Frequently Bought Together
What Other Items Do Customers Buy After Viewing This Item?
Product details
Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?
|
Reviews
From Amazon.co.uk
Judge Dredd is one of those movies that doesn't have a brain of its own, so it can only rip off a lot of ingredients from other, better movies. It's a mishmash of Blade Runner, Total Recall, and The Road Warrior, with a dash of Star Wars tossed in for good measure. As if that weren't enough, it's got Sylvester Stallone, who seems to be the only one in the movie who's in on the game and knows it's all a sci-fi scam. Like The Fifth Element a few years later, Judge Dredd depicts a futuristic megalopolis packed with crowded vertical overgrowth and rampant commerce, where anarchy reigns supreme. Violent "block wars" are fought by lawless citizens with machine guns, and Judge Dredd (Stallone) is one of the city's heavily armed policemen, given free rein to judge and execute the perpetrators of violence. But Dredd himself is subjected to judgement and swift justice when his own gun is identified in the murder of a prominent TV reporter, forcing him to do whatever he can to clear his name. Diane Lane plays his partner in crime-fighting and romance, and Rob Schneider provides juvenile comic relief as Dredd's streetwise sidekick. Impressive special effects are on vivid display, and the movie's fun for what it's worth. Lower your expectations and you just might enjoy it. --Jeff Shannon
Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
12 of 12 people found the following review helpful
By M. Matthews
Format:DVD|Amazon Verified Purchase
Danny Cannon's Judge Dredd is an entertaining enough sci-fi action flick, but I can't help wincing whenever I watch it. Cannon claims to be a fan of the original comic strip, which suggests that he didn't have a great deal of creative control, because plenty of liberties are taken here.
I would never have expected the makers of the movie to be 100% faithful to the comic, but some of the changes that were made were superficial and pointless, and that's what irritates me. For one thing it's set in the wrong year, the Chief Judge is inexplicably called Chief Justice, Rico is locked up in Aspen rather than Titan, the heroic Chief Judge Griffin is one of the movie's villains, while in the comic both McGruder and Silver were Chief Judges... and Silver was black! And another thing... if Rico is Dredd's clone, shouldn't they be identical??
As a movie it's okay. The dialogue is pretty awful (e.g. "I knew you'd say that"), and the acting is adequate (Stallone is fairly dire and Rob Schneider is exceptionally annoying as Fergie, but Diane Lane does well as Judge Hershey, Armand Assante is deliciously nasty as Rico and Max von Sydow adds some much-needed professionalism to proceedings). The action scenes also just-about pass muster, although the hover-bike chase fails to convince, and the climactic punch-up in the Statue of Liberty is a bit of a damp squib.
In the end though, it's all fairly entertaining nonsense. It's just a shame that when the producers decide to bring Dredd to the big screen, they didn't have the courage to do it properly - as far as I'm concerned not hiring John Wagner or Alan Grant to work on the script was a crime worthy of life in an Iso-Cube.
I would never have expected the makers of the movie to be 100% faithful to the comic, but some of the changes that were made were superficial and pointless, and that's what irritates me. For one thing it's set in the wrong year, the Chief Judge is inexplicably called Chief Justice, Rico is locked up in Aspen rather than Titan, the heroic Chief Judge Griffin is one of the movie's villains, while in the comic both McGruder and Silver were Chief Judges... and Silver was black! And another thing... if Rico is Dredd's clone, shouldn't they be identical??
As a movie it's okay. The dialogue is pretty awful (e.g. "I knew you'd say that"), and the acting is adequate (Stallone is fairly dire and Rob Schneider is exceptionally annoying as Fergie, but Diane Lane does well as Judge Hershey, Armand Assante is deliciously nasty as Rico and Max von Sydow adds some much-needed professionalism to proceedings). The action scenes also just-about pass muster, although the hover-bike chase fails to convince, and the climactic punch-up in the Statue of Liberty is a bit of a damp squib.
In the end though, it's all fairly entertaining nonsense. It's just a shame that when the producers decide to bring Dredd to the big screen, they didn't have the courage to do it properly - as far as I'm concerned not hiring John Wagner or Alan Grant to work on the script was a crime worthy of life in an Iso-Cube.
17 of 18 people found the following review helpful
Format:VHS Tape
This film was almost universally hated, by critics and Dredd fans alike, so I didn't get round to watching it for a long time. Dredd is one of my all time favourite comics and I didn't want to see it ruined by a bad film.
WHAT'S GOOD. Sylvester Stallone is the perfect man to play Dredd. I know not everyone agrees, but just scroll up and look at the picture. The first half hour or so of the film captures the atmoshere of the comics and MegaCity 1 perfectly, and gives anyone a good idea of what the comics are like.
