When I saw the trailer and posters for Dredd last year at about this time, I couldn't wait to see it, then all of a sudden it disappeared. I think it was in theaters for a total of 2 weeks. Total bullshit, as it wasn't "performing" as well as the studios had hoped. so I didn't get to watch the movie in theaters. Oh poor me. The trailers I saw showed it to be a centralized action piece with Dredd and Anderson in a huge shoot out. Perfect popcorn movie, even if it was like the Stallone crapfest Judge Dredd.
Now, I'm a fan of movies, but it has gotten to the point in the past few years where we have just accepted the shit that we're being force fed and it's getting old. It's been written and talked about for years and I don't need to repeat what everyone else is saying, save for the fact that the idea factory is bankrupt. With few exceptions. Dredd being one of them.
This movie is excellent. Everyone plays their part well and the action is fast paced and the story is good. It's not drawn out, it keeps you interested and doesn't throw out schlocky slapsticky comedy like the previous Dredd movie. This movie delivers on a large scale and it's pathetic that it didn't do better.
From the setup to the final pay off, this movie should have gotten more recognition than it received in theaters. Then it came out on DVD and performed as it should have. I'm hoping that the DVD sales results in a sequel.
I guess what I'm getting at is this -
The studio system is just pounding us with reboots and remakes and little in the way of original movies. We all know that "it's been done before" but stories are out there to be told. I don't need to see another Spiderman origin story or Batman or whatever else is available out there for reboots (there are tons of them, I'm too lazy to research them right now...) or remakes. I would like to see modern day updates to tons of movies - Bullit, The Detective (which is technically the first "Die Hard" story) Saturn 5 or even Arsenic and Old Lace. It would be cool to see takes on those types of movies. How about an update on Smokey and the Bandit? But who would play Big Enos and Little Enos?
With the way that everything is established, studios go for the easy pay off.and little risk. It's a problem with the system in and of itself - independent movies are locked out where they could find an audience, good movies aren't given enough life in the theaters to build an audience and bad movies continually make money (Scary Movie 4/5, Epic Movie anyone). I don't know if we're conditioned just to accept this stuff and laugh at the lame jokes or if we're so starved for something good we're willing to sit through the crap for the nuggets of gold. I think it's the latter.
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