Monday, September 24, 2012

The Judge Dredd body count blows away Commando

Judge Dredd. He is the Law. And you never see his eyes.
For those of you unfamiliar with the infamous body count in Schwarzenegger's "Commando," for a long time, it held a record for most people killed in a single film.

I don't know the exact numbers, but Dredd kills a lot of folks in this reboot done some seventeen years since his disastrous big screen appearance helmed by Sylvester Stallone. In my mind, the Judge Dredd body count blows away "Commando."

In looking back at this film , the first thing question that pops into my mind is: who knew women could be so brutal, disgusting, and evil?
Lena Headey as Ma-Ma. She gives a chilling performance as someone
you don't want to cross.
Lena Headey plays Ma-Ma, Mega-City One's most horrible citizen. She manufactures a drug called slo-mo which causes a high that slows down time to 1% normal for those who use it. Imagine life and all of your experiences suddenly going into bullet time for a while. That's what slo-mo is like and the effect that is shown on screen is really cool (a silent nod to the brilliant Wachowski's who debuted this technique in 1999 in the groundbreaking film, "The Matrix").

So what makes this "Ma-Ma" so horrible? In just one scene, she orders three men drugged on slo-mo and then flayed alive. Yes, all of their skin is cut off. Imagine that AND on this drug. It would seem like it lasted forever. And then while they're still on it and not quite dead...she drops them off a 200-story balcony to fall to their deaths...to experience their own heads exploding in gushing red gore in microseconds against unyielding concrete.
The concrete arcology called "Peach Trees." It's probably named that
because life is so "peachy" there. Basically, it's a human sewer.
It chills my blood to even think about it.

Into this scene comes Judge Dredd, and he is there to pronounce judgement (death) upon Ma-Ma. And a fight to the top of a spooky and dreary arcology that houses 75,000 people begins. The blood bath is pretty amazing, and the violence is accentuated by new and different ways to kill people. He sets them on fire, blows their heads to pieces, throws them off balconies, shoots them dead, butchers them, etc.
Do not be alarmed. It's just a little incineration.
And some of it is done in incredible slow motion so that you can see flesh being torn assunder frame by frame.

I have to say, Judge Dredd is not a film for everyone. But it is a film for me. I thoroughly enjoyed the violence carried out in a way that riveted me to the screen.

What about you?

Did you go see this movie this weekend? If so, what did you think?

25 comments:

  1. Saw it Friday afternoon and reviewed it today! Yeah the body count was what - in the hundreds? And the way in which the director filmed it meant that we saw people die in ways we'd never seen before. (Like Ma-Ma's demise at the end. I think my wife actually looked away.)
    But it blew away that awful Stallone flick!

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  2. Wow. It sounds very graphic and Ma-Ma sounds like one evil woman.

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  3. Didn't even know they were remaking this. But what's new? :) Some of the scenes sound like stuff that'll keep me morbidly occupied for months.

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  4. I love Lena Headey. I haven't seen this yet, but I really want to.

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  5. I'm surprised you didn't throw in some "Breaking Bad" comparisons in there. You're slipping, man. This debuted with a paltry 6 mill so obviously not many people saw it.

    The plot sounds like that "The Raid Redemption" movie where the whole point of the video game-like plot was to fight to the top of a building. At some point does anyone throw down some barrels like Donkey Kong? That would be cool.

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  6. It sounds like one of those movies for guys who like movies. :)

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  7. So far, I'm hearing mixed reviews. The thing is, people with similar tastes in movies liked it - so I'm going to give it a try.

    I'm getting close to the midpoint of SLIPSTREAM. I'm in love with your writing!

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  8. Sounds like something I'd enjoy watching. Going to have to wait until it gets over here, as usual...

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  9. Didn't make it to any movie this weekend, but I've heard amazing things about this reboot (aside from your gushing comments, of course :)

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  10. It sounds a bit too much like the second Punisher movie for me. I want to see Dredd, but I think I'd spend most of the movie looking away, so maybe I should wait for video.

    Bullet time existed before The Matrix, by the way. Blade and Lost in Space both used it in '98, and other variations were used even earlier in commercials and music videos. The Matrix was just the first huge success that used it, so that's what brought it to everyone's attention.

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  11. I can't afford to go to the cinema, but I will probably rent it.

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  12. This certainly sounds like a thought-provoking movie. NOT! I don't like violence as the subject of movies and can tolerate it only when important to the story.

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  13. If they do a sequel I hope they bring in Judge Death.

    mood
    Moody Writing

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  14. Thanks for the warning - uh, review of Dredd. I'm not sure I could stomach it. :) It does sound good in theory though.

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  15. I don't think I could handle this movie at all. But yes, I've long known that some women can be every bit as evil and violent as some men. An unfortunate equality.

    The "arcology" that people can live in sounds fascinating, though -- like a town in a whole building.

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  16. Yuck. That sounds icky. George RR Martin talks about flaying a lot, too.

    I was working, so saw no movies.

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  17. No movies this weekend, but may try next weekend. Thanks for the overview. Thanks also for stopping by my blog today. Have a great week!

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  18. I saw the preview to this over the weekend and knew right away I had to see it. Plus, I loved the original with Stallone:)

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  19. I missed this last weekend, if the box office results for the weekend are accurate though, it should be out on Netflix in about 3 weeks. So I'll catch it then.

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  20. Lena does a pretty good job being an evil bitch in Game of Thrones. I'll probably have to look away from some of the violence.

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  21. Every time I see a commercial for this movie, I just think, Nah.

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  22. I saw this when it came out. Great film. Loved the slo-mo but now think some dropout college punk is at work in a basement somewhere trying to create it for real. lol

    Yes, the movie was rife with action. At first, I thought, "Oh, crap, it's a different version of "The Raid" (which totally sucked), but the similarities with regard to fighting ones way to the top of a building ended there.

    Definitely better than Stallone's film back in what, '84 or '85?

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  23. Thanks for the heads up. I'll give this one a pass. (I'm too weak-stomached for gore.)

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  24. I want to see this. I'm just going to have to wait until it is on DVD. I figured it couldn't be worse than the first one, and I'm one of the few that kind of liked watching it. *bows head*

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