Film review: Dredd

Karl Urban puts on a leather jacket, a weird helmet with seemingly no way of seeing out of it and gets on a very gay looking motorbike to lay down the law one bullet at a time. He takes some blonde girl out on a routine with him to assess her merits as a Judge (read police who kill people) who turns out to be a bit of a mind reader. They go to this whopping great block of flats that is run by the incestuous sister from Game of Thrones. She takes over the block and locks everything down in order to hunt Karl and his student so she can skin them both. She has developed this drug that slows everything down for the user and doesn't want this secret to get out. Many guns are then fired and lots of things are blown up as Karl punches and shoots his way out of the building.

Most of us will remember the frankly awful first attempt to make a Judge Dredd film with the Judge himself played by good ol' Sly Stallone. No surprises then that along with the majority of the film watching public I was less than enthused when I heard a new one was coming out. Good thing then that this film is nowhere near as bad as the original. To start with Karl Urban has audible diction which is a big help with a guy whose mouth is the only part of him you see. Usually I don't like Karl, not really his fault but he tends to be in shocking films, but in this he is actually pretty good. Judge Dredd is meant to be deadpan and emotionless and Karl channels this energy very well. His student is also not bad in the psychic role and holds her own throughout. Incest girl again does well the bulk of which is evident in the fact she looks vile and in reality is probably a 7/10. The story is very similar to the film The Raid, which is no bad thing as The Raid is one of my favourite films of recent times. Dredd pulls it off very well surprisingly, I mean yeah they could have bothered to write an original story but who cares when the action works very well. Ultimately its not going to top anyone's favourite film list but it is a solidly put together, entertaining ride that I would happily take again.

Verdict: 3/5