I have some interesting news this week. Chew, Eisner award winner and all around awesome comic series, is now in development to be a half-hour comedy show on Showtime. Now, in an age where comic franchises seem to be perpetually up for grabs for TV and movie deals, it may have only been a matter of time until Chew was picked up, but still this is something that I think warrants more study.
The article that I read said that the scripts being written by Terri Hughes Burton and Ron Milbauer, the same people responsible for Supernatural and Eureka. I’ll admit to never seeing the former, but I’ve so far been impressed with the writing of the ladder. I’ve also heard that the production company in charge of Chew, Circle of Confusion, is run by the same upstanding gents that brought us AMC’s Walking Dead, and if that’s the standard for all the shows they produce, than that gives me reason to have high expectations.
Despite all these good signs, for some reason I just can’t muster up the confidence to say this is a good idea. Anyone whose read my blog on the subject knows that Chew is the one series I feel comfortable recommending to absolutely anyone. It’s darkly comic, uniquely quirky, and has that faint air of mystery that keeps you coming back for more. Without a doubt, Chew is a really great story (I think the Eisner proved that), but the question I have to ask myself is: is Chew “TV great”?
The problem with many book-to-film adaptations is that often they aren’t able to make the transition as well as the fans would like. It’s easy to blame this on whoever writes the script, but sometimes stories inevitably lose something in the translation from paper to film. In Chew’s case it might be the art.
One of Chew’s strongest points is how Rob Guillory’s art style works in such perfect harmony with John Layman’s writing. The story is gross, gritty and bizarre, qualities that the art both alleviates and enhances at the same time. If they try and make this into a live action series, obviously the graphic aspect of the story would have to go. Maybe if they decided to turn this into a cartoon with Guillory as the lead illustrator they could keep everything intact, but somehow I doubt that will be the case.
Maybe this is just me not wanting some other writer to ruin a good thing, but out of all the things that the movie and television industry has adopted from the graphic novel community, this might not be their best move. However, let it not be said that I’m unwilling to be proven wrong. If any of you out there think that Circle of Confusion can pull out another hit series from Image, then give me some food for thought (heh, food pun).
If not, then let this be something you can just chew on for a while. Good, bad, or otherwise, this is one Showtime series I’m definitely not going to miss.
Have you ever read a comic series that changed the way you thought of comics; something that was entertaining and bizarre and over the top? Over the course of my long and varied history of reading comics, I’m come across a few of those, but one of the first was a series called Young Justice. Written and sustained by the creative team of Peter David and Todd Nauck, Young Justice was a series that reminded everyone that the lives of teen heroes are even more mixed up and hilariously bizarre than we could ever imagine.
The series started out focusing on the misadventures of Superboy, Impulse, and Robin, but later expanded to include Wonder Girl, Arrowette (top left), a teen version of Lobo (bottom left), and a couple of never before seen super heroines – like the voodoo powered Empress (top and second from left) and the spectral Secret (far right). The series had a 56 issue run between 1998 and 2003, during which Young Justice fought fearsome foes such as werewolves, super-powered mimes, a black ops agency called A.P.E.S. (the All Purpose Enforcement Squad) and even a super villian who called herself “Mighty Endowed.” It was a juvenile book for a juvenile audience, and it promised me at least one good laughing fit per issue. The series ended to make way for the new Teen Titans series, which featured many of the same characters, but I never stopped hoping YJ would eventually make a comeback.
I had pretty much given up hope on ever seeing my favorite superhero series again, but then I heard that Warner Brothers and Cartoon Network were working on a new Young Justice animated series, and I just had to investigate.
From the looks of things, this new show is going to have more in common with Teen Titans than its namesake, but it shows promise. Produced by Brandon Vietti and Greg Weisman, the latter of which also produced both Gargoyles and the Spectacular Spider-man television shows, Young Justice will include old favorites like Robin, Superboy, and Kid Flash as well as some fairly new faces like Miss Martian and the new Aqualad (as seen in the more recent issues of Brightest Day).
