Mystery Science Theater 3000's Mike Nelson reviews
Judge Dredd (1995)
In the future, one man is the law
The world of comic books frightens me — all those dark, hideously deformed creatures committing odd, unspeakable acts. And those are just the people who read them. (Thank you! Thank you! Please, no. Really. Please. You’re too kind. Sir, put the gun down!! No. Noooooooooo!!!)Sure, I’ve been known to hole up in the basement for days playing Doom and reading The Silmarillion over and over, but that’s just because I’m hiding from the evil elves who want to steal my third-level charm shield. If it gets to be too much, I’ll know.
I did sneak out of my lair long enough to see two wonderful examples of the comic to movie translation: Judge Dredd and Barb Wire. They have much in common. Both are set in the future and feature maverick, outlaw heroes Sylvester Stallone stars as Judge Dredd: judge, police officer, and executioner from THE FUTURE. He parades about in a shiny plastic ensemble the likes of which George Michael might place on one of his rock video fun-time dress-up supermodels. It’s not very flattering on Stallone. Perhaps that’s why he lashes out so much in this movie, killing scuzzball after scuzzball in a hopeless attempt to mask his discomfiture at the sartorial indignities thrust upon him. Quipping in this film is handled by Rob Schneider (the “copier guy” from SNL, a man who just won’t go away). I was distracted by his presence, unable to shake the notion that he might at any time turn to his costar and say, “Judge Dredd. The Judge-a-lator. Judge-a-ludge-a-ding-dong. Making copies.”
There are many digital effects in the film, and when you see them, you’ll say, “There are many digital effects in this film.” Lots of flying jet-skis go by, with many wonderful post-Jetsons sound effects...
Barb Wire
A running “joke” in the movie is that Ms. Wire does not like to be referred to as “Babe,” and in one scene, a man who does just that gets speared in the forehead by one of her high heels, dying instantly. This gory, unfunny little moment could be interpreted as a feminist statement, but really only by the dwarfish, sebaceous little creatures who read comic books like “Barb Wire” and go weeks without seeing a real woman. The women from their collections of superviolent Japanimation don’t count.
When the film was over, I had the overwhelming urge to shower. A good, hot shower with mounds of antibacterial lather. The kind of shower that Meryl Streep got in “Silkwood.” So if you’re game, buy a couple cakes of Lifebuoy and fire up the system!
Judge Dredd cast: Sylvester Stallone and Max von Sydow of Flash Gordon and Stephen King's Needful Things
Narrator: James Earl Jones (uncredited)
Rated R for continuous violent action (this is a Stallone movie)
Judge Dredd is available on video and on DVD
Books by Michael Nelson available include Movie Megacheese. Mike's episodes of Mystery Science Theater 3000 are available from Amazon.com on both video and on DVD, and he co-wrote the MST3000 book
Trivia (Courtesy of the Internet Movie Database)
* Director Danny Cannon was so disheartened over his constant creative disputes with Stallone, that he swore he would never again work with another big-name actor. He also claimed that the final version was completely different from the script, due to the changes Stallone demanded
* The "flying bike" scenes features three seconds where Dredd is a computer generated image. This is the part where he swoops low over a crowd of punks
* The movie was based upon a popular and long-running British comic book character who first appeared in the comic "2000 AD"
* Robotic Food Dispenser: Eat recycled food. Recycled food is good for the environment. And ok for you
* This was one of two 1995 movies based on underground British comic books, the other was Tank Girl (Lori Petty vs. Malcolm McDowall)
"I hire people shorter than me -- except for the big, monster villains"
Sylvester Stallone (Preview, 1987)