Final Judgement

Review: Dredd 3D

 

In a violent future, an elite force of police are judge, jury, and executioner. Judge Dredd is the best and he teams up with a rookie to take down a drug-dealing gang.

 

Much like last year's The Raid, the remake Dredd 3D is a cheesy, over-the-top, violent mess; annoying if you’re looking for quality, but fun if you want to witness the ridiculous as the judges fight their way up an apartment building. Karl Urban (Star Trek) takes his role as Dredd seriously, speaking in such a raspy voice, it sounds like he’s auditioning to be the next Batman. Overall, director Pete Travis (Vantage Point) gives us a film where what you see is what you get. And sometimes it’s nice when things are just that simple.

 

The Final Word: Wait to rent it.

Cloud Gazing

Review: Cloud Atlas

 

Books are hard to turn into movies. Such a large, complex book as Cloud Atlas would seem impossible. Yet directors Tom Tykwer (Perfume) and the Wachowski siblings (The Matrix) somehow made it happen. A number of interlocking stories, spanning across cultures and centuries shows how connecting everything might really be. It is an interesting concept, and led by Tom Hanks (Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close) and Halle Berry (Dark Tide), the film is probably about as good a rendition as there could be.

 

It is necessarily a long movie, but that sometimes makes it difficult to remember exactly how certain things have affected others. This slows the energy of the film and prevents it from being a truly epic accomplishment, but as I said, I’m not sure it could be avoided. As a side note, the actors in the film each play different characters in each of the stories told, so it is fun to try and spot them, especially when they switch up genders or races.

 

The Final Word: Wait to rent it.

Pelicula de Ferrell

Review: Casa de Mi Padre

 

Surrounded by corruption, Armando Alvarez is a simple man who finds the courage to stand up to his family and to Mexico’s most terrible drug lord.

 

Will Ferrell (The Campaign) is ridiculous. Sometimes that’s a good thing, sometimes that’s a bad thing. In Casa de Mi Padre, a film in which all of the dialogue is in Spanish, it is a bit of both. It is actually a decent performance from Ferrell, but the film is a bizarre parody of Mexican Westerns which at times seems cynically self-aware and self-deprecating, while at others an earnest attempt at quality. It is a confusing mix from director Matt Piedmont (Funny or Die), but is a film that can be fun to watch if you don’t expect too much and watch it late at night.

 

The Final Word: Wait to rent it.