It’s a fan film, but one with official approval and co-operation from the publishers, and it runs to nearly 30 minutes. It’s pretty damn impressive for an amateur production, too: very much one for the comic book purists, with a classic story taken straight from the Judge Dredd strip. It’s slightly let down by amateur performances, and the editing needs to be tightened, but they’ve nailed the look and the feel of the strip perfectly: the production design is amazing. This is very much Classic Dredd, and it’s a great counterpoint to the “updating” of the recent Dredd movie. Well worth your time.
I’ve been reading 2000 AD (and thus Judge Dredd) since 1981. I have some history with the franchise. And I gotta say: although this was flawed, it’s also damn near perfect.
Totally nailed the look and feel of both Mega-City One and the Cursed Earth. I did think the costumes for all the bad guys were a bit much (too clean, too perfectly ‘costumes’), but the main bad guy was excellent.
My only major complaint was the music score. I thought it was too slow for the action sequences and frankly, because of the low budget and not helped much by the editing, the action sequences needed more help than they were given by the score.
All in all, tho, a truly fantastic film. Thanks for sharing that, Penfeather!
I thought the closing scene was fantastic. “Me too”.
I’m only a passing Dredd fan, but thought the recent movie did a really good job of getting the comics right. What “updating” did they do?
Well, the changes were pretty much a function of the modest budget, with its “20 minutes into the future” version of Mega-City One, which was pretty obviously an early 21st Century city with a few CGI towers added. One thing the Stallone film did well was to nail the look of the comic almost perfectly, which its ranks of vast bulging towers stretching on forever, and a horde of weird people and vehicles swarming in between them. The Karl Urban Dredd also updated the judge’s uniform somewhat, which one or two die-hards complained about but I thought was an excellent interpretation of what is, to be honest, a pretty impractical outfit into what looked like functional body armour.
I haven’t seen the latest Dredd film but that Judge Minty short was really good. Makes me wonder would a series like Walking Dead but set in the Cursed Earth be viable.
Yeah, that occurred to me too. Have the pilot episode based on the fan film, with Minty taking the Long Walk, and the series revolving around him walking the Cursed Earth bringing law to the lawless. And unlike with the straight-laced Dredd, having a disillusioned former judge as the protagonist the plots aren’t as limited; he’s free to marry or become a bounty-hunter for a while. Rogue Trooper next, please.
I think Rogue Trooper is a no-brainer movie to make, as it would only need a modest budget, and a Jason Statham/Vin Diesel type as the lead. A future war film in a desert wasteland? What’s stopping you, Hollywood?
Then they can make a Strontium Dog movie directed by Guillermo del Toro. And a Halo Jones movie starring Brea Grant.
And why in God’s name has nobody made an ABC Warriors movie? The Dirty Dozen crossed with The Magnificent Seven except war robots fist-fighting Elder Gods: does nobody like money anymore?
Those all sound good, but the one I’m waiting for is Robo-Hunter; Sam Slade totally fucking rocks!
Why is this not a thing? WHY? We get endless tepid Spiderman remixes, and no fucking misfit war robots punching evil? Someday some enterprising producer is going to realise that within the back pages of 2000AD lies a fortune.
It would be great to see the many universes of 2000AD put on the big screen as a UK equivalent to the DC and Marvel franchises.
There’s a great bit of potential in it, given that the stories cover everything you might want as a theme, straight up action/police procedural to immigration and war.
The recent Dredd movie was all kinds of awesome. I skipped it when it played because I’d never seen the original and wasn’t interested. Then, a local ART HOUSE theater played it along with their usual foreign/arty/indie/classic lineup. That intrigued the hell out of me so I went and thought it was great. This place (the Gene Siskel Film Center) did the same thing with Bernie, which thrilled me to no end. I’d already seen it multiple times but I saw it a few more times to support that kind of cracked programming, and because I love the movie so much.
One of the really overlooked things about Dredd was the wonderfully atmospheric score by Paul Leonard-Morgan. He was one of the few people who got that it was really an early John Carpenter film, as with Judge, Jury and Executioner And they can play Ma-Ma’s Requiem at my funeral.
Your link for Ma-Ma’s Requiem doesn’t work. Here’s a link from Paul Leonard-Morgan’s YouTube page.
I completely agree that the music is fantastic.
I’ll take your word for it. I’m not too interested in clicking through to hear Justin Bieber. But thanks! That is funny.
It’s actually completely awesome slowed down 800%, it sounds like Sigur Ros or some avant garde band.
What makes this even more awesome is that this is actually completely relevant to the plot. MaMa’s producing a drug that makes everything completely awesome by reducing it to a fraction of its normal speed, and here’s some Justin Bieber made completely awesome by reducing it to a fraction of its normal speed.