We love our metal here at Metal Injection… but we dig movies too! Welcome to Cinema Fix, a movie guide tailored for the metal faithful. Sit back and relax after a long week of work and/or blast beats and enjoy one of our prestigious film selections. This week's pick is:
Dredd (2012)
Quick Pitch:
Relentless, uber violent action sci-fi at it's bleakest.
Synopsis:
In the not too distant future, society has disintegrated into madness. The United States is a barren, radioactive wasteland and the remnants of the civilized world are huddled into a handful of Mega Cities. Hundreds of millions of people, herded together in squalor and urban decay. With violence and crime running rampant, only the Judges, the government’s sole law enforcement arm who act as judge, jury and executioner, can bring order to the chaos.
Adapted from the highly popular Judge Dredd comic book, director Pete Travis’ 2012 film Dredd, is a sleek and ass kicking genre film. Karl Urban stars in the titular role of Judge Dredd. He’s a badass super cop, part Punisher part Terminator, who dispenses justice on the turbulent streets of Mega-City One like nobody’s business. Urban, perhaps best known for his work in Star Trek and The Lord of The Rings, plays Dredd to perfection. He’s cold, calculating and tough as nails. Best of all, he never takes off his damn helmet. The day Dredd takes rookie Judge Anderson [Oliva Thirlby] out into the field for her final evaluation is the day he accidentally stumbles upon a huge narcotics ring in the most dangerous slum in all of the city. Dredd and the rookie have to blast their way out of a 200 story housing project filled with drug dealers, gang members and other gun totting bad guys. Too bad, those law breaking punks don’t stand a chance.
[youtube]http://youtu.be/PifvRiHVSCY[/youtube]
Why it’s metal:
Because Dredd shoots dudes in the face…in slow motion, and it’s glorious. Dredd is an uber violent film with a no nonsense approach to storytelling and pacing. As stated before, Dredd is by in large a genre flick, it’s an action picture with healthy doses of sci-fi thrown in for kicks [or explosions]. The fantastical elements of the movie, from the Slo-Mo drug effects, Dredd’s telepathic partner to his totally awesome lawgiver, all build toward one singular cinematic goal: more carnage! Dredd also forgoes many of the eye rolling clichés that plague mainstream tentpole films. Judge Dredd doesn’t go through some forced character arc, there is no obligatory love interest or even slight hint of sexual tension between him and his super cute partner. No, this movie is all about mayhem. That, and Dredd totally nails the whole dystopian, post-Apocalyptic motif that metal bands have been ranting about for years. The whole movie feels like a Nuclear Assault album cover brought to life.
Suggested listening:
Anthrax- “I Am the Law”
The fellas in Anthrax have been ranting about Judge Dredd since 1987, when they unleashed their classic ode to Mega-City's finest back on Among The Living.
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“Respect the badge! He earned it with his blood.”