According to interviews with Vietti and Weisman, the show is going to be more along the lines of Justice League Unlimited than any other cartoon series and will include a lot of raw action with a teenage twist. It’s not my idea of Young Justice, but considering the stock of characters they’re working from I still have high expectations.
When I was thinking about which comic I would pick to be adapted into a film I was a little stumped. Fleet suggested I pick Fear Agent since I’m constantly singing it’s praises, but I think Rick Remender’s space western would be better fit for a intentionally campy television series. Still at a crossroads about my decision, all was revealed to me this morning when I looked at my kitchen wall and the comic movie that needs to be made was right in front of me. Hanging above my microwave surrounded be Godzilla figures is a signed and numbered print of Daniel Clowes’ “Like A Velvet Glove Cast In Iron.” Anyone who’s read this surreal graphic novel knows that it goes without question that “Like A Velvet Glove…” is the perfect story to be adapted by David Lynch.
Clowes’ adapted movie work has quite literally been hit or miss. “Ghost World” being the hit. “Art School Confidential” being the miss. However, if adapted my the right director ( That being David Lynch), I’m confident “Like A Velvet Glove…” could also being a hit at least in the art house circuit. There really isn’t anything like this Clowes early graphic novel. Even trying to describe the plot is hard to do, much like a David Lynch film. A quick explantation would simply be that lead character Clay Loudermilk is searching for his estranged wife, Barbara Allen, whom he sees in a porno movie. Simple enough plot I guess, but that doesn’t account for the strange fish-like girl who falls in love with Clay, the man with shrimp tales coming out of his eye-sockets, or the dog with no head. That’s where David Lynch comes in to make the plausible seemingly implausible. Though I think Lynch would be best for the project, I also think director Jim Jarmusch could give him a run for his money.
As for casting, I could see Steve Buscemi reprising his role as a Clowes character and playing Clay Loudermilk. He always good at a sweaty, nervous oddball. However, if Hollywood would want to cast a more handsome leading man, I also think John Hamm could play a strong version of Clowes’ neurotic lead. If John Hamm played the lead his connection to St. Louis could easily land a screening at the Tivoli Theatre with a possible meet and greet appearance. That would certainly be exciting. Just think of a cerebral episode of AMC’s “Mad Men” where that rascally, old Don Draper is being asked to fertilize the eggs of a sickly fish-like girl on the bed of a hotel. That’s a comic movie I’d see!
John Ostrander and Tim Truman’s Grimjack is one of the meanest comic books to come out of the 80s. It began as classic noir with a science fiction backdrop but quickly matured into a bleak satire on modern life with frequent forays into the philosophical implications of impending mortality. John Gaunt, a.k.a. Grimjack, is an ex-gladiator, ex-wizard, ex-cop, ex-soldier, current mercenary and bona fide senior citizen who brings death to every one he loves — sometimes he’s even the one who kills his loved ones, but however it plays out, he’s always bad news. He drinks oceans of rotgut, he smokes constantly, he swears and he lives in a bar — all of that almost makes up for his penchant for Highland bonnets, but let’s allow an old man his eccentricities.
[WHATCHA DRINKIN’, GRIMJACK?]
Grimjack looks and reads like it was tailor-made to be transformed into a big-budget, special effects spectacular. Much of that is down to Truman’s depiction of Cynosure, the setting for every story. Cynosure is a multidimensional node, meaning all the many dimensions of creation manifest in Cynosure on a predictable schedule. This allows Cynosure to grow wealthy as a glorified trading post, since everywhere comes to it at some point. It’s populated by aliens, freaks, punks, geeks, gigolo unicorns, talking beavers, the hyper-wealthy and a great seething underclass.
[CYNOSURE IN ALL ITS GLORY]
Using contemporary (early 80s) Chicago as the bones of the city, Truman added a musculature of science fiction and fantasy elements — massive skyscrapers, floating pyramids, space ports, dragons — larded it with filth and then covered it in a skin of graffiti. High technology works in some parts of the city, magic works in others, gods and demons rub shoulders with sentient bats, and everyday schlubs just have to deal with it all. Cynosure looked lived in and dirty, and it was as much a character in the comic as it was a setting.
