Best Dredd

So supposing someone had acquired the Complete Case Files 1-4 through *cough* entirely legal means, but couldn't find any of the subsequent Case Files books. Where should this hypothetical someone (and his- or her!- thorough respect for copyright law both domestic and international) go next?

alt.binaries.comics.british

film reminded me v strongly of something like enzo g castellari's bronx warriors - a suitably violent, properly exploitative, ersatz (european) approximation of america and american pop cult. movie also gave off a heavy death race 2000 vibe, p appropriate seeing that that was the main source for dredd's comic bk costumes/visuals.

thought the low budget showed in places - too many oppressively tiny sets and identikit corridors - and that the film needed a stronger supporting cast (more grotesque-sweaty british character actors, please.) also, in places the dialogue was a bit underpowered - it's faithful to the spirit of the comic bks, in that dredd isn't a zing-master, but lots of the dialogue exchanges still fell pretty flat, imho.

felt like a peak-period john carpenter movie

haha, assault on precinct 13!!

I was torn on whether I liked the score to the film. Had a few pangs of missing that DROKK album that came out.

Dredd has pretty much failed to meet it's budget, let alone turn profit, so I doubt we'll see another. And it's all thanks to stupid bloody 3D.

http://blogs.independent.co.uk/2012/10/16/dredd-shows-why-the-3d-film-format-is-doomed-again/

Bummer. I'll always choose to see a movie in 2D if I can but I didn't mind the 3D in this too much. It would be super-shitty if it was denied a sequel because Lion's Gate forced cinemas to show it almost exclusively in 3D.

That's an interesting article, but correlation is not cause when it comes to recession and the fad for 3D cinema IMO.

Dress always felt like a big moneymaker in the home market though. More teenagers will get access to it and it'll get great word of mouth for the kids.
It'll turn an easy profit, just not on £15 cinema tickets.

I like your confidence.

UK probably got more of the forced 3D than the US. That's tended to be my experience, anyway. I saw it in 2D no problem.

This flopped because nobody gave a shit, not because it was in 3D.

lol, yes

I am debating whether it falls into the group of things I would consider purchase of

It only played in 3D here so I didn't go. 3D gives me headaches.

https://petitions.whitehouse.gov/petition/establish-new-legal-system-motorcycle-riding-judges-who-serve-police-judge-jury-and-executioner-all/QS9sBWBc

Loved this movie. So bracing to see a "superhero" movie that isn't bothered about origin stories, mythology and delineating a world but just gets down to it - all show, no tell. Also thought Lena Headey's Ma-Ma was an unusually original villain.

before the film was released there was an online comic strip that gave the back story to ma-ma ..

http://www.scribd.com/doc/104439907/DREDD-MA-MA

It seems like it is slowly clawing back the costs after Worldwide and DVD, outside chance there may be another, perhaps. Then again, maybe it would be nice not to have endless sequels like every other franchise.

I'm good with ongoing serialized adventures, tbh

Making every movie, especially every comic book adaptation, a BIG STORY with EPIC BATTLES is kind of overblown. I could really watch a well-crafted Dredd film every couple years, though.

Yeah, the idea that it's just one more day in the life of Judge Dredd was particularly welcome.

the first dredd film occupies a pretty terrible part of my psyche (for non-filmic reasons), but the newest is a perfect dredd movie? gimme dredd serials plz

I wasn't super impressed by this... Yeah, some it had some nice action pieces, and it was cool so little time was wasted on origin story and stuff like that, but there was absolutely none of the social satire either. Like, if Dredd and the other Judges come off unambiguously as the the good guys, I don't think you've captured the essence of the comic. And even the action got a bit boring towards the end; I understand the budget was small, but there's only so much you can do with characters running through endless corridors.

well, they definitely weren't unambiguously the good guys in that several of them were corrupt and paid off by the criminals, but you are correct that their enforcement of the law never seemed to impinge on anyone innocent's rights

the satire & ambiguity was there imo, it just wasnt played for laughs

i'm not sure it was played for laughs in the comics, either, tbh.

there was that part with the panhandling dude who got crushed by the door

Well yeah, I didn't mean the corrupt Judges, they're a cop movie cliche... What I meant was that here Dredd and Anderson and their employers were still forces of good, whereas in the original comics the dynamic is that whenever you start feeling Dredd and the Judges are heroes, there's always an issue or a storyline that reminds you they're fascist cops working for a fascist police state. And that wasn't in the movie, the social commentary was limited to a couple of throwaway jokes, like then panhandler scene. So Dredd felt more like a Dirty Harry style "tough but honest cop" story imported into the future than any kind of dystopian fiction.

iirc the second-movie-that-may-never-happen was going to focus on the fascist police state aspect.

