Plot Details: This opinion reveals major details about the movie's plot.

There are lots of times when a script gets a lot less money than it deserves to produce it. "Evil Dead" could've been even better if some studio had had the cajones to back it, and I personally feel Disney should've just gone ahead and greenlighted the $200 million Michael Bay wanted for "Pearl Harbor" (instead of forcing him to make due with "only" $150 million). I mean, with the extra $50 million, they could've hired some decent actors, maybe even gotten somebody to edit that horrible love story out of the script. Wouldn't that have been great?

But it's very rare you see a script get a lot more money than it's really worthy of, and ladies and gentlemen, you have a fine example of that right here. "Judge Dredd" is a movie that should've been made on some dirt cheap budget, but is instead loaded with more cash than it knows what to do with, and the results are..well, pretty weird.

Taking place in a futuristic "Megacity" that looks a lot what I imagine early "Blade Runner" concept sketches looked like before someone decided to add in all the asian influences and such, he story of the film revolves around a guy named Joseph Dredd (Sylvester Stallone). Dredd is a "Judge", which is apparently a futuristic policeman who can act as judge, jury, and executioner for any criminal he apprehends. He's apparently pretty good at it too, since every criminal in the city recognizes him (in one of the movie's corniest touches, every man he kills seems to yell "DREDD!" before he caps them, like they just can't believe it's him there). His life is about to take a change, however, when he ends up framed for murder, due to the fact that the gun used had his DNA on it. He's arrested, tried, and is about to be killed when his mentor (played, unbelievably, by legandary actor Max Von Syndow), one of the "Chief Judges" who run the organization, decides to step down and ask the other Judges to show leniency as his last wish. Dredd gets sent to prison, but on the way, the plane crashes, and Dredd and his new sidekick, a hacker played by Roc Schneider, end up taken prisoner by some cannibals. Of course, this is Sly Stallone we're talking about, so of course he escapes, kills them all, and heads back to the city to take revenge like the bad mofo he is! Oh, there's also a sub-plot about a conspiracy by a rengade judge to take over the city with clones of Dredd's brother, Rico (Armand Arssante), but that isn't too important.

It isn't a bad story, really, and in the hands of a better director, it may just have amounted to the serious level of drama it's clear this one wanted it to. But as it is, the mood of the film is so jokey and unseriousness that scenes that are supposed to be serious, such as a courtroom scene where Dredd, after being convicted of a crime he didn't commit. decides to yell "I didn't break the law, I AM THE LAW!" will inspire laughter a lot more than they'll trigger any emotional response. The Director also really needs to work on his character building. Dredd has a relationship with a fellow Judge named Hershey (Diane Lane) that develops throughtout the film, but it's so heavy handed and cliched that you would have to suspend your disbelief with the aid of drugs before you'd buy it, I think. But by far the best example of this is the scene where Syndow's Judge character dies in front of Dredd, who he's been friends with for years. You'd assume Dredd might at least shed a few tears, but instead, he just looks sad for about thirty seconds and then picks up a gun and gets mad. The best part of all, though, is that this leads straight into an incredibly melodramatic scene where Dredd stands with the gun in front of a statue of Justice with lightning flashing around him and dramatic music plays. Wow. Brings tears to my eyes just thinking about it.

The action for the film is pretty weak, too. Most of the gunfights are rather poorly cherographed, and it's clear the filmmakers have never seen a Hong Kong action film, or they would've realized that gunfights are often better when they involve a certain level of motion and grace beyond "guy stands, shoots, moves". Yawn. Show me something new already.

It also bears noting that the set design for the film is criminally unimaginative, and despite all the CG backgrounds and huge models, I was never paticularly impressed with the sets. Man, can't anyone imagine a cityscape that doesn't look like it was designed by the same folks who designed a hundred other, better ones.

Finally, i've also gotta say that the director makes criminal misuse of his actors. Stallone, Lane, and Syndow have all done good work in the past, and have done better since. It's too bad he couldn't coax better performances out of them here. We won't even get started on noted director Joan Chen demaning herself in a supporting role here. Amazingly, Schneider gives a great performance here, the only good one in the film. His comic timing is perfect, and he delivers endlessly quotable line after endlessly quotable line. My personal favorite: "I'm still alive!" (after falling out of a huge chute onto the ground. A couple seconds later, Stallone wakes up after doing the same thing and Schneider says, dejectedly..)"And so are you...". He also does a hilarious Stallone impression. Celebrate this great acting job by going to see "The Animal" right now.

But the film isn't all bad. The story isn't bad, like I said. There are some really funny lines spoken by actors other than Schneider. And I thought some of the concepts were actually pretty cool. My favorite was an intelligent gun that will fire whatever kind of bullet it's ordered to by a Judge, i.e. say "grenade" and it fires a grenade, ask for "armor piercing" and it's fire armor piercing bullets, etc.. And despite myself, I found myself really enjoying a lot of the film. Sure, it's got weak performances and is really unimaginative and melodramatic, but hey, melodrama is cool sometimes.

CONCLUSION
I have a feeling this film would go down better with an alchoholic beverage, but it's ok by itself as well. If you've go nothing better to do on a Friday, you may as well go rent this. It isn't great, but you could do a lot worse.

Recommended: Yes

Viewing Format: VHS
Video Occasion: Better than Watching TV
Suitability For Children: Suitable for Children Age 13 and Older