They cater to different markets, and both are equally good. However, I think there's space for both of them in the market DREDD is an unashamed shoot-em-up while THE RAID is an unashamed martial arts movie. Many reviewers have commented on the movie's similarity in plot to the Indonesian action epic THE RAID, and it's clear the two films share plenty. I did like him though, and enjoyed his totalitarian attitude towards keeping crime off the streets. The helmet serves to distance the viewer from warming to the character, but then that's the point. Thus he's reduced to acting via his chin and gravely voice, and the surprise is that it works, to a degree. Karl Urban, long since a favourite of mine (since his excellent turn as the Russian assassin in THE BOURNE SUPREMACY) headlines as Dredd, never taking his helmet off throughout the film. This one's a lot more gutsy and compelling, thanks to the lean script and emphasis throughout on bloody action and adult entertainment. His stamping ground was, and still is, Mega City One, a post-nuclear, future dystopian urban sprawl occupying most of the eastern United States where police brutality, unfeeling authority and the abuse of the state clashed with a seething population of 170 million and counting.DREDD is the second adaptation of the cult comic book series Judge Dredd, following on from a poorly-received Stallone flick in the '90s (for the record, I thought that version was passable but weak in places, as is the case with a lot of mid-'90s cinema). He even developed his own lexicon of pseudo swear words, including Stomm, Jovus, Grud and his favourite, Drokk. Like a future Dirty Harry meets Robocop with a splash of modern day Batman, Dredd soon became the anti-hero comic book archetype, dispensing summary justice in a world of ravers, headbangers, murderers, drug dealers, necrophiles – you name it. Step forward Dredd who soon eclipsed Dan Dare, (he was briefly revived for the new comic venture). The latter’s most enduring character was a psychotic great white shark with an insatiable blood lust, but as well as worrying the hell out of parents and thrilling youngsters, Action helped kill off the once ubiquitous war comic and paved the way for a new type of comic book whose USP was sci-fi, cool ultraviolence and anti-heroes.
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