Action Hero MoviesThis movie is a weird combination of being already quite dated, yet futuristic in genre.
It’s frequently funny while being delivered in a serious tone — funny in how it accurate captures and exaggerates the inherent flaws in the long arm of the law.
It gets a bit filthy half way through, after Dredd gets wrongly accused, and convicted, then his prisoner transport shuttle gets grounded, and Dredd gets captured by a family of cannibals. Fortunately this scene doesn’t last too long, and evolves into something mildly interesting, albeit a bit slow and boring still.
It gets a bit gruesome at the end, as half-made clones come to life looking like zombies covered in goo. That whole scene is reminiscent of the final battle scene from Demolition Man — also starring Sylvester Stallone (alongside Wesley Snipes and Sandra Bullock) — from 2 years prior. Not necessarily in the zombie theme, but everything else about the set and vibe is similar.
I’m going to rate this movie Bang Average, and that may even be slightly generous — it had a lot of potential but wasn’t really played well to satisfy the action hero movie fan. That makes it a similar level to the 2012 remake, starring Karl Urban, which I also rated Bang Average, even if it has a different mix of pros & cons.