Danny Cannon's Judge Dredd

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9.2
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Overall rating
 
9.8
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10.0
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Loved this version so much! It's better than the original with all its goofy moments. Amazing job!

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(Updated: September 12, 2019)
Overall rating
 
10.0
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10.0
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10.0
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10.0
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10.0
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10.0
This edit is the fanedit that won me to the genre! It does an amazing job of rescuing a bland movie, and bringing it closer to the 2012 "Dredd," which -- on a tiny budget -- nailed it.

The 1994 Stallone "Judge Dredd" movie was, to say the least, a massive misfire. It ditched a lot of the core mythos that made the Dreddverse interesting. It tried to lighten the mood using Rob Schneider. And it ended up with a generic, not-very-good and not-very-bad future cop movie, barely memorable at that. This, despite a massive budget. It got nowhere, irritating fans but too bland to attract other audiences, despite the star power of Stallone.

The universe of Dredd is a mixture of grimdark and plain old strange: it is a dystopian urban future with 90% unemployment, tower blocks of up to 100,000 people each, mega-cities of up of to 800 million each, school subjects like Unemployment ("what are you going to do, when you have nothing to do?"), profound alienation, celebrity culture and TV as the main influencers, and society held together by a police state of Judges. The Judges come to power (in the former US, at least) through a coup d'etat by the Justice Department, in a world ending in nuclear war; they are empowered to execute on the spot; are inflexible and zero-tolerance, this including jailing people for unlicensed gold fish, littering and suicide ("self-homicide"), and reading anything from the 20th century, such as celeb news on the "Dallas" TV show and the Dredd/ 2000AD comics; there are no juries, no appeals, no lawyers, no apologies. Judges make up around half of the employed, may not marry or have kids, and live (in the later stories) in chapter houses or precincts, a sort of monastic knighthood imposing The Law. There is no free speech, the Mayor is a figurehead, there is an official ban on pre-Judge history, ongoing purges of mutants and aliens by the state; pro-democracy protesters are massacred or lobotimised. A lot of crime is extremely brutal and most of it is completely pointless "("I was bored") or a revolt against the misery.

Within this grimdark world, though, a lot of the stories are satirical, humorous or philosophical: is the system fascist? is the system a model we should emulate? is democracy workable? why does society love a man whose hobby is to grow the biggest nose in history and have his own TV show? In one story, where a gang smashes cleaning robots and takes over the job of mopping floors: "I'm ... I'm working! Actually working!" Dredd, the titular character, is The Law, literally: the most incorruptible cop, inflexible, without a personal life; he does not even have a face (well, its never shown, ever, he is always helmeted); he's a clone of one of the founding Judges, literally bred for The Law. He is, though, reflective: in a notable arc, he begins to doubt whether it is correct to crush the pro-democracy people, and pushes for a democratic referendum (most people, in the end, don't bother to vote, having no interest in the issues, and of the voters, most want the Judges); in another story, he sentences the mopping gang to 10 years hard labour ("Thank you, Dredd! I don;t care what people say, you do have a heart!")

And then ... we have the Stallone "Judge Dredd": Dredd is now an odd cop, a Dirty Harry outlier rather than the exemplar in a world where Dirty Harry would be seen as a bit soft on crime; his sentencing of crime in the movie is emotional and nuts e.g. blowing up a car for a parking offence, rather than jailing the perp for defying The Law; there is, bizarrely, a free press that calls out the Judges and gets Dredd fired; we have juries and lawyers, which undermines the entire premise of the Dreddverse and the rationale for the Judge system; laws are bent as personal favours and through trade-offs, as at Dredd's sentencing; Dredd is an arrogant blowhard, rather than a humorless cypher; there is romance in the ranks, as with Dredd and Hershey; we see Dredd's face every possible chance; and we have Schneider all over the place. There is no sense of the larger social context: if you were not a fan, you would probably not know that this is a society held together by terror and TV, a harsh dictatorship in a decaying city, leaving with the impression that its a recognisable future, albeit one where cops are a bit more militarised than today, and have cool flying bikes. And here, Dredd-gets-the-girl-with-a-smooch-and-visits-her-apartment replaces the reality that Dredd-and-Hershey-live-in-barracks-and-would-get-sent-to-a-gulag-on-Titan-for-smooching.

This edit helps set things right, with a proper introduction, no wisecracking (or smiling,, or even hinting at a smile) on the part of Dredd, as little Schneider as possible, the Dredd/ Hershey romance gone, and loads of tweaks and edits that change the mood, the narrative, the characterisation, and remove the most jarring inconsistencies with the lore ... and a film you can watch and enjoy, not just as a fan of Dredd.

As the pitch for the fanedit says: "No romance, no learning, no friendship, and less Rob Schneider."

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Owner's reply September 12, 2019

Hey thanks for the thoughtful review Dingo. I really enjoyed reading that and your summation of what makes Dredd tick is dead on. "a world where Dirty Harry would be seen as a bit soft on crime" :-D

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Overall rating
 
9.2
Audio/Video Quality
 
9.0
Audio Editing
 
9.0
Visual Editing
 
9.0
Narrative
 
9.0
Enjoyment
 
10.0
So TM2YC is one of the more prolific editors on FE.org. He also seems to have an endless supply of ideas for edits. Unfortunately it's taken me a long time to finally watch one of his edits, because the edits that he had released were not of interest to me. But a improved Judge Dredd piqued my interest.

There was a nice background to give context and background behind Danny Cannon and the production of the film.

The audio and video quality were top notch. The editing was nearly invisible, with the exception of one or two spots.

Removal of a lot of Rob Schneider! Rejoice! Plus removal of the romance! Excellent editing choices.

We're left with a much stronger movie. Improving on a film that is a guilty pleasure. This will definitely replace my theatrical Judge Dredd DVD.

Excellent job TM2YC!

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Overall rating
 
9.6
Audio/Video Quality
 
10.0
Audio Editing
 
9.0
Visual Editing
 
10.0
Narrative
 
9.0
Enjoyment
 
10.0
Judge Dredd minus Rob Schneider's bad humor. Now his lines have been cut down so he's mostly there to help out Dredd a bit and piss him off, which works very well. He's a lot more like his character in Demolition Man, annoying in just the right amounts for the character to work. The romance bit at the end is also cut and a few other gags. Basically, if you hated everything about Judge Dredd, this will not fix the movie for you. If you enjoyed it but felt there was too much Schneider and bad humor, this will do the trick for you.

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Overall rating
 
9.8
Audio/Video Quality
 
10.0
Audio Editing
 
9.0
Visual Editing
 
10.0
Narrative
 
10.0
Enjoyment
 
10.0
This was the first fanedit I've seen and it was fantastic! I've never seen the original version and while I could tell there was some stuff missing, the serious tone that was established from the first scene never really let up (which is what I think our faneditor set out to do). I also particularly enjoyed the explanation at the beginning of the rationale behind the edit and I really hope that Danny Cannon has seen this edit for himself!

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