In 1995 Judge Dredd was given it's first cinematic treatment. If you've seen the horribly received original (I'll admit I recently saw the first one and I thought it was a great so bad it's awesome type movie), then you know that it desperately needed to be remade. The Dredd remake couldn't be more different than the Sylvester Stallone version and it's all the better for it. Clearly are both over-the top movies, but this Dredd is a mindless, gritty, action-packed, bloody, and sometime darkly humorous good time opposed to the Stallone version which was silly, relatively tame in the action department, and loaded with unintentional laughs. This is the type of old-school, 80's B-action movie that you just don't very often any more (This is actually the first one I can think of in the past couple of years outside of The Expendables franchise). This movie is essentially just one big shootout driven by a thumping electronic soundtrack and a few brief interludes to set up the plot (aka Who Dredd is fighting and why). Karl Urban knows exactly how to approach this type of character. He approaches this gleefully over-the top role with just the right balance of charisma and cheese. With roles like this and being the lone standout in last year's otherwise pretty damn bad Priest, Urban just might be the best B-movie actor in the business. Lena Headey also thrives as the movie's villain, the tyrannical drug dealer Mo-Ma. Between this and Game of Thrones, Headey shows she is at her best playing antagonists (Even though Mo-Ma and Cersei Lannister couldn't be any more different). Dredd also makes good use of it's visuals. The heavy use of slow motion makes the 3D pretty damn effective at points in this movie and the special effects are top-notch throughout. Dredd is 95 minutes of pure fun. The plot is simple and the body count is high and that's really all that matters and it works perfectly for a movie like Dredd.
4/5 Stars
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