Dredd

[Arkhan Asylum]

was fucking awesome and you should all go watch it.

[TheClash603]

Saw it Friday with a group of guys.  It did kick ass and I agree with Ark.

Unfortunately, it seems like the planned sequel is a long shot if the movie isn't a hit overseas.

[NightWolve]

After the last wasted trip to the theater for the Total Recall Remake, I'm gonna pass on theaters for a while. (I partially blame Arkhan for claiming it was "surprisingly good"...)

I did love Lena Headey (see attachment below) as Sarah Connor in Fox's cancelled Terminator Chronicles series, so nice that she's getting some movie roles. I own the 2 season DVD set of that series, it's worth it. So they cast her as the drug lord in this movie, eh? Heh. I thought she looked familiar when I saw the trailer some time ago...

[Arkhan Asylum]

Saw it Friday with a group of guys.  It did kick ass and I agree with Ark.

Unfortunately, it seems like the planned sequel is a long shot if the movie isn't a hit overseas.

They better do the fucking sequel.

I need to see more of Anderson shooting things.



and hey man, that total recall remake was good.  I dunno what you're smokin

[Emerald Rocker]

For the first time in history, I agree with Arkhan.  Dredd was really good -- it's not the ULTIMATE IMAGINABLE Dredd adventure, but it's a nice start with the right actors, the right approach, and a setting that actually feels scary.  We already know Dredd is awesomely powerful, but they somehow managed to convey some genuine suspense.

Nice use of music, too.  There were a couple scenes where I actually realized how cool the score was, which is rare.

[Colossus1574]

sounds like it's worth catching on cheap Tuesdays...
Watch in 3D or not a big deal?

[Emerald Rocker]

Overall I would say not a big deal, but there's a particular aspect of the movie that really just wouldn't be the same in 2D.  Shouldn't be a dealbreaker, but just sayin'.

[TheClash603]

I saw the 3D and it was only worth it because Regal gave out special Dredd 3D glasses.

Arkhan, stop trying to scare people away from this movie by saying Total Recall was good, when it most certainly was average...  at best.

[Arkhan Asylum]

Nice use of music, too.  There were a couple scenes where I actually realized how cool the score was, which is rare.

Yeah, some of the points in the movie when the bass kicks in, I was like damn! this is sweet music!.  Especially the machine-gun part.  This isn't a spoiler.  It's in the trailer. 

The music was also really simple and effective.  It sounded like things I could do with a Roland synth and a drum machine, so, hats off to the composer.   He kicked ass at his job.

Though, I was hoping to hear Anthrax's "I AM THE LAW" song kick in at some point.  Even at the end credits.  That song's opening guitar riffs have that badass feel to them that would've fit in really well.



I definitely like that this one had the gritty, fuck yeah violence aspect of the comics.   Also, the outfits were fitting (especially in Anderson's case.  Hot damn.), even if they weren't the same as the comic book ones.  At first the lack of goofy gold chains disappointed me, but then I was like fuck it.

I was also pleased with the amount of one-liners.   They were funny, to the point, and not cheesy.  The Stallone one was just cheesy.  It's even more cheesy now that this movie is out.



After seeing the movie, we all sat and played the Judge Dredd board game, compliments of PCEFX's PawnBroker, PCEngineHell.

Arkhan, stop trying to scare people away from this movie by saying Total Recall was good, when it most certainly was average...  at best.

The new Total Recall had a really cool Gibson-esque approach to the setting which was alot cooler than the cheesy original stuff, back when they didn't know any better. 

[esteban]

Though, I was hoping to hear Anthrax's "I AM THE LAW" song kick in at some point.  Even at the end credits.  That song's opening guitar riffs have that badass feel to them that would've fit in really well.

HUMAN LEAGUE - I Am The Law

Sure, it's easily the weakest track on the album, and you may hate it, but wait until the brooding begins at the 1:30 mark before giving up on it entirely. (The rest of the album is fantastic! )

I must not be the only person who was introduced to Judge Dredd via The Human League.

