Movie Monday

I decided to take Netflix out of the title this week.  The only films I can find on there are classics that nearly everyone has seen.  When I was stuck home with the flu, I rented a couple of movies from Redbox and was really impressed with Dredd.  It didn't do too well at the box office, despite being a really good sci-fi/action.  Normally remakes are terrible, and Judge Dredd, staring Sylvester Stallone, was absolutely terrible.  But this remake went from crappy to really good.  Hopefully the Evil Dead follows suite.

Dredd is set in the future where the police have the authority to be judge, jury and executioner.  It takes place in a post-apocalyptic wasteland in an area called Mega-City One.  17,000 crimes a day take place and the latest craze is a drug called Slo-Mo which makes users feel like time is travelling at only 1% of normal speed.

The main character, Judge Dredd, who sounds like a clone of Batman, is given a sidekick for the day as sort of a Judge "tryout."  She is a gifted psychic but barely failed the Judge test.  Dredd is a by-the-book kind of guy and believes she shouldn't get a shot, but he listens to his boss and gives her a shot. The twosome travel to Peach Trees, which is a 200 story slum tower, to investigate a murder.  While there, they learn about a drug den and head to raid it.  They put the whooping on most of the criminals but arrest the man they believe is responsible for the murder.

 

It turns out that the arrested criminal works for "Ma-Ma", who runs the drug trade and is pretty much in charge of the entire slum.  She doesn't want to risk him talking to the Judges, so she locks down Peach Trees and refuses to open it back up until the two Judges are dead or captured.

The rest of the movie is an action-fest as the Judges try to leave with their lives and their arrested criminal.  I really don't know why this movie did so poorly in the American market.  It is a really good action movie, with a really good plot (now, you just get one or the other) and has great visuals.  While it's not on Netflix, you can get it from Redbox.  I'm not sure if the codes still work, but you can try typing in BREAKROOM or DVDONME for a free rental.  If it works, you can use each card on all of your cards.  Not a bad deal.