Movie Review: Dredd (2012)

I am the law

Judge Dredd gets sent to investigate a triple homicide.  His superiors saddle him with a rookie judge, who just happens to be a psychic.  The rest of a shoot-em-up good time.  This 'day in the life' of a Judge Dredd is very watchable for genre fans and action fans as well.  Based on the comic book character of the same name, Dredd is the type of film which should be widely publicized and enjoyed by comic fans, action fans, and sci-fi fans.  Sadly though, it is also the type of film which gets overshadowed by inferior films such as Thor and Captain America, and Man of Steel.  On the whole, it is way better by far than most of the big name super hero films.  The story is tighter and the action is tougher.  It has much more in common with Christoper Nolan's Batman series, Blade, and Constantine than it does with most other contemporary comic book films.

Dredd pummels its comic book competitors to get to 4 out of 5 stars!

Director: Pete Travis

Writer: John Wagner, Carlos Ezquerra, Alex Garland (28 Days Later, Sunshine)

Starring: Karl Urban (The Lord of The Rings Trilogy, Star Trek rebooted) Olivia Thirlby (The Darkest Hour), Lena Headey, (The Sarah Conner Chronicles, Game of Thrones) Wood Harris (The Wire)

Rotten Tomatoes:78%

Metacritic: 59%

Woman in Black (2012)

Something's rotten in this town

Young Arthur is budding lawyer sent by his firm to finalize paperwork on a property.  When he shows up in the village, tragic things begin to happen.  Arthur soon realizes that all the strangeness is connected to the property.  And the rest is mildly thrilling.  The film does manage to capture a good bit of eeriness.  It also has some quality British actors.  Daniel Radcliffe is doing a fair job of trying to break out of the Harry Potter pigeonhole (Although it will always be hard for me to think of him as anything else).  This film is a respectable, if not memorable, addition to his filmography. 

Woman in Black gets a less than thrilling 2.5 out of 5 Poblanos!

Director: James Watkins
Writer: Susan Hill (novel), Jane Goldman (screenplay)
Starring: Daniel Radcliffe, Janet McTeer, Ciarán Hinds (There Will Be Blood, Game of Thrones)
Rotten Tomatoes: 65%
Metacritic: 62 out of 100

Hodejegerne (Headhunters) (2011)

My baby's got a secret

Roger Brown has secrets.  He uses his position as a corporate headhunter to gain intel on prospective hires.  And the intel he seeks is about art - do they have precious artwork?  If he finds out that they do, he steals and fences to fuel his luxurious lifestyle.  Then Clas Greve enters the picture.  And the next two hours is one big Norwegian thrill ride.  Scandinavians (Danes, Swedes, Norwegians) can make some really great films.  Such as Let the Right One In, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo trilogy, The Trollhunter, and others I've seen in the past couple of years.  Hodejegerne is very intelligent, yet not too cerebral to be inaccessible to the average movie goer.  But, sadly, a Hollywod remake is in the works which as most remakes do, will pale by comparison to the original.

With more plot twists that a pretzel, Hodejegerne thrilled me and gets 4 out of 5 Poblanos!

Director: Morten Tyldum
Writer: Lars Gudmestad, Ulf Ryberg
Starring: Aksel Hennie, Synnøve Macody Lund and Nikolaj Coster-Waldau (Game of Thrones)
Rotten Tomatoes: 92%
Metacritic: 72 out of 100