This maybe the entire collection of Dredd videos around, but I think most of you will really enjoy this information before you go out this weekend. Got Features on the gear used in Dredd, Slo mo filming, interviews with the cast and crew. Got the best trailers and clips I could find which will really get you hooked on Dredd. They also made a Prequel Motion comic which really helps to understand what happens in the film. So watch the videos down below and check out Dredd this weekend.
The Best of Dredd Features
This has a great selection of features on the film. The Gear one in particular is fascinating to anyone who is interested in how they made all of Dredd‘s stuff (No CGI) I really want the law master. Great look at how they used some really good camera tech, 4000 FPS Cameras which is amazingly fast. The Prequel Comic is the what happens to MA-MA before the events in the film and help to explain why she does what she does.
Dredd’s Gear
Dredd – From the People Who Made Him
Dredd 3D – How They Make Slo-Mo Scenes
Dredd 3D – Prequel Motion Comic
The Best Trailers
I really liked the first trailer that came out, and we had quite a bit of excitement over its release. The next trailer though is my favorite trailer around, got some great lines from Dredd and the music really works well, plus it is super action packed which demonstrates Dredd really well. And lets face it “Perps were uncooperative” is just really funny…
Dredd 3D Official Trailer #1
Dredd 3D Official Trailer #2
The Best Clips
I promise these are the last videos. We have the clip of Karl Urban saying the famous line “I am the Law” and does it rather well. Got that Red Band scene where people’s faces get shot up (Warning might be graphic). Lastly a scene which I think helps to understand Anderson, plus another deadpan line from Dredd.
Do you know this man? Have you ever been at the receiving end of his “burst into flames and launch at you” move?
Of course you do, we all do! That is none other than M. Bison from Street Fighter. He’s not looking so 8-bit these days though as he has gotten the star treatment in one of the newest posters released for Wreck-It Ralph.
For years I’ve decided to wait for Disney movies to come out on video to watch them. I don’t have kids and it feels a little weird sometimes being the only adult by themselves in a theater full of grade schoolers. Please note that this does not apply to the recent relaunch of Beauty and the Beast, as I was mowing down tiny little girls in princess outfits in order to get a good seat. I feel no shame over my actions.
Not so much with this movie. I will be standing in line with the 10 year-olds, just as excited as they. I have a feeling though, I will not be the only childless “old” person there. Not only do we have M. Bison, but there’s Q-Bert, and Mr. Eggman, and Bowser, and Sonic, and Coily, and Paperboy (!!!), and Dig-Dug, and OH MY GOD THIS IS GOING TO BE AWESOME!
Speaking of Sonic and others- they too have gotten a makeover and starring spot in new posters.
Lest they be outshined by all the old schoolers, the original cast of Wreck-It Ralph got their own poster.
Even though the internet has been quite atwitter with the revelation that there will be no Mario, I think we can all agree that this is an impressive list of characters from games throughout the ages. And who’s to say, that if a sequel is made (let’s not kid ourselves here- this movie has a very broad appeal so the chances of a sequel are high) Nintendo might change their minds and we’d see everyone’s favorite plumbers on the big screen in no time. If you can’t wait until then, check out this on Netflix.
In other news, do you remember this song?
Oh yes, get excited folks, because the geniuses that brought us Pac-Man Fever and my personal favorite Ode to a Centipede, Gary Garcia and Jerry Bruckner have lent their talents to the Wreck-It Ralph soundtrack. If pop songs about 80’s video games aren’t your things, don’t fret because AKB48, Skrillex, and Owl City have also contributed. Henry Jackman, who did Kick-Ass and X-Men: First Class, composed the score.
And if all this wasn’t enough- there’s a new trailer.
So it hit me one day, a lot of people like to drink to get through shitty movies. There are tons of films, practically made for drinking games. Your Evil Deads, your Dead Alives, your Kazaams, and the like. It’s very popular to get drunk, and watch these kinds of movies, and while I do enjoy that as a fond past time, I thought it more interesting, to try a different type of film. The idea was to watch a movie, very far removed from anything you’d normally play a drinking game to, or enjoy while drunk with friends. Movies like Titanic, Tuck Everlasting, Bridge To Terabithia, or Up. The point isn’t that these movies are bad, and alcohol is needed to get though them, (it helps), but that it’s a movie you haven’t seen before, or in a very long time.
In my case, I hadn’t seen Titanic since it came out, making it 15 years since my last viewing. I then proceeded to drink 13 shots of whiskey during it’s 3+ hour run time, and provided the review below. After sobering up a few hours later, I edited it down to something kinda-sorta watchable.
So when the time came for us to review the new Dredd 3D I was like sure, why not? I’ve heard things about the movie, the character and the actors. I’ve seen posters and trailers that showed some footage and a couple of pictures. All good stuff. So I made plans to go out and see it opening night with some friends. Yes, by friends I meant snacks. Anyways, imagine my surprise when I was in the video store, (yes, there are a few still alive) and I saw that they had somehow gotten an exclusive release of Dredd, on VHS no less! So I picked up some friends… sorry, snacks… and headed home to watch it. I gotta say, I don’t know what all the hype was about.
Yeah, the banner isn’t what RoboCop will look like, sorry. I actually rather like the banner one.
But we do know what Robocop will look like now and yeah, it’s pretty bad. The original film had a great deal of originality to its look, from the Robocop suit to the ED-209. Granted these needed to be updated for a remake of the film but I still think that what we have seen so far has been done before. ED-209 looks like a small Transformer and the RoboCop suit, well… I will go over what I think of the new suit and do some comparisons after you look at the images below for yourselves.
First off let’s have a quick look at the suit from a non-comparison stand point. The suit looks a little clunky in the second picture which should really be better in 21st century film robots. Then there is the fact that it doesn’t look like he is a cyborg. Granted there is just a man in a suit in filming but I was expecting a half man half machine look at least. The only evidence that might suggest this would be the right hand not being covered by the suit (really! Is that it?).
GI Joe Suits
Now is the comparison part. This suit looks like a combination of at least 5 different suits from film and games in the last 10 years. Why is this a problem? Well, apart from the complete lack of originality this proves it also makes the film start to blend into the fabric of those films rather than stand out as its own. Remember all of those comparisons made between the look of the alien ships in Battleship and the robot aliens of Transformers? People kept saying it’s a total rip off of Transformers, and that’s how it starts. People have seen it before which makes them think they are watching the same film over and over rather than a new film, and can seriously piss ’em off.
Here is a collection of the Grizzly Staff’s reactions to first seeing the new RoboCop suit:
Tim The Film Guy: “haha oh no that’s not right, thought I just saw Batman’s motor bike suit”
Dr. Kronner: “This looks turrible.”
Supascoot: “Motocross mixed with Tron and aspects of the Bat suit do not make a good Robocop.”
CTan: “Did they dig out the GI Joe suit?”
Brucewalken: “I actually laughed when I saw it. It’s hilarious. That film I reviewed, Robowar. The costume the cyborg has in that flick is better than the RoboCop costume! Maybe they have played too much Halo as it looks to me like a biker helmet stuck on a Halo costume painted black. Unimpressed.“
Cheesebadger: “I’m…. Just really gonna keep hope that it’ll work in the movie.”
So basically it’s a collection of all black armored suits in films and games. We’ll have to wait to see more before I, or any of the staff apparently, will be convinced that this is a good look for RoboCop.
After reading all of those Resident Evil: Retribution 3D articles I have written over thelastfewmonths, you should have a good idea of my stance on the movie. I was never a big fan of the franchise, but I would watch it for the lack of a better alternative when it comes to entertainment.
Yep, that’s what I did. Initially, I was pondering about the possibility of watching the movie in 2D. I elected against that option and opted for the 3D version instead. I felt it’s only right for me to review this movie the way it was intended to be watched despite of my general disdain towards the overused gimmick. Rest assured, I did not review the movie in filtered lenses. (You can call it a pun if you’re stretching those lenses all the way to include the Real D ™ glasses.) Just because a movie is in 3D does not mean it’s poorly made. But in the end of the day, I did shell out an extra $4.50 for you gals and guys. (Yes, I did say “gal” first. I’m defying against the patriarchal system. Sue me.)
It wasn’t as long of a stretch as I thought as the glasses are sort of tinted. Call it an intended pun. It’s still a bad one but whatever.
