Dredd (D-) #191

Wow...truly bad.  Dreadful actually.  There are maybe two cool scenes throughout but generally a very poorly acted movie coupled with a horrible plot.  The scene with the three gatling-type guns shooting from one balcony across to the other side of the building was probably one of the cooler scenes in the movie.  It actually looked like they were shooting fire bullets (yet the bullet casings were standard looking) and essentially these fire bullets shot through many layers of concrete and building.  I'm not sure if that can really happen or not.  Can it?  Everyone in the entire block of the building were killed, minus the two Judges and their perp.  Awful.  They evaded all fire blasts by ducking, running and dodging.  While 200 people caught their fate.

Karl Urban....bad.  Bad bad bad.  His character was a mix between Christian Bale's deep Batman (c) voice coupled with droopy dog's (c) inverted smile.  Great mean face Karl!  And the scene where he is shot and mends himself?  Is this something that the fan boys can explain to me?  Is Dredd known for being able to mend himself with a first aid kit, even if a bullet goes straight through him?  Don't worry about healing the middle of his body or the back of the wound where the bullet entered, just mend the exit location and carry on.  Wow.  The end scene where he throws Ma-Ma through the window (sorry for the plot spoiler, but it doesn't matter really.  In all honesty the movie is so dumb and not worth watching so I didn't ruin anything), he stands there like he is holding in a poop, with his hand out like a crossing guards stop sign.

Ma-Ma.....bad.  I should probably get the thesaurus out for this because I keep using bad and awful.  Ma-Ma was played by Lena Headly.  Such a atrociously crummy "evil" character.  The casting director should retire.  Sorry if that is mean, but really this was one of the weaker parts of the movie (well...the characters and the plot.  Ha!).  No fear is created by this person to me when watching.  She has some scars and tattoos, and dirty teeth.  Crazy!  She doesn't look scary at all.  And the rest of her clan were basically forgettable.  They didn't even have a main thug to root for (from a bad guy sense).  There was a perp that they carted around for the entire movie, but he was just as forgettable as the rest of the cast.

I guess there are some movies that I watch where I rave about how good they are - and perhaps they are just considered so-so to most viewers.  Yet something about that particular movie I review either made me laugh or I just dug it, felt the vibe if you will.  Then the reverse happens.  Where I will watch a movie and I end up thrashing it in my review, like wet noodles on the dock...however somehow the masses end up loving the film despite my views and stating that I feel the movie is royal crap.  I mean, all should go by my reviews, right?  But this one.  I'm not sure how anyone could like this one.  Even the blind sheep masses who are lured to and end up loving rotten movies should also hate this one.  Rotten Tomatoes (c) gave it a 78.  Metacritic.com (c), who is even more accurate because there isn't a pass/fail system involved, gave it a 59.  I just don't get it.  It was so very ghastly (yeah thesaurus!).  There are some cool killing scenes, but the rest of the movie is beyond awful.  I tried to read some reviews to find a few who are on my side.  Not easy to find.  Almost each normal human review (not critic) loves the movie and raves about how spot on Urban is with his portrayal of Dredd, and how they are so happy he stayed true to the role by keeping his helmet on, blah blah blah.  Well, I guess these people also liked G.I. Joe and Chop then.  Crazy.

I didn't even remember to comment on the slow motion "awesome effects" (sarcasm) used when the people use the street drug.  And I didn't comment on the cheesy effects portrayed when the girl Dredd uses here stupid mental abilities.  I have to stop, I could go on and on.  Bye.