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Dom Robinson reviews
- Cat.no: P 8838 DVD
- Cert: 15
- Running time: 92 minutes
- Year: 1995
- Pressing: 1999
- Region(s): 2, PAL
- Chapters: 15 plus extras
- Sound: Dolby Digital 5.1
- Languages: English
- Subtitles: English
- Widescreen: 2.35:1 (Panavision)
- 16:9-Enhanced: No
- Macrovision: Yes
- Disc Format: DVD 5
- Price: £19.99
- Extras : Scene index, Theatrical trailers, The Making of Judge Dredd, Cast biographies and filmographies.
Director:
- Danny Cannon
(I Still Know What You Did Last Summer, Phoenix, Strangers, The Young Americans)
Producer:
- Charles M. Lippincott and Beau E. L. Marks
Screenplay:
- William Fisher and Steven E. De Souza
Music:
- Alan Silvestri
Cast:
- Judge Dredd: Sylvester Stallone (Assassins, Copland, Cliffhanger, Cobra, Daylight, Death Race 2000, Demolition Man, Escape To Victory, Into Thin Air, Rocky I-V, Rambo I-III, The Specialist, Tango and Cash, The Ump, Yellow Handkerchief)
Rico: Armand Assante (Fatal Instinct, 1492, Private Benjamin, Striptease)
Herman Ferguson (Fergie): Rob Schneider (The Adventures of Pinocchio, Big Daddy, Demolition Man, Down Periscope, Knock Off, Surf Ninjas)
Judge Griffin: Jurgen Prochnow (Air Force One, Body Of Evidence, Das Boot, Dune, The English Patient, In The Mouth Of Madness, Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me)
Chief Justice Fargo: Max von Sydow (Awakenings, The Best Intentions, Dune, The Exorcist 1 & 2, Flash Gordon, The Seventh Seal, Until the End of the World, What Dreams May Come)
Judge Hershey: Diane Lane (Jack, Knight Moves, Murder at 1600, My New Gun, Rumble Fish, Wild Bill)
Judge Dredd places Sylvester Stallone in the title role of the masked man who originated in the 2000 AD comic book and vows to uphold the law in Mega City One by being Judge, Jury and Executioner all in one as he goes about his daily business. However, one day he is framed for the murder of two officials and when he finds himself on the other side, he gets a taste of his own medicine.
The sentence is death, but at the request of his old friend, retiring Chief Justice Fargo (Max Von Sydow), he asks that they spare Dredd’s life in return for himself taking “The Long Walk”, a journey out of Mega City One and into the Cursed Earth where you take your chances in the deserted land with only the Book of Law and a gun to protect you.
Dredd is subjected to life imprisonment instead and through bizarre circumstances, he and his new-found side-kick Fergie (Rob Schneider), a hacker, they try to get back into Mega City One and kick his arch-enemy Rico’s (Armand Assante) butt. Assante does a brilliant bad-guy job too.
Will he manage it? What do you think. Danny Cannon‘s film has some gorgeous set designs plus a well-made hoverbike chase and goes some way to perfecting the downbeat city areas as well as the brightly-lit ones with enough neon to out-do Las Vegas. If he’d stayed with the dark theme throughout the film we could have had some substance to the proceedings, but there’s too much slapstick brought about by the over-the-top performance from Schneider, who also appeared in Demolition Man alongside Stallone and who never seem to shut up.
In addition to the cast members already mentioned, Diane Lane plays Judge Hershey, a colleague of Dredd’s and a good girl, Joan Chen is Ilsa, a bad girl and colleague of Rico, while there are cameo roles for Ian Dury as shop owner Geiger and Trainspotting‘s Ewen Bremner as roughneck Junior Angel.
The picture quality, despite not being anamorphic, looks about as good as it can be, bar a handful of flecks on the print early on. Aside from that, the colour of the city looks fantastic. The film is presented in its original theatrical ratio of 2.35:1 which is essential for such a Panavision film with so many close-ups.
The average average bitrate is an excellent 8.10Mb/s, regularly peaking at just under 9Mb/s.
The soundtrack is full of guns blazing, bullets ricocheting and explosions exploding. I don’t have Dolby Digital capabilities which I presume sound top-notch, but the ProLogic soundtrack doesn’t quite seem all it can be with explosions sounding a little stilted, while in the final fight between Dredd and Rico, it sounds way too quiet.
Extras :
Chapters and Trailer : 15 chapters are spread out over the 92-minute film, the latter for the end credits and just two short of that number found on the Region 1 DVD. The theatrical trailer is also included.
Languages and Subtitles : There’s just one language on this disc – English, but it is available in Dolby Digital 5.1. There are also English subtitles for the hard of hearing.
Featurette: “Stallone’s Law: The Making of Judge Dredd” : A 20-minute featurette with comments and chat with cast and crew including Stallone himself.
Cast biographies and filmographies : And you get exactly that for Stallone, Diane Lane, Rob Schneider, Armand Assante and British director Danny Cannon.
Menu : The main menu looks superb with a replica of Mega City One and animation to match and the menus also contain sound.
Judge Dredd could have been a great film, but the aforemention over-comedic nature lets it down and has probably scuppered its chance of future sequels so it becomes a mildly-entertaining 90-minute watch but that’s it.
Sadly, the BBFC have let their scissors do the talking with this film having cut it to a 15-cert even for home viewing. I understand there’s only a few seconds of cuts to this film and some action scenes aren’t too bad, but there’s a moment 81 minutes in, basically in Joan Chen’s only big scene, where Diane Lane headbutts her. There’s a jarring cut in the proceedings which looks bloody ridiculous!
I’m surprised the cover used for the DVD (see above) is the one that was chosen since it’s rather bland and not a patch on the one used for the video release which picture Dredd against a backdrop and was much more impressive.
So, as a result, if you are going to get this back-catalogue DVD, which has seen Fox see sense and lower the price of their old titles even if it is to a penny under twenty quid, you’ll have to pass this one over in favour of the American release which is similarly non-anamorphic but at least it’s uncut.
FILM : **½ PICTURE QUALITY: **** SOUND QUALITY: *** EXTRAS: **½ ——————————- OVERALL: ***
Review copyright © Dominic Robinson, 1999.
Reviewer of movies, videogames and music since 1994. Aortic valve operation survivor from the same year. Running DVDfever.co.uk since 2000. Nobel Peace Prize winner 2021.