Even More Movies You've Watched This Week

Off Topic
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Expendables 2 - Roughly 428.793% better than the first one. Seriously entertaining, seriously fucking stupid action movie. There is still a lot of really awkward dialogue that seems like it was written by an Aborigine with nothing but a cursory understanding of the English language and a library of Action Movie Mad Libs at his disposal. Yet despite that shortcoming, this movie is everything the first one should have been. Think about the moment in the first one when Terry Crews finally unveils his auto-shotgun; now spread that moment out over 90 minutes and you have this movie. 8/10

The Raid - Finally saw this one as a Redbox rental. About the same level of entertainment as Expendables 2, with subtitles. Some of the best fight choreography I’ve ever seen in a movie. The plot was stupid as hell, but it really had no bearing on my enjoyment of the movie. 8/10

662

Maybe I will catch expendables in theater then. I did the first one but wished I had waited for dvd.

Anybody else seen the second?

663

Maybe I will catch expendables in theater then. I did the first one but wished I had waited for dvd.

Anybody else seen the second?

664

[quote]Nards wrote:
Please understand that CargoCapable is HoustonGuy.[/quote]

I knew it was him back when someone asked if he was dead in the “Last Time You Cried Thread”…you should never roast a turkey without basting it.

665

Green Lantern, fun to watch.

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Role Models

Just as funny as last time.

Roybot reminds me of Martin at Sturdy Wings.

667

[quote]CargoCapable wrote:
Role Models

Just as funny as last time.

Roybot reminds me of Martin at Sturdy Wings.[/quote]

Don’t you have a kidney stone to pass or something, Houstonguy?

668

Dredd - screenwriter/ novelist Alex Garland (Sunshine, 28 Days Later, Never Let Me Go) continues his winning streak by grafting his own unique brand of smart sci-fi onto what is essentially a John Carpenter movie.

The retro soundtrack and '80s style, pull-no-punches gore are very welcome additions in a time where inherently violent material is watered down to draw in a wider audience, usually leaving the end product creatively dead in the water.

If you like, it is a 200 floor, futuristic version of The Raid, but while The Raid has a superior quota of bone-crushing fights, Dredd has The Raid beat in just about every other area.

Everything I thought would be weak or gimmicky were brilliantly handled: the slo-mo drug is not just an excuse for 300-style visual excess. Hint: it can prolong suffering as well as pleasure.

Lena Headey as Ma Ma was not your typical super powered end of level boss ninja chick. Her rise to power and subsequent fall is very much facilitated by the world she was born into.

The deaths of at least two minor characters linger in the memory of the two trapped Judges and feed into Dredd’s absolute vision of justice vs. Anderson’s more naturally intuitive vision of what true justice is.

She’s a psychic and a mutant , BTW, a perk of living near the border wall separating Mega City One from the radioactive Cursed Earth.

It’s not a reboot either : Dredd’s career is in full-flow and his rep as Mega City One’s toughest judge precedes him. We never get to know Dredd other than through how others perceive him which is how it should be. He is a walking grimace. Karl Urban is great: he disappears into the role and is not your typical tough guy in the sense that crowds would clear on his arrival: nobody but his fellow judges know who he is ;).

Maybe my fave movie of the year so far. An absolute old school blast.

669

Fuck yea now I’m pumped wish I would have known this yesterday would have went to watch.

670

[quote]roybot wrote:
Dredd - screenwriter/ novelist Alex Garland (Sunshine, 28 Days Later, Never Let Me Go) continues his winning streak by grafting his own unique brand of smart sci-fi onto what is essentially a John Carpenter movie.

The retro soundtrack and '80s style, pull-no-punches gore are very welcome additions in a time where inherently violent material is watered down to draw in a wider audience, usually leaving the end product creatively dead in the water.

If you like, it is a 200 floor, futuristic version of The Raid, but while The Raid has a superior quota of bone-crushing fights, Dredd has The Raid beat in just about every other area.

Everything I thought would be weak or gimmicky were brilliantly handled: the slo-mo drug is not just an excuse for 300-style visual excess. Hint: it can prolong suffering as well as pleasure.

Lena Headey as Ma Ma was not your typical super powered end of level boss ninja chick. Her rise to power and subsequent fall is very much facilitated by the world she was born into.

The deaths of at least two minor characters linger in the memory of the two trapped Judges and feed into Dredd’s absolute vision of justice vs. Anderson’s more naturally intuitive vision of what true justice is.

She’s a psychic and a mutant , BTW, a perk of living near the border wall separating Mega City One from the radioactive Cursed Earth.

It’s not a reboot either : Dredd’s career is in full-flow and his rep as Mega City One’s toughest judge precedes him. We never get to know Dredd other than through how others perceive him which is how it should be. He is a walking grimace. Karl Urban is great: he disappears into the role and is not your typical tough guy in the sense that crowds would clear on his arrival: nobody but his fellow judges know who he is ;).

