I saw Judge Dredd at a sneak preview. It was the first time I ever saw anyone walk on a movie.
It fits into a rather interesting category of disastrous would-be blockbusters--joining Flash Gordon, The Black Hole and Dune--where there's this largely international cast--why are Jürgen Prochnow and Max von Sydow playing, basically, New Yorkers--and an overblown production and a dismal return for the studio.
Dredd's problem isn't so much a lack of money--even the bad effects sequences, like the chase scene, suspend disbelief well enough--but a lousy production frame of reference. I remember when it came out, they tried for a PG-13 and didn't get one. So instead of an R-rated action movie, you have this R-rated, pseudo-PG-13 action movie... made by Disney of all people.
Stallone's awful in the kind of personality-free role Schwarzenegger got famous on--Cannon shoots Dredd like he's either Robocop or the Terminator--and with the blue contact lenses, it somehow doesn't even look like him.
When the best performance in a film is von Sydow, it's not a surprise. When the second best performance is Rob Schneider... that situation's different.
Diane Lane's bad. Armand Assante doesn't chew scenery well. Joan Chen is bad. Prochnow's awful. It's a ninety-some minute disaster, only tolerable because it is only ninety-some minutes and it does have really high production values.
It's wrong-headed. I rarely use that term, but Dredd's wrong-headed.
CREDITS
Directed by Danny Cannon; screenplay by William Wisher Jr. and Steven E. de Souza, based on a story by Michael De Luca and Wisher and on the Fleetway character created by John Wagner and Carlos Ezquerra; director of photography, Adrian Biddle; edited by Alex Mackie and Harry Keramidas; music by Alan Silvestri; production designer, Nigel Phelps; produced by Charles Lippincott and Beau Marks; released by Buena Vista Pictures.
Starring Sylvester Stallone (Judge Dredd), Armand Assante (Rico), Rob Schneider (Fergie), Jürgen Prochnow (Justice Griffin), Max von Sydow (Judge Fargo), Diane Lane (Judge Hershey), Joanna Miles (Judge McGruder), Joan Chen (Ilsa), Balthazar Getty (Olmeyer) and Mitch Ryan (Hammond).
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