[BLACJACMAC]
The two-legged supporting cast was just as interesting and flawed. BlacJacMac is Gaunt’s smooth-talkin’ former partner in the gladiator pits (he bears a striking resemblance to late-70s Isaac Hayes and is married to a goddess), Roscoe is his dwarfish former cop partner and occasionally his current partner — when he’s not trying to run Gaunt in for various crimes, Gordon is the regular guy who runs Munden’s Bar (Grimjack’s home) and has a tangled history with his boss, and then there’s Bob the watchlizard.
[JOHN AND BOB]
He’s as hard-drinkin’ as ol’ Grimjack and smokes more, and he’s just as heartbroken. Nobody knows why he latched on to Gaunt, but he’s all Bob has so the lizardgator stays — and drinks, and smokes and sings when he’s really depressed.
As mentioned earlier, Ostrander’s stand-alone, hard-boiled stories of betrayal and general nastiness gave way to larger story arcs. The first of these, The Trade Wars, concerned the ultra-wealthy warring openly in the streets and affiliated dimensions for greater profits, while Mayfair (leader of the city’s secret police force, Cadre, and Gaunt’s former boss) attempts to set up former gladiator Dancer (Gaunt’s mentor in the arena) as the city’s ultimate tyrant. A political thriller that also involves massive, multi-dimensional battles between alien factions, and a small group of hard-bitten, tough-talking soldiers-of-fortune who have conflicting loyalties to ex-employers and friends — yeah, that’s a good, solid basis for a film.
[VOLUME 4 COVER]
Of course, as with most comic books in this modern age, there’s industry talk of a Grimjack movie — and there has been for almost two decades. It may never happen, in which case I direct you to IDW Publishing’s The Legend of Grimjack Volume 4, which features the entire Trade Wars saga. (Digression: Have you ever noticed that “Volume 4” of anything is always epic? Black Sabbath’s “Vol. 4,” Led Zeppelin’s “IV,” “Star Wars: A New Hope” — what is it about volume 4s?) Be warned that Truman left the book just before the actual Trade Wars began, and his replacement, Tom Sutton, had neither the feel for Cynosure nor a very good understanding of forced perspective. John Ostrander is a great enough writer to overcome mediocre art, however, but while you’re out there looking for Volume 4, you should probably consider the first three volumes of that series, which are all Truman.
Well… We sorta succeeding in doing another themed blog. Starting with Paul’s from last week and following through into this week. Now, when I first received the email from Paul about what comic I’d like to see made into a movie, I had to really sit down and think for awhile. You see, the majority of the comic films that I’d like to see have already been made, or are in the process of being made. So, that left me with a serious problem. What the hell do I want to see? About a week later, it hit me. Proof. I want to see Proof turned into a major motion picture.
So what is Proof? I’m glad I asked for you. You see, Proof is the story of a Sasquatch who works for a Secret Government Agency that is tasked with the capturing and protection of cryptids, which include such beauties as the Cottingley Fairies, the Dover Demon, dinosaurs and dodo birds. The idea is, John “Proof” Prufrock (the Sasquatch) was discovered by Lewis and Clark in 1805 and raised by former President of the United States, Thomas Jefferson. Jefferson taught Proof how to be classy. As a result, you’ll often notice that Proof is one of the best dressed characters in his comic or any other for that matter. Anyway, the story follows Proof on a mission of self discovery. Is he the last of his kind? Proof is often found reviewing the famed Patterson-Gimlin footage of Bigfoot in an attempt to find clues of others of his kind. At the beginning of the series, Proof is given a partner, a young FBI agent named Ginger Brown, who recently had a run-in with a Golem during a bank robbery. Together, they go on an assortment of X-Files-inspired adventures across the globe as they bring justice to those who are involved in the cryptid world.