Maybe my fave movie of the year so far. An absolute old school blast.

[/quote]

I saw the posters and assumed it was a remake of Judge Dredd (Sylvester Stallone), which was a failed action movie based on a fairly obscure comic book. Sounds like it’s not the same character at all.

671

I started watching Walk Hard on Netflix but too many of the gags were more stupid than funny.

I watched Capt. America yesterday and that was a little better than expected, but I admit I’m a sucker for retro-futuristic “diesel punk” stuff, and there’s plenty of that.

672

[quote]BobParr wrote:

[quote]roybot wrote:
Dredd - screenwriter/ novelist Alex Garland (Sunshine, 28 Days Later, Never Let Me Go) continues his winning streak by grafting his own unique brand of smart sci-fi onto what is essentially a John Carpenter movie.

The retro soundtrack and '80s style, pull-no-punches gore are very welcome additions in a time where inherently violent material is watered down to draw in a wider audience, usually leaving the end product creatively dead in the water.

If you like, it is a 200 floor, futuristic version of The Raid, but while The Raid has a superior quota of bone-crushing fights, Dredd has The Raid beat in just about every other area.

Everything I thought would be weak or gimmicky were brilliantly handled: the slo-mo drug is not just an excuse for 300-style visual excess. Hint: it can prolong suffering as well as pleasure.

Lena Headey as Ma Ma was not your typical super powered end of level boss ninja chick. Her rise to power and subsequent fall is very much facilitated by the world she was born into.

The deaths of at least two minor characters linger in the memory of the two trapped Judges and feed into Dredd’s absolute vision of justice vs. Anderson’s more naturally intuitive vision of what true justice is.

She’s a psychic and a mutant , BTW, a perk of living near the border wall separating Mega City One from the radioactive Cursed Earth.

It’s not a reboot either : Dredd’s career is in full-flow and his rep as Mega City One’s toughest judge precedes him. We never get to know Dredd other than through how others perceive him which is how it should be. He is a walking grimace. Karl Urban is great: he disappears into the role and is not your typical tough guy in the sense that crowds would clear on his arrival: nobody but his fellow judges know who he is ;).

Maybe my fave movie of the year so far. An absolute old school blast.

[/quote]

I saw the posters and assumed it was a remake of Judge Dredd (Sylvester Stallone), which was a failed action movie based on a fairly obscure comic book. Sounds like it’s not the same character at all.
[/quote]

It’s not a remake of the Stallone movie. Both movies were based on the Judge Dredd comic strip which Paul Verhoeven credits as his primary inspiration for Robocop. Robocop’s violent satire was ripped straight from the pages of Dredd’s mother comic book 2000AD and those fake commercials you see in Robocop, Running Man, Predator 2 are quintessentially ‘Dredd’.

P.S. I’m a fan of the original Dredd stories so I judged the movie (pun maybe or maybe not intended) on its own merits. I didn’t sentence it to life in an iso-cube.

P.P.S. The Dredd / Anderson dynamic is straight out of the comic. But the backstory doesn’t matter. This is Dredd training a rookie.

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[quote]Derek542 wrote:
Fuck yea now I’m pumped wish I would have known this yesterday would have went to watch.

[/quote]

It was great. After Dredd’s first on screen ‘arrest’ you know he’s not the guy you want to be locked in a skyscraper with and the bad guys begin to regret their decision shortly after they corner him. It’s that kind of movie. He’s mortal, but doesn’t give a fuck. Totally fearless.

674

[quote]roybot wrote:
Dredd - screenwriter/ novelist Alex Garland (Sunshine, 28 Days Later, Never Let Me Go) continues his winning streak by grafting his own unique brand of smart sci-fi onto what is essentially a John Carpenter movie.

The retro soundtrack and '80s style, pull-no-punches gore are very welcome additions in a time where inherently violent material is watered down to draw in a wider audience, usually leaving the end product creatively dead in the water.

If you like, it is a 200 floor, futuristic version of The Raid, but while The Raid has a superior quota of bone-crushing fights, Dredd has The Raid beat in just about every other area.

Everything I thought would be weak or gimmicky were brilliantly handled: the slo-mo drug is not just an excuse for 300-style visual excess. Hint: it can prolong suffering as well as pleasure.

Lena Headey as Ma Ma was not your typical super powered end of level boss ninja chick. Her rise to power and subsequent fall is very much facilitated by the world she was born into.

The deaths of at least two minor characters linger in the memory of the two trapped Judges and feed into Dredd’s absolute vision of justice vs. Anderson’s more naturally intuitive vision of what true justice is.

She’s a psychic and a mutant , BTW, a perk of living near the border wall separating Mega City One from the radioactive Cursed Earth.

It’s not a reboot either : Dredd’s career is in full-flow and his rep as Mega City One’s toughest judge precedes him. We never get to know Dredd other than through how others perceive him which is how it should be. He is a walking grimace. Karl Urban is great: he disappears into the role and is not your typical tough guy in the sense that crowds would clear on his arrival: nobody but his fellow judges know who he is ;).

