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Review by E.C. McMullen Jr. |
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JUDGE DREDD- 1995USA Release: June 30, 1995 Edward R. Pressman Productions, Cinergi Pictures Entertainment, Hollywood Pictures, Buena Vista Pictures Distribution Ratings: USA: R |
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Imagine that you're a successful, fresh, up and coming young director who is so well-known for your long time fandom for the John Wagner and Carlos Ezquerra comic 2000AD JUDGE DREDD, that you are chosen by the Producers who have bought the movie rights to the comic, Edward R. Pressman (PHANTOM OF THE PARADISE, THE HAND, CONAN THE BARBARIAN, THE CROW) and Andrew G. Vajna (THE CHANGELING, ANGEL HEART, DEEPSTAR SIX, TOTAL RECALL, JACOB'S LADDER), to direct the movie! These guys are long time associates of both Arnold Schwarzenegger and Sylvester Stallone!
Wouldn't that be the most awesome thing ever? It's the 1990s! For over a decade summer cinema rolled along with Science Fiction Action Horror Thrillers that began with MAD MAX - itself inspired by 2000AD's JUDGE DREDD comics!
What's more, the story and screenplay is adapted by Michael DeLuca who wrote John Carpenter's IN THE MOUTH OF MADNESS!
Whoops. DeLuca's script is too goofy. The Exec's want a darker, serious movie.
But cool because they hired William Wisher, the guy who co-created THE TERMINATOR and TERMINATOR 2 with James Cameron!
What's more the title character will be played by Arnold Schwarzenegger (Okay, he took a pass). No wait, Sylvester Stallone! Stallone was offered the biggest paycheck in history to be in the movie! He's gonna do it! Stallone! The actor who starred in the movie, DEATH RACE 2000, which inspired the comic JUDGE DREDD!
Holy shit! This is your lilfe's dream! You couldn't WISH for better mentors than your two Executive Producers! And! They! Love! Your! Work!
Everything is going to be perfect and YOU get to direct it!
That's what it felt like in the mid-1990s to n00b director Danny Cannon (STRANGERS [1991]).
Everything is going your way. In meetings with the hired on Producers, newbies like yourself, and the two Executive Producers who brought you on board, you suggest, then fight for having the production moved to Great Britain. Not just because JUDGE DREDD was invented there. It's not just a matter of lowering Production costs, but because The Star Wars Trilogy, The Indiana Jones Trilogy, ALIEN and ALIENS, and so many other movies, England has the best trained SFX technicians on earth!
Edward and Andrew finally agree.
The giant robot, Hammerstein was going to be a guy in a suit, but you suggest, then fight for it being a hydraulic robot for real!
Edward and Andrew finally agree.
You're busting ass to protect your vision, but you're able to make headway, the Executive Producers are able to see your point and admire your passion. This thing is happening!
Then Sylvester comes along. He's never heard of this Judge Dredd, knows nothing about the comic, but he's getting a big check so here he is.
Stallone reads the script. Hey, he thought it was going to be an action comedy like his three action comedy movies, Tango and Cash, Oscar, and Stop Or My Mom Will Shoot.
Stallone doesn't want to do a Dark Action movie with comedy elements. He just did that with DEMOLITION MAN last year. Sylvester want to do an action comedy and he wants his character to have lots and lots of Catch Phrases like Arnold Schwarzenegger gets.
TRIVIA I'm pretty harsh in this review, aren't I? But let's be honest, this was shot over 30 years ago. What I have to say doesn't change how much it tanked at the theaters in 1995 and later in home video. It doesn't change the fact that this movie was supposed to launch a franchise, not abort it. So why write it at all? Never think for a second that because a movie is old means any lessons to be learned are outdated as well. Human behavior has changed little over the many millennia and its that human frailty that makes or breaks a group effort like, in this case, JUDGE DREDD. Danny Cannon would go on to direct the hit Horror movie, I KNOW WHAT YOU DID LAST SUMMER [1998]. Then he hit his stride by becoming a television producer as well, and that's when he reached A-List status. Only 5 years after JUDGE DREDD, Danny became Executive Producer on CSI: Crime Scene Investigation. He doubled that success with CSI: Miami. From there it was hit after hit. Stallone got to where he is because failure after failure, he let nothing defeat Him! Danny has that same drive. You can too. |
Sylvester wants a script re-write.
Also, the scripted Judge Dredd never shows his face. That's got to go. Stallone wants to do as much of the movie as possible without anything covering his face.
His two good buddies, the Executive Producers who hired you, your mentors, gave you creative control for the SFX and Production location. They take Stallone's side on everything else from character to story. Filmmaking is compromise and you can't win every battle.
JUDGE DREDD opens with a half page of text on the screen. It would be really bad if, while you're reading the text, someone is reading it to you like you're an idiot.
Somebody does.
But it's all being read and read, and read, by James Earl Jones! The voice of Darth Vader! Thulsa Doom, yo!
So I sat there and dealt with it.
JUDGE DREDD begins with a shuttle returning to Mega-City One with freshly released prisoners. They've done their time, now they can return to the hell holes that spawned them. Unrecognizable to fans of the comic, the well-known character, Fergie (Rob Schneider: MARTIANS GO HOME, DEMOLITION MAN, ROBOT AWAKENING, HUBIE HALLOWEEN) has just finished his six months and is allowed to go to a new apartment supplied by the government.