Sounds awesome, right? It was one of the few Image titles to bring something new to the table in such a long time. So what’s the hold up? Why hasn’t this been optioned yet? I don’t know, but… What I do know is who I’d like to be in the movie. For starters, Keith David (The Thing, Requiem for a Dream) would be my choice for Proof. He has a booming voice, and he’s a pretty tall actor to begin with, which is a plus in this case. I say we give the man some height extensions in is costume and cast the rest of the movie kinda short, and we have a winner here. For the Latina FBI agent Ginger, I’d go with America Ferrera (Ugly Betty, Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants). The woman has some range that I feel most folks have ignored. But then, I’d put her in just about any movie to be honest. And for the small town sheriff, Elvis Aaron Chestnut, I’d have gone with Bruce Campbell if this were being made 15-20 years ago, but that just might be the fanboy in me. I think that if the guy could gain about 30 pounds and grew some thick sideburns, Jay Baruchel (Tropic Thunder, Sorcerer’s Apprentice) would make for a good choice. I got faith in the man. However, Jim made the suggestion that I include David Duchovny (X-Files, Californication) in the cast. I also think that he’d make for a good Elvis as well. It would be a nice treat for the fans of his Sci-Fi work, and I’d welcome it as well. But, Baruchel is still my top choice.
As for a director? My top pick would be Neill Blomkamp (District 9). Sure, he’s pretty fresh in the major films department, but from the few things that I have seen of his work, he has a good eye for a franchise like this. Plus, he’s good at stretching a budget and not having the result look like a pile of crap. I could see a solid trilogy of movies made out of the comic, and hey, it only ran for 28 issues, so its not like you’d have to cut a lot of content to make a trilogy work. If the special effects work went something like 70/30 for practical/computer generated, I wouldn’t frown. “Real” effects are almost always better than “computer effects”, so yeah. Sounds good to me. And that’s it for today…See ya next time.
C’mon, tell me that wouldn’t make for a great tagline for a Hellstorm (aka the Son of Satan) movie.
When I started thinking about comic books that I’d like to see made into a movie, I ran into the problem of most everything I’d like to see having already been made, or I’d rather not see them made into a movie. However, I wouldn’t mind seeing a Hellstorm movie. It would have to be titled Hellstorm since “Son of Satan” would obviously stir up more controversy than would be desired.
Fleet has suggested to me that Chris Pine should play Daimon Hellstrom, aka the Son of Satan, aka Hellstorm, and I could certainly see that working. I automatically would have it set here in St. Louis where the character spent a significant amount of time in the 70’s as a professor of anthropology at the fictional Gateway University. I would have this be an element of the film: professor by day, supernatural investigator by night when his hell-spawned powers are used to fight the forces of darkness thrown at him by his father, Satan, while delving into his eventful birth in Salem Massachusetts throughout the film.
I would not recommend retaining the costume he wore in the 70’s however, I could see the film version sporting a dark suit and black trenchcoat, perhaps a noticeable change in his facial structure when he goes into full demon-mode wielding his Hellish trident. The atmosphere should be more like a suspenseful horror movie, and a demonic detective story. Let’s not go too over the top. I’d say the films climactic scene could certainly be a duel to the death on the arch-grounds between him and his fathers highest –ranking lieutenant since you really can never get rid of the devil.
This is a film I’d like to see directed by David Lynch, who I think could bring his unique sense of atmosphere, and could handle such dark subject matter without making it corny and unoriginal. I get a little tired of the action/superhero formula sometimes, so it would be refreshing to see an art-house take on a Marvel movie.
I’m not a fan of comic book movies. I think the filmmakers ignore the core qualities of most long-running books in favor of “updating the character” or “broadening the appeal of the franchise” or just chucking too much of the budget and running time into re-hashing the origin of the character and thereby rendering the film nothing more than a commercial for the sequel. And the rest of them are either Daredevil awful or a Jonah Hex failure.
But what if a studio hired an exceptional writer/director tandem to create your perfect vision of a comic book movie? What title would you want to see brought to the silver screen, knowing that it would be both a good film and a good comic book movie?
Power Man and Iron Fist comes immediately to mind. I’d love to see the Heroes for Hire in a glorified B-Movie that combined the best aspects of Blaxploitation and kung-fu flick with a buddy cop picture, since that was essentially what the comic was. Keep everything from the late 70s/early 80s setting: keep the Heroes for Hire offices in Harlem and the original costumes; keep the Defiant Ones attitudes of Luke Cage and Danny Rand, and also maintain the low-stakes nature of the standard PM/IF plot. Luke and Danny don’t fight alien invasions, journey through time to prevent future massacres or save the world on a daily basis.
