As tough guys go, they don't get any tougher than Judge Dredd. This futuristic lawman is not a superhero. He doesn't have a cape, or wear undies outside his tights. He's just a man who uses brute force, gladiator-like guile, and a limited but staunch vocabulary to catch, judge, and, if necessary, execute the bad guys.
So he can be a rather robotic being, which is why it's remarkable Kiwi actor Karl Urban - in his biggest role yet - manages to make the protector of Mega-City One a living breathing bloke. Although not too real, because he is an uncompromising yet reasoned wrecking machine, after all.
And what makes it even more impressive is that we only see Urban's chin and jaw throughout the whole of Dredd because he never takes his helmet off. This is real deal Dredd, and a fitting adaptation of the comic book created by writer John Wagner in the late 70s. Which also means it's a vast improvement on the Sylvester Stallone version of the 90s.
The story is simple. After a routine call-out to investigate the dumping of three skinned bodies at a tower block slum known as Peach Trees, Dredd and his sidekick Judge Anderson find themselves in a battle to bring down demented drug lord Ma-Ma. She controls the majority of the Slo-Mo trade, a drug where users experience reality at a fraction of its normal speed.
The majority of the film takes place inside Peach Trees, which is home to 200,000 residents, and the world that British director Pete Travis and writer Alex Garland (28 Days Later) conjure up is deliciously gritty, desperate and extremely violent.
