Dredd (18)

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Anthony Quinn Author Biography

Anthony Quinn

Anthony Quinn is The Independent's Film Critic.

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Friday 07 September 2012

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Based on the 2000 AD comic strip, this stars Karl Urban as the ruthless law enforcer, stubbly of chin, gravelly of voice, and itchy of trigger-finger.

The time is the future, the setting is a vertiginous megablock slum that houses the nastiest gangs in town, the mission is to clean up a routine homicide.

Dredd is accompanied by a rookie Judge, Cassandra (Olivia Thirlby), a psychic as well as a sidekick, but on arriving at the crime scene our dynamic duo find big trouble – vicious leader of the Ma-Ma clan Lena Headey locks down the building and puts out an APB for their immediate extermination.

Cue corridor-chases, gun battles and the sort of ultra slo-mo that examines precisely how flesh is lacerated by bullets. N ice. Dredd has pretty much everything your violent action adventure could hope for – except timing.

You can't watch this without being reminded of Gareth Evans's Indonesian thriller The Raid, which has an identical setting and plot, only with better fights and racier handling.

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