[MONTENEGRO ENTERS THE SCENE IN A CLOUD OF EXPOSITION]
Instead they hunt mercenaries through New York City, deal with crazed superhuman Vietnam Vets (Warhawk, baby) and battle weirdo mountain climbers from Montenegro while dangling from skyscrapers (Montenegro, of course) — oh, and they also routinely beat the crap out of Sabretooth and Constrictor long before Sabretooth was elevated to supervillainy’s A-List. Power Man and Iron Fist the film could be a cross between Die Hard and Enter the Dragon, with a gritty New York as backdrop and a climactic battle between Constrictor/Sabretooth and Luke/Danny.
[POWER MAN GIVES FREE HELICOPTER RIDES]
Casting is a problem. As stupid as it seems on first glance, I think Owen Wilson would make a pretty good Iron Fist. He could play a suitably loopy and fish-out-of-K’un Lun Danny Rand, and let a stunt double take care of the fight scenes. Power Man is even more difficult, due to the current dearth of black action heroes. Carl Weathers is too old and so’s Ving Rhames, Wesley Snipes is still in prison for tax evasion — who else is there? You need someone physically big enough to provide believable menace, but a good enough actor to provide some comedy. They also need to look good in a yellow silk shirt. We’ll come back to this.
Aisha Taylor is the ideal Misty Knight, Erica Vittina Phillips (the actress who played Jay’s girlfriend in 40 Year Old Virgin) would make a pretty good Harmony (Luke’s girlfriend), and get Alex Rocco to play Jeryn Hogarth, Heroes for Hire’s lawyer and third partner.
Alright, what about Keith Hamilton Cobb, the guy who played Tyr on Andromeda, for Luke Cage? It’s either him or Dwayne Johnson, but Johnson seems to want to do nothing but kids’ movies of late. Cobb looks more the part and would probably rock the shirt better, but Johnson is definitely funnier, as he proved on Saturday Night Live years ago. Cobb is fast approaching 50 according to IMDB, although he sure doesn’t look it. If Dwayne Johnson can’t be enticed into doing a straight-up action movie, Power Man’s going to have to be played by an unknown. Which wouldn’t be so bad — the world would get a much-needed new black action hero out of the film, and I’d get one of my dream comic book movies.
Scott Pilgrim Vs The World was quite possibly the best indie-comic-based movie I’ve ever seen. Sadly it didn’t rock the world in the box office which is not a precise measurement of the quality of any given film to begin with. I suppose no one expected older crowds to get it, and perhaps there aren’t as many hip 20-30 somethings out there to broaden the appeal. It was a face-meltingly good movie and a very faithful adaptation of the books.
I was rooting for Scott Pilgrim to do well since I’m a fan of the source material and it looked really damn good before I finally saw it. Here at the shop, we’ve had trailers for the film playing on a loop on a computer on a very visible display which we’ve done for both Watchmen and Kick-Ass before they came out in the theaters. I got tired of seeing/ hearing those trailers despite being excited about each film but the Scott Pilgrim trailer still has me stopping to take in all that eye candy.
I also have a bit of a gripe about 2 of the movies that were far ahead of SP in the box office, both of which prove that box office numbers are NOT a good indication of quality of film. At #1 was the Expendables, which I know has a cross-appeal, but I don’t care. It’s a big, dumb, predictable action movie with lots of explodey stuff and bad one liners. We saw everything this had to offer in the 1980’s. Next gripe: Eat Pray Love which is based on a novel I became all too familiar with during my Barnes & Noble days. This one’s a penultimate chick-flick which follows a spoiled suburban lady who travels to Italy and India to “find herself.” Barf.