WHAT'S BAD. The story. In short the story was not right for the character. I can understand that the film makers wanted Rico as the villain because it gives a lot of the back story as to where Dredd came from, but the way in which it was done had too many holes in it. Like the fact that Dredd has identical DNA to Fargo as well as Rico, was completely ignored. Dredd shouldn't have been sent to prison in the first place, he should have been chasing Rico round MegaCity 1. Diane Lane was very pretty, but essentially mis-cast as Judge Hershey (who's older in the comics and Dredd's superior) .As for Dredd's comedy sidekick bloke... He really DID deserve to go to prison! He was totally unneccesary - less said about him the better.
The other thing that needs to be mentioned is that in the film Dredd takes his helmet off! This upset many a Dreddhead, since he NEVER takes his helmet off in the comics - even when he's standing around in his underpants. I concede this probably couldn't be easily avoided on film, and it wasn't totally gratuitous but still, on screen Stallone was Dredd until he took off the helmet. Then he was just Stallone.
Overall as a film it isn't bad, it's an entertaining piece of sci-fi. If you like the film, you'll like the comics more. If you like the comics the film will leave you cold.
5 of 5 people found the following review helpful
By M. Davis
Format:DVD
The box has WIDESCREEN across the top , 2.35:1. This is a LIE. In this day and age, just about most people have a WIDESCREEN tv and you'd expect something marked WIDESCREEN would be a perfect fit on a 16:9 TV. Unfortunately this disc is manufactured by MONKEYS who cant tell the difference between 16:9 and 4:3. Honestly the technical ability of the outfit bringing you this movie could fit on the head of a pin. Its actually a 2.35:1 picture in a 4:3 frame ( Whatever the hell that works out to be when expanded to 16:9) , so anybody with a widescreen tv has to expand the picture to its fullest extent to get the right shape, which also means you get the LOWEST definition that way. This might seem like I'm making a big deal about nothing , right? Or you can look at it from the angle of, " I've been sold a defective product that should have been scrapped at manufacture, and they're lying to me ON THE COVER ". The Movie gets 3 stars , The DVD presentation gets (minus)-5 stars. Dont waste your money on this or wait until some other distributor remasters it and does it properly.......
Would you like to see more reviews about this item?
›
Go to Amazon.com to see all 192 reviews
3.8 out of 5 stars
Were these reviews helpful?
Let us know
Most Recent Customer Reviews
5.0 out of 5 stars
Classic
Great movie, so much better than the new version. This might not be as blood thirsty but its a better story and cast. Top class from the word go
Published 12 days ago by David Hull
5.0 out of 5 stars
Not True DREDD, but better than nothing
The film being the first outing for the Dredd franchise was visualy exciting, although the story line flagged, because of the need of Hollywood film to include romance, when not... Read more
Published 22 days ago by Black Bear
4.0 out of 5 stars
A birthday request
Not my kind of movie but as it was a birthday request I bought it.
Having watched it the recipient thoroughly enjoyed it, including the "cheesy" lines that... Read more
Having watched it the recipient thoroughly enjoyed it, including the "cheesy" lines that... Read more
Published 2 months ago by Cp O'callaghan
5.0 out of 5 stars
SENSATIONAL and SPLENDID performance and delivery.
Everyone has heard it and what a bunch of wingers a lot of Dredd fans are.
Well I for one have been a 2000AD fan for a very long time. Read more
Well I for one have been a 2000AD fan for a very long time. Read more
Published 2 months ago by Sean Curtin
3.0 out of 5 stars
Oh dear, oh dear!!!!!
Please do not think of this film as anything to do with the terrific 2000AD series. The only thing they share is the name judge dredd. Read more
Published 2 months ago by Mr. L. Gurney
3.0 out of 5 stars
Good delivery, film okay
Ordered this film as I wanted to compare the original to the recently released Dredd film. Not bad, gotta better as went on
Published 2 months ago by N. Oakley
5.0 out of 5 stars
classic film
This film being an American import had no problems with playback at all. I was after this version because I wanted to replace my dvd of it. Read more
Published 2 months ago by Jonathan
5.0 out of 5 stars
Entertaining and visually stunning!
Its not fair that this film gets such a hard time when I have watched far far worse.
First can I just say can people stop blaiming Sly for this film. Read more
First can I just say can people stop blaiming Sly for this film. Read more
Published 2 months ago by Rich78
5.0 out of 5 stars
Judge Dredd
Excellent mix of Sci-fi, action and comedy, I would recommend this movie to every customer of Amozon.co.uk who likes Sylvester Stallone movies.
Published 3 months ago by Ian Simkin
5.0 out of 5 stars
sylvester great
trying for years to get original the new one not as good as sylvester stallones make great action looking forward to watching it
Published 3 months ago by miss susan rodger
Customer Discussions
|
This product's forum
Active discussions in related forums
Search Customer Discussions
|
Related forums
|
Listmania!
|
|
Look for similar items by category
Feedback
- Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?
|