Maybe my fave movie of the year so far. An absolute old school blast.

[/quote]

Brilliant review.

Wasn’t really interested in seeing the new Judge Dredd but I’ve changed my mind.

675

Sweet! thanks for the Dredd review, I will now see it this weekend. Was going to wait for cable. I loved the comic & 2000AD & didn’t “hate” the Stallone movie but still felt wary of this one. I’m going to trust your review & assume the promo people really dropped the ball.

676

Oh Man Getting psyched now. Anyone remember when Murphy’s Law opened for the Beastie Boys Licensed To Ill tour & sported Judge Dredd shirts? How about when Anthrax did this?. . .

677

I got roped into 45 minutes of “Battleship”. Once the action started I could feel brain cells dying. It was like a modern-day Armageddon. Rihanna’s acting was so bad that she made Tommy Morrison in “Rocky 5” seem like Oscar material. Avoid at all costs!

678

[quote]77 Style wrote:
Sweet! thanks for the Dredd review, I will now see it this weekend. Was going to wait for cable. I loved the comic & 2000AD & didn’t “hate” the Stallone movie but still felt wary of this one. I’m going to trust your review & assume the promo people really dropped the ball. [/quote]

If Rob Schneider’s sidekick was edited out of Judge Dredd, it would’ve been a good movie (the ABC warrior and Mean Machine Angel were ace).

The only element Dredd really skimps on is the quirky humor from the comic: Alex Garland said that it didn’t really interest him (although there are moments like a street gang called ‘The Judged’ who have tattooed Judge helmet designs on their heads to fool rivals from a distance) . Also, he has conceived this as a trilogy which will build in scale with each installment.

Depending on how well it does at the box office, a sequel will focus on The Cursed Earth storyline and the big finale will feature… Judge Death.

Rest assured, the promo leaves out all the best parts. That La Roux song is nowhere to be heard, the slo-mo is used sparingly and when Dredd’s DNA locked lawgiver runs out of ammo he punches an opponent’s windpipe flat. To tell you who that opponent is would be a spoiler but he deserves it, and his identity points to how much of a shithole Mega City One is without resorting to the typical CGI flyover.

EDIT: Oh, and nobody uses MC-1’s filthiest curse words “Drokk” and “Stomm” : they are to Dredd as “Frakk” is to Battlestar Galactica…maybe next time.

679

[quote]DarkNinjaa wrote:

[quote]roybot wrote:
Dredd - screenwriter/ novelist Alex Garland (Sunshine, 28 Days Later, Never Let Me Go) continues his winning streak by grafting his own unique brand of smart sci-fi onto what is essentially a John Carpenter movie.

The retro soundtrack and '80s style, pull-no-punches gore are very welcome additions in a time where inherently violent material is watered down to draw in a wider audience, usually leaving the end product creatively dead in the water.

If you like, it is a 200 floor, futuristic version of The Raid, but while The Raid has a superior quota of bone-crushing fights, Dredd has The Raid beat in just about every other area.

Everything I thought would be weak or gimmicky were brilliantly handled: the slo-mo drug is not just an excuse for 300-style visual excess. Hint: it can prolong suffering as well as pleasure.

Lena Headey as Ma Ma was not your typical super powered end of level boss ninja chick. Her rise to power and subsequent fall is very much facilitated by the world she was born into.

The deaths of at least two minor characters linger in the memory of the two trapped Judges and feed into Dredd’s absolute vision of justice vs. Anderson’s more naturally intuitive vision of what true justice is.

She’s a psychic and a mutant , BTW, a perk of living near the border wall separating Mega City One from the radioactive Cursed Earth.

It’s not a reboot either : Dredd’s career is in full-flow and his rep as Mega City One’s toughest judge precedes him. We never get to know Dredd other than through how others perceive him which is how it should be. He is a walking grimace. Karl Urban is great: he disappears into the role and is not your typical tough guy in the sense that crowds would clear on his arrival: nobody but his fellow judges know who he is ;).

Maybe my fave movie of the year so far. An absolute old school blast.

[/quote]

Brilliant review.

Wasn’t really interested in seeing the new Judge Dredd but I’ve changed my mind.
[/quote]

Thanks, DN! In the first ten minutes Dredd chases a vanful of slo-mo addicts into a fatal crash (for most of’em anyway), resolves a hostage situation with the coolest use of the word ‘hotshot’ ever and three rival dealers get skinned alive and are thrown from the top off Ma-Ma’s penthouse stronghold (she very thoughtfully forces them to take a hit of slo-mo so they can enjoy the view on the way down).

They don’t make 'em like this anymore.

680

Damnit Roy I was all pumped cause I have a few hours tomorrow to go watch Dredd and it is not even out yet. :frowning: