Triple Bill Mini Musings: Laws, Victims, and Dictators...

Dredd:
What's it about?
A fresh attempt at turning the long-running British comic book Judge Dredd, from 2000AD, into a movie, after the not-exactly-great Sylvester Stallone version in the 1990s. Dredd and rookie Judge Anderson head to a mega block of flats called Peach Trees after a triple homicide is reported - however, in this crime-ridden 200-storey slum, they're going to be trapped alone together versus the MaMa gang who are pushing a new drug called Slo-Mo on Mega City One.
Who would I recognise in it?
Karl Urban, Olivia Thirlby, Lena Heady, Wood Harris.
Great/Good/Alright/Shite?
Scripted by Alex Garland (28 Days Later), shot by Anthony Dod Mantle (127 Hours, Oscar winning DoP), and directed by Pete Travis (Vantage Point), this fresh take on Judge Dredd is a welcome shot in the arm. Clocking in at a focused 95 minutes, the action comes thick and fast - not-to-mention blood-drenched - as blunt force Dredd and rookie try-out Anderson (a psychic) battle their way through a hellish skyscraper controlled by drug-addled miscreants. Parallels have been drawn to The Raid (tower block, bad guys, lots of arse kicking violence), but the two sit well by themselves and need no comparison. Extremely stylish (the Slo-Mo drug is realised on the screen in super-slow-motion that turns bullets ripping through cheeks into hypnotically beautiful moments), Dredd is sheer balls-out fun.

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The Divide (2011) - movie review...

What's it about?
A brutal post-apocalyptic thriller in which a group of survivors hide in the shelter beneath their building, and begin to succumb to the pressures and psychosis of the situation.
Who would I recognise in it?
Michael Biehn, Lauren German, Milo Ventimiglia, Ashton Holmes, Rosanna Arquette.
Great/Good/Alright/Shite?
From the director of Frontiers (which I haven't seen), and Hitman (which I saw, and thought was thoroughly "meh" at best), didn't instill a huge amount of confidence in me, but after watching the gritty trailer - and, much to my excitement, discovering that Michael Biehn was in this flick - I figured I'd give it a punt on the basis of those two elements in its favour.

Launching with the bombs already being unleashed upon the city of New York, it's clear from the get-go that the film is in an awful hurry to get somewhere - something that doesn't particularly work in the film's favour when, a quarter of an hour in, a bunch of hazmat-suited, gun-toting goons bust in, kidnap the only child in the group, and take her ... an action that is explained with barely a shred of reason, even during a brief excursion outside of the shelter's door minutes later. It makes for a curious screenwriting decision which ultimately proves more of a distraction, than the haunting mystery writers Karl Mueller and Eron Sheean were probably intending it to be.

With that distraction aside however, the film is able to get stuck into the meat - the story of how these everyday people descend into violent madness within the confines of this bomb shelter. This is both the strongest and weakest part of the movie - the scant characterisation and back stories afforded to the cast of characters is at worst nearly non-existent, but at best it provides Michael Biehn as Mickey the building manager, to really sink his teeth into a gently drawn character. Mickey was once a fireman, but the horrors of 9/11 changed him forever into a man who is slowly killing himself after losing not only his men, but his family - these discoveries are made with a pleasing sense of subtlety that gels perfectly with Biehn's powerful performance that is absolutely the most distinct highlight of the entire flick; the man deserves many more meaty roles such as this.

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