[Arkhan Asylum]

Esteban, you are an ass, lol.

[esteban]

Esteban, you are an ass, lol.

Anthrax = pussies (relative to The Human League)

[Nando]

This thread needs more Beasley

[PCEngineHell]

Wait.....










Yeah this movie was totally fucking awesome. Took the kids out to see it today. As much as I liked Prometheus, I loved this one way more. Easily my fav movie of the year. And that chain gun action scene, while I am sure it was probably unintentional, made a great homage to Robocop running from Ed-209.

[Arkhan Asylum]

Wait for what?!

[PCEngineHell]

Wait for what?!

The "wait" part was a pretty funny scene, for serious.

[NightWolve]

Forget Dredd, THIS is what I wanna see right here!!! OH YEAH!!!!!!



They're baaaack!!!!! ;)

[Arkhan Asylum]

Yeah, two dudes.  Totally cooler than watching Judge Dredd and Judge Hotasfuck killing people in Mega City One.

[NightWolve]

I guess I should've put /s = sarcasm at the end for Arkhan Dildovich. ; ) Jean Claude Van Dammaged will be good for a rental, if we're lucky. The last Universal Soldier was downright terrible and left me genuinely upset that I spent a dollar on it.

[CPTRAVE]

I will probably go see it tomorrow. I enjoyed the original with Stallone this one looks good to.

[PCEngineHell]

I guess I should've put /s = sarcasm at the end for Arkhan. ;) Jean Claude Van Dammaged will be good for a rental, if we're lucky. The last Universal Soldier was downright terrible and left me genuinely upset that I spent a dollar on it.

Personally I liked Universal Soldier: Regeneration, as it had a dark tone and decent action and felt modern, and it felt like a good career move for Van Dam to have starred in it so close after JCVD, which was excellent. The other 3 Universal Soldier movies released between Pt1 and Regeneration were garbage though for sure and I couldn't sit through them all the way. I'm not so sure Day of Reckoning is going to be very good however. If its done in the same style as Regeneration then I may like it, but its doubtful because the plot looks to be convoluted and what I viewed of the film in the trailer it was looking corny and cheap and trying to be nothing more then a straight to video movie again like some of the others were.

[Drakon]

Wait...they made more than one universal soldier?  Yikes, I hope they didn't bring that annoying news girl back, talk about lack of acting skill.

[_Paul]

You can listen to the full Dredd soundtrack here.

[NightWolve]

after JCVD, which was excellent.

I got that on Blu-Ray some time back, I liked it, it was interesting. As for Universal Soldier, the series just hasn't been in good hands after Rolland Emmerich ("Independence Day", "Stargate", "2012", etc.) started it off with the first back in the awesome Carolco days.

[hoobs88]

I just saw it in 3D...there were only about 4 scenes that had stuff popping out at you but 2 of them were pretty cool (slow motion scene and glass breaking). I never saw the original.

[_Paul]

I never saw the original.

The Stallone one isn't really the 'original'. This movie is based on the comics, not the Stallone abortion which did some things right, but all the important things wrong.

[Drakon]

Before carolco went under, which didn't take very long.

after JCVD, which was excellent.

I got that on Blu-Ray some time back, I liked it, it was interesting. As for Universal Soldier, the series just hasn't been in good hands after Rolland Emmerich ("Independence Day", "Stargate", "2012", etc.) started it off with the first back in the awesome Carolco days.

[hoobs88]

I never saw the original.

The Stallone one isn't really the 'original'. This movie is based on the comics, not the Stallone abortion which did some things right, but all the important things wrong.

I was referring to the movie not the comics.

[NightWolve]

Before carolco went under, which didn't take very long.

