) to clear his name and save Mega City 1 from falling into utter chaos.

## Johnny's Reviews

### General Thoughts

Of course, this is a Sylvester Stallone movie, and because I like hardcore action. I decided to watch this movie.

### Story

The story of this movie was quite good. Personally, I liked how they really broughtout the darkness, and grittyness of the actual Judge Dredd comics (eventhough, I never actually read them myself). Though, some aspects of the story itself does suffer some of the old action movie cliches, in this case: "the protagonist was convicted of a crime he didn't commit and now he must clear his name" though, it isn't too much of a problem because Dredd himself discovers something that goes beyond the old cliche. So, I liked how they put some spice into an old cliche and in some parts did it very well. So, it does have a somewhat good story, not great but not terrible either.

**Grade: B**

### Character Interpretation

The interpretations of some of the characters in the movie really don't do the comics any justice. In the movie, Dredd is often seen without his helmet (this is in contrast to the comics where he is \*never\* seen without his helmet). Although, Hershey is (assumably) exlusive to the movie, but it is the other characters as well that weren't interpretted very well. Fergie is supposed to be a tougher fugitive from the law and not a cowardly ex-convict like he was in the movie. Griffin in the comics was a respected head of the acadamy of Judges rather than a calculating, power hungry despot who wants power all to himself. Fargo was only heard as a legend (as he reitred before Dredd was even born) but was Chief Justice in the movie. Now, I'm not saying that they should be exact replicas of the comics, but at least should be a bit more accurate.

**Grade: C-**

### Actor Portrayal

Stallone did a pretty good job, though it isn't as memorable like his other work such as Rambo or Rocky, but still quite good. Rob Schneider (though played an inaccurate character) did quite well being somewhat of a comic relief. For Diane Lane, eventhough she isn't very known for doing action movies, but did good by doing something outside of her comfort zone (as far as movies are concerned). Assante did good acting like a maniac villain, but overid it just a bit.

'*Grade: '***A-**

### Final Thoughts

Eventhough this movie isn't really on the grestest of Stallone action movies, but it does deserve an honorable mention in any list of Stallone's greatest movies. It delivers the sense of dark and grittyness of the comic book, but only to a medium size faults, this movie does have it's drawbacks but most are minor and really don't mean a whole lot, even when you seen it a few times.

**Grade: B**