10 Overlooked Positives of Sylvester Stallone's Judge Dredd

2. Mean Machine And The Angel Gang

By far the film's most successful sequence, Dredd's captivity in the Angel Gang hideout is where Judge Dredd comes closest to capturing the magic of the comics. Shot out of the sky by demented Pa Angel and his awful sons, Dredd and Fergee are chained up in the Gang's cave. Not even Schneider's snivelling can ruin this one; Mean Machine Angel looks just as he should, while Walking Dead star Scott Wilson is on fine form as good ol' Pa. There's an argument to be made that Judge Dredd wastes the characters by, well, wasting them after about five minutes, but the Angel Gang of the comics barely lasted much longer in the the books, at first - being sentenced to death with trademark efficiency by Dredd. A low life-expectancy comes with the territory of being a Dredd villain - hence his most enduring enemies being either immortal (the superfiend himself, Judge Death) or frequently resurrected (the Angels, again). Whether or not there comes a proper Dredd sequel (doubtful, at best) at least there'll always be Sylvester Stallone duking it out with Mean Machine in the depths of the Cursed Earth. And then he goes and spoils it all by saying something stupid like "I knew you were going to say that."