Pun Salad

Why yes, I did watch Dredd after Ted. What's next? Fled? Dead? Head?

Dredd may claim the widest disparity yet witnessed between critical/viewer consensus and my personal reaction to a movie. IMDB users thought it was OK; Metacritic gives it a 59 metascore (with an 8.3 user score). And Netflix's algorithm thought I'd like it. But I really hated it.

It's set in a dystopian future where nuclear war has rendered all of earth uninhabitable save for a single megacity stretching between Boston and Washington. And that city teeters on the brink of chaos due to rampant poverty and criminality. In response, law enforcement is put in the hand of Judges, cops who can sentence perps on the spot. And mete out capital punishment, if warranted, and it often is.

The biggest, baddest judge is Dredd. (Dredd is played by Karl Urban, but it could just as well have been Enzo Cerusico, because he wears his helmet all the time.) He and a rookie psychic girl partner investigate a triple homicide at a 200-story tower filled with the dregs of a dysfunctional society. (It has a atrium going all the way to the top, which is good for hurling victims into.) The situation develops into an all-out war with the "Ma-ma Clan", a gang led by a ruthless female drug dealer.

And it's all loud and stupid, just an excuse to have people and scenery shot up, blown up, and otherwise f'd up. Dialog is mechanical, characterization is minimal. Nothing hangs on the outcome.

But the set is impressive. Half a star for the set.