Ah, okay. I guess I would've been more okay with this if was a great action introduction to the Dredd world, but even the action bits started feeling repetitive and boring towards the end. They should've spiced things up by adding weirdo block inhabitants like in the comics, now everything felt too serious.

nah you can see him not wanting to put a wide audience off with weird shit first time out. if the second one had happened then it would totally work that they start expanding the world out and underlining the iniquity of the world more from there.

that said it's p f obv from the judges/block setup in this that it's no utopia!

Yeah, it's not utopia, but like I said this felt more like a "tough but honest cop in a violent world" type of story than one where the cops are part of the problem, not the solution. (Though TBH the comics aren't always very consistent on this subject either - in some stories the writers seem to be saying that Judges are necessary because everyone in Mega-City One is so crazy and violent.)

I think that ambiguity is one of my favourite things about the comics - the Judges are fascist bastards but for the most part the population are feckless idiots who would likely not be any better off without them. Mega-City One voted to keep the Judge system in place when given the option to adopt a more democratic society, after all.

As I said upthread, I really liked this movie - I want to see it again now!

hasn't Dredd typically been portrayed as honest/unsentimental to a fault, tho, tuomas? how many stories end with him arresting the supposed victim?

there's always an issue or a storyline that reminds you they're fascist cops working for a fascist police state. And that wasn't in the movie

i thought almost everything they did reminded you they were fascist cops in the employ of a police state... the ending gag is that dredd passes anderson and we get a more conscientious, humane boot stomping on a human face forever

no kidding, she was practically a pacifist hippie compared to the rest of the judges

tbh Dredd passing Anderson was a bit of a surprise; failing her would've been v much in character

But isn't there a connection between them in 2000ad, or am I misremembering?

there is, yeah, but don't remember the deets

It must be 20 years since I read it!

Anderson was a supporting character in Dredd who got her own series in the 1980s. In the comics Anderson and Dredd are friends (well, as much as anyone can be Dredd's "friend") and often work together, though there are similar moral quarrels (Anderson being far more liberal than Dredd) between them as in the movie. They usually collaborate when Judge Death and the Dark Judges are involved, because Anderson has a special connection to them, and was originally introduced in the same story as Judge Death.

The Dark Judges play the role of justifying Dredd's fascism and that of the Mega Cities' governments to some extent, don't they? Police state required to stave off the greater evil etc.?

I don't think so... The police state tends to be pretty powerless against the Dark Judges, it's usually a few courageous individuals who manage to defeat them. The Dark Judge stories are more typically good vs. evil kind of stories, instead of ones with social commentary or satire.

aha okay, only properly familiar with early Dredd tbh

this got comparisons to The Raid right? (On iPhone)

cuz I have tried and failed to watch that twice now because of the overbearing fascistic tone of it. v diff from this Dredd I thought

Yeah, both films are lean action movies about cops fighting their way to the top of a tower block filled with murderous maniacs in order to bring a crime lord to justice. In practice though they're quite distinct from each other (and I enjoyed Dredd more).

I gave the Dredd movie a viewing on Netflix. I thought it was really well done. I think if anything, it wasn't going to be a hit as it is so dystopian. There is nothing about this future that looks good at all, you can see why people might want to use Ma Ma's stuff and just disengage.

I wonder if the guys that did this have thought about trying to do this type of movie as a net show or high end cable show, considering what they did with this budget, I think they could pull it off.

dredd is incredible i thought. indreddible! enjoyed the soundtrack too. lena headey was a good, kinda surprising pick for the villain. there was definitely a decent amount of CGI blood but it didn't bother me in this one as much as it has in other films.

This was the most shoegaze comic book movie ever. Liked it a lot - far better than what I was expecting

If I was a gazillionaire I would bankroll the sequel myself.

I quite liked this, but felt something was missing – it's partly the social satire thing that Tuomas mentions upthread, but it felt like a more general lack of wit comp. to the Dredd of my memories– too straightforwardly murder/drugs/torture dark.

basically at the start when Dredd kills the perp who's using the fast-food-stall worker as a human shield, he should then arrest the worker for a health and safety violation or something.