Tuesday, January 18, 2011

A Dredd-full post...


Ok... as I said I was a Comic fan, during that golden time I attended A collectables show at the Christiana mall ( This was in the early 80’s) while my mother shopped I mindlessly went through the booths of antiques, collectables and knick-knacks. One fellow was selling old newspapers and magazines, I went through his bargain bin and found a armful of what appeared to be a sunday morning comics section... they were “2000 AD” a english publication that ran some serialized US comics and there own... one of those was a comic called “Judge Dredd”


I loved it, in fact at of all the “2000 AD” comics it is the only one I really remember, especially Judge Dredds battle against Judge Death. Citadel... that was what Games Workshop was called in the olde days published a game set in the world of Judge Dredd and I think I was the only person in the US to buy it.


Judge Dredd was the law in every sense of the word, the Judges had the power to not only apprehend criminals but to charge and pass sentence on the spot. They did this in the massive Megacity 1 ( which covered most of the US NE) with its rebelling robots and rioting citizens.


Then came the year 1995... and they made a movie staring Sylvester Stalone... ok, it wasn't that good, to level set, it also starred Rob Schneider... the true herald of a piece of S movie. I just subjected myself to watching this movie... twice, truth is I think they did alright with some of the design elements, it was truly the story and acting that sunk that movie ( and Diane Lane could arrest me anyday dressed like that).


One of the things that really bugged me about the movie, was Dredd’s face, in the comic, his face had been disfigured in a fight against a “Perp”... I mean horribly disfigured... One time he was fighting some carjackers and they squirted something on his helmet and he had to take it off ( a censored bar appeared over Dredds face in the next panel) all the Criminals freaked he was so ugly... but they dropped that. Dredd in the comic was not a hulking mass of muscle... but he was in the movie.


The movie I believe is another case of hollywood not taking a comic “Seriously”, this was the standard issue in 90’s comics movies... in fact I would say that the only movies to buck the trend are some of the recent Dark Knight movies, “Sin City”, “The Watchmen” and “The 300 hundred”.


I was posting Dredd movie quotes on FB and a friend... whom we’ll call Matt Uaneray... mentioned they maybe doing a new Dredd movie with Karl Urban as Dredd... I looked it up and sure enough they are... I honestly wish them luck and have high hopes... if not.. I shall judge them.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Judge them fiercely.

I never actually read any Dredd comics back in the day - I only saw the cool-looking ads for the RPG in Dragon Magazine. The idea seemed cool, but the movie...well, I tried to watch it, and made it about 30 minutes in before I broke. Stallone's "Half My Mouth Is Filled With Novacaine" speaking style was exceeded only by the accumulated suckiness of Schneider and the rest of the cast (except Max Von Sydow, of course, whom I adore unreservedly). The remake certainly can't be worse.

Nevermind. Hollywood could find a way.