Unfortunately his apartment, way, way down in the crime ridden depths of Mega city One, is currently going through a block war, and when he opens the door, Fergie finds himself being threatened by gun toting squatters who will kill him if he doesn't take their side in a "Block war".
The Block Warlord (James Remar: THE WARRIORS, CRUISING, TALES FROM THE DARKSIDE: THE MOVIE, BLINK, THE PHANTOM, ROBO WARRIORS, HELLRAISER: INFERNO, FEAR X, DEXTER [TV], BLADE TRINITY, THE UNBORN, TRANSFORMERS: DARK OF THE MOON, HORNS, BLACK LIGHTNING [TV], MEGAPOLIS), is as volatile and uncompromising as he wants to be. Far below on the streets, two young Judges are pinned behind wrecks and requesting back-up assistance.
That's when Judge Dredd rides up, gets off his motorcycle, and throughout a hail of bullets, announces through his bike's loudspeaker that the entire block is under arrest.
The judges enter one of the buildings and go from apartment to apartment, arresting and documenting those who do not surrender, will go to jail, or those who try to shoot their way out of trouble and are quickly "Judged".
The judges make their way to Fergie's apartment, the Block Warlord chooses to shoot his way out of trouble, and soon only Fergie is left: Left to return to prison for another 5 years since he was busted while on probation.
Fergie thinks that is all unfair as hell. The government sent him to an unsafe apartment in an incredibly violent part of the city at a time when his new block was going through a "Fiery but Mostly Peaceful Protest". Poor Fergie never stood a chance, but a Judge's word is final because they do more than enforce the law. In the dystopian future of Mega cities, they ARE the law.
There's really no sense in telling you anymore because after all of Sylvester's creative meddling, which eventually wound up getting director Danny Cannon removed from his set and a 2nd unit director shooting the Post-Production Pick-up shots and scenes, JUDGE DREDD plays out like a poor remake of 1993's DEMOLITION MAN.
That said, Sylvester Stallone got all of his dreary, cringe-y, didn't age well when it first hit the screen, Catch-Phrases that nobody ever quotes because they all suck and were delivered with dollops of extra lazy flab.
What a waste of his co-stars like Diane Lane (STREETS OF FIRE, LADY BEWARE, THE GLASS HOUSE, UNTRACEABLE, Y: THE LAST MAN [TV]), Jürgen Prochnow (DUNE, THE KEEP), and Max Von Sydow (THE NIGHT VISITOR, THE EXORCIST, FLASH GORDON, CONAN THE BARBARIAN, DUNE, MINORITY REPORT).
At least Armand Assante (PROPHECY), as Rico, "read the room" and fed his character with all of the scenery he could chew.
The usually funny Rob Schneider had his moments, especially when he went off-script and winged it. But mostly he's there to mug and gawk, and deliver unfunny comedy relief, devoid of comedic timing, and in all the wrong places.
It's astounding that anyone thought it was funny enough to keep in.
UGH!
So what about everything else? For its time everything else is pretty damn cool!
SFX artists often know the script better than the actors, often better than the Executive Producers who paid for the script. They have to. They are tasked with building the world of the script.
So when a troubled production goes off the rails, it's the SFX artists whose work often winds up telling a far better story than what is running on top through the machinations of the Producers, Actors, and Director.
Danny Cannon was right.
Along with excellent cinematography from the late Adrian Biddle (ALIENS, EVENT HORIZON, THE MUMMY [1999], THE MUMMY RETURNS, REIGN OF FIRE, AN AMERICAN HAUNTING, V FOR VENDETTA) there was team leaders like
Production Design by Nigel Phelps (HIGH SPIRITS, BATMAN [1989], ALIEN: RESURRECTION, IN DREAMS, THE BONE COLLECTOR, THE ISLAND, THE MUMMY: TOMB OF THE DRAGON EMPEROR, TRANSFORMERS: REVENGE OF THE FALLEN, WORLD WAR Z, LIFE, PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN: DEAD MEN TELL NO TALES),
Supervising Art Director Leslie Tomkins (THE SHINING,
BATMAN [1989], SLEEPY HOLLOW, LARA CROFT: TOMB RAIDER), and
Visual Effects by the huge team at Mass. Illusions.
Additionally, there were specific Visual Special Effects by Chris Halls, who would become Chris Cunningham (NIGHTBREED, HARDWARE, ALIEN3, ALIEN: RESURRECTION). Chris is also the director behind bizarre Music videos like APHEX TWIN: COME TO DADDY, BJORK: ALL IS FULL OF LOVE, and RUBBER JOHNNY.
So visually and in stunts, the Below the Line crew gave it their best. It's all there and all excellent. Work worthy of the hard core dystopia movies of James Cameron, John Carpenter, David Cronenberg, and more. Unfortunately, Stallone and his Executive Producer buddies had no idea what to do with it, though they thought they did.
Whatever this mess is supposed to be, it ain't 2000AD JUDGE DREDD. Two barely earned Shriek Girls.
This review copyright 2025 E.C.McMullen Jr.
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