Judge Dredd Movie Review

A cop who acts as judge, jury, and executioner? Admittedly, they should have let John Milius write and direct, but hell, overall this is a fine film version of the famous cult comic 2000 AD that retains all the spirit of the British strip. Stallone even looks the square-jawed part, and once you get over his slurring of Dredd's most noted line – “I am the law!” – he ain't so bad at all. Dredd is framed for murder by ex-judge/arch-criminal Rico (Armand Assante), who loves to kill and knows some dark, Dredded family secret. Banished from Mega City One with nothing but comic relief in the form of Rob Schneider, Dredd must face the more-likely-than-not inbred Angel family, most notably the hacked-up, cyber-enhanced, ugly-as-hell, psychotic-mental misfit Mean Machine, who just happens to have a dial on his head to crank up the ol’ nastiness. Add to this lady judge Diane Lane, an opening aerial tour of Mega City One that goes one up on Blade Runner, a high-speed, high-altitude motorcycle chase with lots-o'-bullets and tons-o'-neon, dialogue intensely delivered with the acting-be-damned attitude required, and you've got one great piece of comic book celluloid. Robocop obviously owes Dredd-the-comic book a lot. Dredd-the-movie took so long to get to the screen that they made Robocop into three movies, a TV show, and a cartoon series, before the real mechanized hero hit the theatres.

1995 (R) 96m/C Sylvester Stallone, Armand Assante, Diane Lane, Rob Schneider, Joan Chen, Juergen Prochnow, Max von Sydow; D: Danny Cannon; W: Steven E. de Souza, Michael De Luca, William Wisher; M: Alan Silvestri. Nominations: Golden Raspberry Awards ‘95: Worst Actor (Stallone). VHS, LV TOU