A film that is as high quality as Scott Pilgrim deserves better treatment than it’s received in the box-office and by critics. Well, whatever, screw them. Like so many of my favorite movies, I have a feeling that Scott Pilgrim will go on to the “Cult classic” status which usually equals staying power. As for the Expendables and Eat Pray Love, well, I have a feeling you’ll see them both in the bargain bin in a few years.
Heavy Metal. What an incredibly awesome animated movie. I think the first time I saw this movie, I may have been 6 or 7. Totally not a movie for child at that age, but don’t blame my parents though. When you’re that age, your parents just can’t stay up as long as you can on the weekends, so late night HBO was my ticket towards seeing this movie, plus a little help from my older brother… But for those of you that are unfamiliar with Heavy Metal, let me give you a brief explanation of what Heavy Metal actually is.
Originally, there was a Sci-Fi magazine in France that went by the name of “Métal Hurlant” which translates to something like “Howling Metal”. Leonard Mogel, purchased the license to produce the magazine in the states and changed the name to “Heavy Metal” instead. it debuted in the States in 1977 and featured translations of the French stories, as well as eventually featuring works by American artists and writers as well. The mag also went through a few editors before it finally established what kind of magazine it was going to be over here. Currently, the mag is owned by Kevin Eastman (of TMNT fame) and is still published to this day. Remember this, because I’m gonna come back to it.
Now, the actual Heavy Metal film is very much like how the magazines are (anthology), with the exception that all the stories are tied together by a common item in the film, The Loc-Nar. The Loc-Nar is an orb of seemingly unimaginable power that drives civilizations to either great prosperity or complete destruction. Loc-Nar spends the majority of the movie telling a little girl stories about how he has caused great mischief in the Universe. We are then treated to what I feel is an all-star cast of voice acting as we bare witness to some of the more popular Heavy Metal stories come to life on the screen. From what I can gather, the most popular of the longer tales was that of “Den”, the story a kid who is whisked away to another world where he becomes a manly-man and his inner-voice is that of the great John Candy. As a child, I recall this part of the movie of having the most nudity in it. As an adult, I see it as a cool Conan/Kull kind of story set on another planet. A similar story follows a strong willed female warrior and her flying beast as they proceed to open up an infinite number of cans of whoop-ass all over these mutants that were created by the Loc-Nar. This particular story ties into the overall ending of the story, so I’ll remain mum on that subject.
There are a nice handful of other stories that are stored within this 3 year production of a movie. All of which are beautifully animated, with a few hiccups here and there… I challenge anyone to view this movie and tell me that there wasn’t something in it that they didn’t like. However, this movie isn’t without it’s problems. One of which, had to do with licensing issues over the monster soundtrack that was attached to the film. This caused the movie to not be release on home video until 15 years after it’s theatrical debut. Well… Officially released, anyway. There were plenty of bootlegs out there to be found. Another big problem was that it spawned an awful sequel; Heavy Metal 2000. This turd of a movie was based off a story that was written by current editor of the magazine, Kevin Eastman, and starred the likeness and voice of his wife (at the time…), B-Movie/Porn Actress Julie Strain. Just garbage. And it takes a lot for me to call a movie garbage, remember, I’m the guy who ranks Howard the Duck in his top 5 movies of all time. But Heavy Metal 2000 is one of those movies were it just goes to show that maybe we shouldn’t risk a franchise so that your spouse has something to do. And that doesn’t just go for Eastman, but also to Kevin Smith, Tim Burton, Ben Stiller, Paul WS Anderson, James Cameron… The list goes on. Even if you put out an awesome movie, please, be gentle with us, your wife isn’t always the best actress for the part, and yes, it counts against you if she becomes your wife after the movie is finished.
Anyway, Eastman was talking about there possibly being an additional Heavy Metal movie in the works, this time, it’d be more like the original movie and be an anthology. Although, it seems that it’s been having a rough time getting to actual results, but names have been tossed around for possible directors for sets, ranging from David Fincher to Zack Snyder to Gore Verbinski to Guillermo Del Toro to James Cameron. How much of that is legit, I don’t know. Sounds good to me though. So here’s to that. And that, my friends, is the end of this post. See ya next time.
