The Bounder: Riotous True-Life Adventures of a Bon Viveur
Book
This merry memoir tells how the author has lurched through a life full of friendship, laughter and...
Wheels of Aurelia
Games
App Watch
Embark on an immersive road trip through the gritty western coast of Italy during the roaring...
games
Colin Newman recommended Deja Vu by Matty in Music (curated)
Peter Russell (61 KP) rated Heroscape Master Set: Rise of the Valkyrie in Tabletop Games
Mar 26, 2019
Near and Far: Recipes Inspired by Home and Travel
Book
New York Times bestselling author Heidi Swanson's approach to cooking-delicious, seasonal, healthy,...
William Faulkner in Hollywood: Screenwriting for the Studios
R. Barton Palmer, Stefan Solomon and Matthew Bernstein
Book
During more than two decades (1932-1954), William Faulkner worked on approximately fifty screenplays...
Tomb Raider (2018)
Movie Watch
Lara Croft is the fiercely independent daughter of an eccentric adventurer who vanished when she was...
action adventure
Memory-Map Topo Maps and Marine Navigation
Navigation and Sports
App
Turn your iPhone or iPad into an outdoor GPS or marine chart plotter, with the detailed topo maps or...
JT (287 KP) rated Dredd (2012) in Movies
Mar 10, 2020
Karl Urban steps into the boots for this outing and complete with grizzled voice that echoes of Clint Eastwood’s Dirty Harry he goes up against female villain Ma-Ma (Headey) who is as nasty as she is ruthless.
Mega City one, set on the East Coast and running from Boston to Washington DC is the Judges stomping ground and its being overrun by a new drug called SLO-MO in which users experience reality at a fraction of the speed. When a routine homicide leads Dredd and rookie Judge Cassandra Anderson (Thirlby) to The Peach Trees, a 200-storey slum tower block (wait, another tower block?), they must fight their way through the scum to get to the top and bring down the prostitute turned drug lord.
The film is certainly grittier and bloodier than its almost comic predecessor, and director Travis does not shy away from this.
An early encounter in which Dredd and Anderson infiltrate a drug house is slowed right down, maybe in some way to mirror the feeling the SLO-MO drug has on its users. Bullets and blood fly as the casualties and body count rise significantly, Dredd quips the occasional one liner with deadpan expression “negotiation’s over. Sentence is death.”
Those that saw The Raid would have been mesmerized by the action which was none stop from start to finish, sadly Dredd doesn’t live up to those high expectations but does its best to stay with mainstream carnage, of which there is plenty to satisfy.
It’s all about the facial expression
Thirlby’s psychic abilities prove useful but almost disappointing that she can second guess her opponents, a mutant, she’d probably fit in well with the X-Men. She’s the sense of reason to Dredd’s brute force, although most of the time he’s right in what he does, after all he is the law. The film is stripped back, humour is used when needed, and the action set pieces are exceptional. Urban a long time supporting actor now gets a chance to be front and centre in a franchise that can really go places.
The Mystery of Skara Brae: Neolithic Scotland and the Origins of Ancient Egypt
Book
In 3200 BC, Orkney Island off the coast of Northern Scotland was home to a small farming village...