The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey

Read my review of The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey at the Indian Fusion.

Safety Not Guaranteed

Read my review of the movie Safety Not Guaranteed at the Indian Fusion.

Prelude to Foundation

Read my review of Prelude to Foundation by Isaac Asimov at the Indian Fusion.

Dredd

Unlike most people, I like the 1995 Judge Dredd. I like Sylvester Stallone. I think he and Sandra Bullock had chemistry in Demolition Man. I found him funny in Stop or My Mom Will Shoot. Some people might find the movie's plot stupid, I first encountered it in a MAD magazine letters to the editor page, and unfaithful to the comics, but there's something about Stallone shouting "I am the law!" that I find entertaining.

I didn't like the 2012 Dredd, which is a shame, because I like Karl Urban's Judge Dredd. If the material is supposed to be a parody, the actors had to perform as if the characters they were portraying were taking everything they did seriously, and Urban did that. The audience gets the joke, the actors get the joke, but the characters don't, that's why the joke works.

Or maybe I trapped myself, wanted the movie to make fun of itself too much, and that's why I was disappointed. In Dredd, everything is too easy. Dredd and his rookie partner were never really in danger, and the reason for that is the weakness of the film's antagonist, Ma-Ma (Lena Headey). So she bit of some guy's dick off, big deal. Helen did that in The World According to Garp, and she isn't scary. Ma-Ma destroyed an entire level of her territory, and she didn't even kill Dredd's rookie. So when the big fight in the end finally went down, not only was there no doubt as to who would win, there was no doubt either if I was going to feel any excitement. (Speaking of the rookie, she should have been shot by the dirty female Judge who had no reason to give her time to fire her weapon.)

The best scene in the movie was when the dirty judges came and the medtech who refused to help Dredd earlier in the movie was suddenly volunteering to help the law against Ma-Ma's forces. They shot him. Sometimes, even evil men can dispense justice.

Foundation

Read my review of Foundation by Isaac Asimov at the Indian Fusion.