For this month, I want to focus on this cool little movie from 1995 called, Judge Dredd. Maybe you’ve heard of it? The character of Judge Dredd can be traced back to 1977 in first appearance in issue number 2 of 2000 AD, a British comic anthology strip. His actual creation makes for an interesting story of deceit, backstabbing, cons, and whatnot… But that’s for another time… For now, I want to talk about the movie that starred Sylvester Stallone and Armand Assante. This was one of those movies where, at the time of it’s release, I lacked much appreciation. You see, I knew that Dredd was a comic book character and that he had a cool looking helmet, but that was about it. When I saw the movie in theaters, I was mostly just excited to see a new Stallone movie, plus I thought his gun was really cool. But is that enough reason for this to be one of my favorite adaptions? Surely not. But I’ll certainly give it a shot as to why it is.
You see, I love violent media. I love to see gunshots, explosions, high speed chases, one liners, and “battle damage” by the end of the movie. This movie had it all, and then some. It took all these great things then added other cool stuff like robots, clones, conspiracies, Rob Schneider (I think he’s funny), a narration from James Earl Jones, and the future… All these things put together makes for an awesome concoction. But I can’t help but to feel that even with all that, this film goes under appreciated. The movie kinda/sorta followed a few storylines from the comic… I suppose one could say the movie was an amalgam of a few early storylines, most prominent of which was the 2nd storyline that dealt with Judge Dredd’s criminal brother, Rico (as played by Armand Assante… That’s a fun name to say.). Anyway, the premise of the film begins with the idea that in the future (2139), everyone lives in a few Mega Cities across the world, seeing as most of the world is now a barren desert filled bandits and mutants. In the Mega Cities, there is a police force known as Judges, that have the authority to arrest, trial, and even execute on site. As it was, Judge Dredd happened to have a bit of a reputation as the worst Judge to come across if you were a criminal. Very by the book and very unforgiving, it was these things that made him the best of the best. And so the movie plays out like that until Rico breaks out of prison and goes on a killing spree while under the guise of being a Judge. Eventually, Dredd is framed for Rico’s crimes and is sent off to prison, leaving a few loyal Judges left to find out what is really going on, as well as stopping the crazed Rico from going through with his sinister plans. How is that not cool?
Well, some Dredd fans out there didn’t think it was cool at all, despite the filmmakers putting in a ton of effort to make the comic world appear as it did in the pages of 2000 AD. You see, even though the characters and the sets were correct and translated well for the most part, there were some gripes here and there about the finer points of the comic not making the translation. The biggest of which was that Dredd was always taking his helmet off. You see, in the comic, he rarely ever takes his helmet off, and when he does, his face is typically obscured. But it’s like, if he never took his helmet off in the movie, you’d never know it was Stallone under there… Well, unless you listened to the guy, but even then, one could argue that it would’ve just been a voice over. Another big thing was that the love interest for Dredd was another Judge, by the name of Hershey (played by Diane Lane). That was a no-no in the comics. Judges were forbidden have any sort of romance, be it with another Judge or anyone else. But hey, I understand the change. It’s hard to get a big budget ($85 million) movie made without the aspect of love in the film. But you know what? This was a very cool action movie. So what if it wasn’t accurate? In 1995, I needed to know who the law was, and this movie let me know who it was. It was Judge Dredd.
Now, I realize that I didn’t really go into the animatronics, effects work, set design, and whatnot… And that’s a shame on my part, because the film has a lot of great technical things about it. So, if you’ve never seen the movie before, use this as an opportunity to see the great work that a lot of people put into this movie. And please, don’t let the pronunciation of the word, “Law”, keep you from enjoying the movie. There was a lot of potential in this movie, some of which was actually met. Give it a chance, and then look forward to the new Judge Dredd film that is in the process of being made. Granted, its main writer absolutely hated the film I’m writing about, but at least he has the passion. I look forward to the movie he puts out, but even then, the movie that I wrote about this day, will always be one of my favorites. See ya next time!
One of my favorite bookstores in St. Louis. Star Clipper offers not only the best selection of comic books and graphic novels in the city, but also a cornucopia of art, design and pop-culture related books and magazines. 
