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The
film begins with Sylvester Stallone playing a city
street cop named Judge Dredd in yet another
apocalyptic future setting. The crowded city is a
sanctuary from the neighboring desert.
Interestingly plant and animal life are nowhere to
be seen, which makes me wonder where their food
comes from. Dredd is a combination Dirty
Harry-Robocop, with a "judge, jury, and
executioner" attitude, patrolling city streets
filled with crime and mayhem. Meanwhile a
mysterious prisoner in the Aspen Penitentiary
breaks out of jail and returns to Dredd's city.
Then someone who appears to be Dredd shoots and
kills two people, while foolishly letting the
incident be taped. At this point Dredd is the one
facing the same judgment he is used to dealing out,
eventually leading him to confront his past
demons.
This
actually is a decent mindless action film with
special effects that were very good for 1995,
although they have since been eclipsed by films
such as The Fifth Element and Starship Troopers.
The plot is nothing special, but it does provide an
adequate vehicle for the special effects. One part
of the film that doesn't work is the sky cycle
sequence with Stallone and Rob Schneider. The
sequence looks very fake, with the cycle clearly
being ridden in front of a green screen as part of
the rear projection special effects process. One
incredibly stupid part of the film occurrs during
Dredd's murder trial. A security camera captures
someone dressed like Dredd killing two people.
Unfortunately this security camera must be about
200 years outdated, because the recording is black
and white and very snowy. Come on, there are fast
food restaurants with better cameras than that! And
what happened to Max Von Sydow's career? He went
from starring in classics like The Seventh Seal and
Strange Brew to playing mentor to
Stallone!
The
main problem with this film is its dialogue. All
attempts at humor fall flat. This includes witless
banter between Stallone and Rob Schneider, who
annoys me every time I see him. Stallone's delivery
doesn't help matters. Believe it or not, but I
actually think Stallone is trying to sound
robot-like, as if he doesn't sound that way
already. One of the credited screenwriters, Michael
DeLuca, has been executive producer for many of New
Line Cinema's recent releases. Evidently he gave up
writing due to the failure of Judge Dredd at the
box office, and I don't blame him after that flimsy
screenplay effort.
The
image is sharp with fine detail. The set design and
special effects are the highpoints of Judge Dredd,
and they are exhibited well on this DVD. Contrast
is excellent with solid blacks to go along with
fully saturated colors. In a few places digital
shimmering appears, such as on the gold shoulder
pads worn by the judges. Thankfully this ugly
uniform is only shown sparingly after the first
third of the movie. Also the flesh tones seem a bit
reddish at times.
The
soundtrack uses an active 5.1 mix to accentuate the
action and special effects. Low frequency sounds
and directional effects appear throughout the film,
although not to the point of being a distraction.
Dialogue is always clear with the exception of
Stallone's muddy dialogue. "I am the law!"
Ugh.
All
I have to do is read the "distributed by Buena
Vista Entertainment" line to know that extras will
be lacking. In this case they were kind enough to
put a trailer and a French language track on the
disk. How nice of them! Buena Vista might have
considered Spanish subtitles, but this probably
would have raised the price of the disk five
dollars! Usually I don't comment on the menu design
unless it is especially good or frightfully awful.
In this case it is awful. Very little imagination
or effort went into the design, leading to one of
the ugliest menus I have seen.
Judge
Dredd is not a great movie, but it doesn't pretend
to be great, either. If you enjoy mindless special
effects movies, then this one is worth renting. If
you also enjoy Rob Schneider's one-liners, then you
will probably want this one for your
collection.
Ratings
(out of five stars and in relationship to original
age of the picture/sound elements):
Picture:
****
Sound: ****
Supplements: **
Price/Value: **1/2
*
= not worthy of a DIVX disc; ** = below par; *** =
good; **** = excellent; ***** = kill your mother to
get a copy
Equipment
List: DVD Player: Panasonic A110 / Television: Sony
KV-32S22(32 inch set ) with S-Video In / Processor:
Technics SH-AC500D(for both AC3 and DTS) /
Receiver: Technics SA-AX720 / Sony Speakers and
Subwoofer / Connected by Monster speaker
wire.
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