Pete Travis’ DREDD, coming at the tail-end of the summer, continues to be a big old question mark. We haven’t seen much from the film (most of the stills have simply displayed Karl Urban’s half-masked face), and the reports of turmoil behind the scenes don’t exactly build excitement. However, the very worst thing to happen to DREDD, from a PR standpoint, would be a lame, watered-down PG-13. The already-minimal buzz for the project would rapidly drop to nothing.
Those crazy kids over at the MPAA have indeed bequeathed the film with a rating, and it looks to be a solid R, for
strong bloody violence, language, drug use and some sexual content. Sounds about right for this reboot of the classic comic character, whose violent brand of justice necessitates that we see plenty of visceral carnage and bodily harm.
DREDD takes us to the wild streets of Mega City One, the lone oasis of quasi-civilization on Cursed Earth. Judge Dredd is the most feared of elite Street Judges, with the power to enforce the law, sentence offenders and execute them on the spot – if necessary. The endlessly inventive mind of writer Alex Garland and the frenetic vision of director Peter Travis bring DREDD to life as a futuristic neo-noir action film that returns the celebrated character to the dark, visceral incarnation from John Wagner and Carlos Ezquerra’s revered comic strip.
Starring Karl Urban, Olivia Thirlby and Lena Headey, DREDD opens on SEPTEMBER 21st.
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