Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, July 1, 1995 TAG: 9507040019
SECTION: EXTRA PAGE: B-6 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: MIKE MAYO CORRESPONDENT
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
It's humorless, slowly paced and unoriginal. There's virtually nothing on screen that hasn't been done with more style in such films as "Blade Runner" and "Robocop." The violence is loud and dull. Director Danny Cannon apparently doesn't know how to stage an action scene or how to get his actors to breathe life into their characters.
On the other hand, Diane Lane and Rob Schneider aren't bad. Of course, they're wasted in minuscule supporting roles.
The setting is another of those future metropolitan wastelands where society has broken down, roving gangs run amok, chaos reigns, etc. etc. In Mega-City One, the Judges are totalitarian cops who interrupt crimes in progress, decide guilt or innocence on the spot and hand down sentences immediately. The toughest of the Judges is Dredd (Sylvester Stallone at his most pretentious and stiff).
But it seems that Judges Griffin (Jurgen Prochnow) and Fargo (Max Von Sydow) are up to something naughty involving a criminal named Rico (Armand Assante, doing an eye-rolling Dennis Hopper imitation). They frame Dredd for the murder of a reporter (Mitchell Ryan), and the rest of the plot credited to four writers is equally predictable.
Actually, the only notable aspect of the production is the costumes. They are some of the silliest get-ups ever worn on screen. The judges' uniforms, for example, combine the worst excesses of the NFL, the Third Reich and Michael Jackson in his military phase. The other sets and props are thick and clunky, and the complex computer-generated backgrounds are forgettable.
In the end, for all his swagger and bluster, this Judge isn't going to give the Bat any serious competition.
JUDGE DREDD *
A Hollywood Pictures release playing at the Salem Valley 8 and Valley View 6. 90 min. Rated R for violence, strong language.
by CNB