Reasons to be cheerful, part ten. And really, no matter what the Dredd faithful tell you, Danny Cannon's Judge Dredd is a lot of fun at times. It's action-packed, occasionally amusing, good-looking and packs in just enough elements from the comics to not be a complete waste of viewers' time. Taken on its own merits, it's a fine bit of 90s action cinema and a fairly good Sylvester Stallone flick. Those who demand a more faithful take on the character have their Dredd 3D to take the taste away (although it's debatable how much more faithful that film really is, with its lack of humour and low-fi Big Meg), leaving everyone else with Cannon's Judge Dredd here to enjoy as a guilty pleasure or fun way to kill a Friday night. It may not be a great - or even good - adaptation of the source material, but it gets plenty more right than it often gets credit for. It's a failure, but an entertaining failure, nevertheless. Good enough? No, not quite. But at least it tries.
A film critic and professional writer of over ten years, Joel Harley has a deep and abiding love of all things horror, Batman and Nicolas Cage. He can be found writing online and in print, all over the Internet and in especially good bookstores.