(The Disneycember logo is shown, before showing clips from Judge Dredd)
Doug (vo): Eh, so I talked about it before on Nostalgia Critic, why not do a Disneycember on Judge Dredd? If you've seen my Nostalgia Critic review, it was done at a time when I was more focused on jokes than analyzing. I mean, I have both, but I definitely had an emphasis on one over the other, and nowadays, it's a little bit more switched. I still have humor, but I like the analytical side a bit more now, so I think it makes sense to give this movie a fair shot, just with my point of view and not the Nostalgia Critic's. And don't worry, it's still bad, but I maybe want to give it a little bit more credit than it usually gets.
Story[]
Doug (vo): It's the future, and in Mega City...yeah, did I mention by the way this is based on a comic book?...the law enforcement is all reduced down to just judges, but they're more than just that, they're judge, jury and executioner all rolled into one. Stallone plays Dredd, a no-nonsense judge who sees everything in black and white, or should I say, in LAUUUW and lawless. For a while, he's at the top of his game until an evil villain named Rico, played by Armand Assante, breaks free from prison and frames him. It's revealed later these two are literally test-tube babies as they were made in a lab, and they're technically brothers. First, the film constantly reminds us they do look alike. And yeah, growing up, I never realized that they really do. Dredd's innocence is trying to be proven by another judge, played by Diane Lane, and a quirky comic relief played by the stapler himself, Rob Schneider, who all band together to stop Rico.
Review[]
Doug (vo): Okay, so let me do what I don't think I've ever actually done with this film, talk about the good stuff. The effects for 1995 mostly hold up. There is a fair amount of CG that doesn't always look great, but they combine it with a lot of model shots. A lot of the stuff is really there. Look at this robot, you just know this thing would be all computer-generated and look really, really flat, and yeah, he would probably move better, but it would just never look like he's really there. With this thing, I mean, the fact that it is a little janky and kind of choppy gives it more of a personality, and that is something this movie has an abundance of, personality. The building where the lawmakers are is literally shaped like a giant eagle. There is nothing subtle about this film at all and it embraces it.
(Footage focusing on the characters is shown, along with footage from Demolition Man)
Doug (vo): Every actor you can tell is giving their all, it just has varying results. This is an interesting idea and you can really dive into the ethical side of it, which yeah, you could say there isn't much of one, but that's kind of why it's so interesting. And every once in a while, they do talk a touch about it, like Dredd is basically a cartoon, everything is "The lauuuuw, the LAUUUWW, the lauuuw is never wrong!" over and over and over. And then, at some point, he has to be proven wrong when he himself is found guilty of a crime he didn't commit, but after that, they don't really dive that much into it. I think it would have been cooler if they kind of had more fun with this idea like, say, they did in Demolition Man. Like, they had a fun idea, but they really explored it, they had fun with it. Yeah, it was goofy and silly, but what it was saying and the way it was trying to say it was really clever and engaging. This film gives up about halfway with exploring any ideas and just kind of goes for typical sci-fi 90s action, when everyone is so one-dimensional, and like I said, even some of the characters are pretty annoying like Rob Schneider. You're not really that invested. "Oh, no, what's going to happen to Stallone on this bike in front of a green screen?" I bet he's going to be okay.
(Footage focusing on the effects and the goofy moments is shown)
Doug (vo): The effects hold up better than one would think, but not enough to be like, "Whoa, I'm really riding with them in the sky." Yeah, you've got to have some more interesting characters and ideas to keep us invested in this, but what it lacks in investment it makes up for in goofiness. Yes, this is a "so bad, it's good" movie. I think because the script is just creative enough to kind of play around a little bit with the idea, but then just has to do the typical clichés of the time, when Stallone was kind of just a walking cliché at the time. It's a ton of fun watching all these goofy tropes that do have a lot of effort put into it. The makeup is cool, the costumes are cool, even the music is really cool. It just has a really, really dumbed down script.
(Various footage is shown, along with footage from the 2012 version of Dredd)
Doug (vo): It also doesn't help that from what I understand, it really doesn't follow the comic that closely. I read just a little bit of the source material back in the day in the 90s and I remember liking it okay, but I wouldn't really pass a quiz on it or anything. But there are some things I knew for sure. One is Dredd never takes his helmet off, and literally like in the first 20 minutes, he does. And I think that says a lot. It kind of gets across, "Okay, we're going to like have a little bit of the goofiness of the comics, but we're going to combine it with our own goofiness, like we want to do our own story," and that's not what's fun about Dredd or at least what's admirable about it. If you want that, go see the movie Dredd. That's also very over-the-top and violent, but you can tell when it's trying to be goofy, when it's trying to be straightforward, and even when sometimes, they're the same thing. Every reaction that movie gets feels intentional. This definitely feels like a movie that has a lot of moments where you're not supposed to laugh and you are, and when you are supposed to laugh and you're not. And had there not been so much passion put into it, maybe the film would just be forgettable. But, like I said, look at this film, listen to some of this dialogue, quote it later. How everybody that watches this movie is like after they watch The Room and everybody goes, "Oh, hi Mark," everybody has to go, "Lauuuw" after watching this movie.
Final thought[]
Doug (vo): So does that make it good? Definitely not, but it does make it a good time. Stallone's career is definitely an interesting one and it is cool seeing him go from like an underdog to a passionate artist to a big star to a legit blockbuster star to then a corny blockbuster star to then kind of a satire of a blockbuster star, and kind of balance all that out in his later years. This is definitely in between the corny Blockbuster star and the satire of the blockbuster star. It is so silly and stupid, but it is always giving it all. Had this team gotten a better script, maybe something that was closer to Dredd, I think we could have had a really solid movie. I mean, again, it is good-looking. I think Stallone could play this part fine, but it truly is a victim to the Stallone tropes and clichés of the time. And while that sadly doesn't make a good movie, it does make a very entertaining one. Drop on in and judge for yourself.
(The film's final scene, showing Judge Dredd watching over the city on his bike, is shown)