Ah, so you know all about it. I was a big fan, when that Carolco logo would start in an action movie, I knew I was in for a treat or when I saw "Mario Kassar Presents." Some time ago, I wondered whatever happened to him and Vajna ? I found this article and I gotta say, it's a helluva interesting story, the rise and fall of Carolco... I'd highly recommend reading all of it, it's quite a story!! It's 9 pages, but it's very worth the time to read if you remember this company and appreciated it.

wayback.ew.com/ew/article/0,,628785,00.html - "The Boys Who Burned a Billion Dollars"

Back in the day, Kassar and Vajna ran a company called Carolco, and produced just about every big, dumb, loud, profitable action movie in town. They were the money, if not the minds, behind Terminator and Rambo, Basic Instinct and Total Recall. They spent wildly on unworkable projects and unmentionable extravagances. They jacked up star salaries in a way that still causes studio executives to curse bitterly. And their company imploded in a debacle of petty jealousy and bitter competition, not to mention federal investigations and bankruptcy proceedings. One lost everything, and the other waltzed off a rich man.

Some interesting tidbits:

"On one floor you had Roland Emmerich, Renny Harlin, Oliver Stone, James Cameron, Adrian Lyne, Paul Verhoeven, all sharing offices. It was incredible!" says Dean Devlin, who cowrote Universal Soldier and Stargate for Carolco. "And you got paid much more than you got paid anywhere else."

The 1995 Chapter 11 proceedings generated 360,000 pages in court filings. Vajna watched regretfully from afar, fretting about his former friend and furious that it had all gone wrong. ''Carolco should today be much bigger than New Line,'' insists Vajna. ''Look at the assets: Spider-Man, X-Men, Terminator, Total Recall, Rambo, and Stargate. You name it.'' Says Devlin: ''Think about it. Had they been able to keep Carolco going a little bit longer, the next two movies would have been Independence Day and Titanic. [Nearly] 3 billion dollars in worldwide box office.'

ID and Titanic were just around the corner from their directors, but it all went elsewhere after the bankruptcy cause of a few disasters before like Show Girls and the pirate movie. The IRS helped destroy them too actually...

With the bankruptcy, you had an auction of all the assets, one of which was of course the Terminator franchise. Here's how that went:

Finally, in 1997, one of the last remaining Carolco assets came up for auction: 50 percent of Terminator 3. Everyone considered Fox the favorite -- the company had a relationship with James Cameron, and he was talking about writing and directing the sequel. But two surprise bidders derailed them with a bid of $8 million: Mario Kassar and Andy Vajna.

...

A few months later, Kassar moved into Vajna's Cinergi offices and C2 Pictures was born. They called the old gang to let them know they were back and pulled together money for their Terminator bid. (The lion's share came from Vajna, but Kassar kicked in what he could by mortgaging a piece of beach property.) Then they made their move -- and those jaws in Hollywood dropped.

As it turned out, they hadn't changed a bit. After blindsiding Fox and their old friend Cameron -- and nearly destroying their relationship with him in the process -- they bought the second half of the rights. Then they found a new director in Jonathan Mostow. Cast Arnold. Blew a lot of stuff up. And made $150 million domestically.

Sucks, you could've had another Terminator with James Cameron at the director's chair... Instead, we just got a crap sequel that milked the success of the first two. But I dunno, Cameron was asked about it by a fan at some event and I do remember seeing Arnold from the T3 set calling on him to come "direct my movie" but Cameron said that he was just "done" with the 2nd movie and wanted to do other things...

Little tangent here, apologies, but I thought it might be interesting to some.

[esteban]

Ah, so you know all about it. I was a big fan, when that Carolco logo would start in an action movie, I knew I was in for a treat or when I saw "Mario Kassar Presents."

That's exactly how my brothers/friends and I felt when we saw the Carolco logo . We watched all of the lower-budget stuff they pumped out, too.

I haven't read the article yet, but I certainly will.

[_Paul]

Carolco was damn awesome.

[Nando]

shinny laser extrusions FTW!

Them and Orion Pictures were my favorite growing up

[_Paul]

Best version of the Orion logo here-->

[Nando]

BWHAHAHAHAH

Orion, Orion....HAHAHAH

[esteban]

BWHAHAHAHAH

Orion, Orion....HAHAHAH

That made me smile, too.