Anyways, here’s a brief summary of Retribution. Basically, Alice (Milla Jovovich), our protagonist, is captured by Umbrella. Now, the once pharmaceutical-company-turned-evil-corporation-which-exists-solely-to-perform-eeeeviiiiilllllllllll-deeds has the technology to clone people and run simulations of the zombie virus spread in a huge ass facility. Yea, it’s revealed pretty early on in the movie so it’s not really a spoiler. In a nutshell, the movie is about Alice getting out of the facility with some help from her pals, new and returning ones alike.
Plot-wise, the movie makes sense because the series no longer makes any sense. By that, I mean if you adopt the RE movies’ insane, illogical thinking, everything makes sense. Two wrongs do make a right. That does not mean the story is by any means good though – not even in a “so bad it’s good” manner. There are major inconsistencies here and there, and some things magically happen without explanation. There is one huge plot twist early on in the movie, but it is presented in a manner that doesn’t feel like a surprise. To be honest here, I have forgotten a good chunk of the movie, partially because of the countless action sequences, and the hotness of Milla Jovovich, Bing Bing Li and Sienna Guillory. Michelle Rodriguez is not bad herself.
[Insert your own sarcastic comment here. I don’t have any.]
When it comes to the characters, they all exist to make Alice look bad ass. None of them, literally, is likable. Ever felt Alice was one-dimensional? That’s not going to change. The story writers tried introducing elements that make her seem multi-layered, but they just failed to work out. It might be Jovovich’s acting; it might be the writing. Either case, I did not walk out of the cinema liking her more. New characters were insanely overhyped. Leon S. Kennedy (Johann Urb) and Barry Burton (Kevin Durand) are extremely far off their game counterparts character-wise. As for Ada Wong (Bingbing Li), she is a slightly more faithful re-imagining of the femme fatale, though not by any means a good one. Neither of their origins was elaborated upon, nor was there any form of character development. They are, in short, replaceable.
Boy was he terrible. Anderson actually made Leon hateable. I know “hateable” is not a legit word. Once again, sue my broke ass. I have noting to lose.
Returning characters generally feel unnecessary. Other than Jill Valentine (Sienna Guillory), they all exist to make Paul W.S. Anderson’s wet dream come true. Some of these returning characters were dead, but managed to spring back to life because of Umbrella’s cloning tech. Rain Ocampo (Michelle Rodriguez) and Carlos Olivera (Oded Fehr) showed up multiple times throughout the movie. Multiple clones of them exist and each duplicate contains a different personality. Yea, any traces of whom they were are nowhere to be found. The movie simply does not need them. Their return doesn’t add anything to the story or characters for that matter, and it doesn’t really make any statements. As for Jill Valentine, she is an antagonist in the movie, under direct control of Umbrella. I have already gone on and on about that ridiculous mind-control device strapped to her chest so I won’t talk about it again here. Anyways, she is one of the more “established” (and I’m using the word lightly) characters here, so at the very least, she adds something to the movie. She makes you sort of care. Well, not really. It was more of a “relatively speaking” statement there.
They don’t have personalities in the first place. Just replace them with generic evil soldier clones.
The visual aspect of Retribution is done well, and I am talking about both the 3D portion of the movie and the female cast. There are scenes which show off the gimmick for the sake of doing so (eg. Firing at the audience), but most of them feel right. Fight scenes are still corny, but you should have known what you’re signing up for at this point. There is a car chase, which is average. Gun fights could be better if the good guys brought the right weapons. Most importantly, as mentioned, the women in the movie are insanely hot. There is one scene which features Milla Jovovich covered by two pieces of cloth, with one on the front and another on the back, leaving the audience with quite a view. Does the costume make sense under those circumstances? No. Is more Milla Jovovich hotness awesome sauce? Yes. Am I complaining? Hell no. Bingbing Li looks good in that Chinese dress as well. Those heels are ridiculous, and I am nitpicking somewhat here, but she’s hot so whatever. (All that talk about defying against the patriarchal system? Wow, I’m a big time hypocrite. Perhaps we should start sexualizing the hell out of men as well.)
Hot damn.
With that said, Paul W.S. Anderson has yet to answer to my biggest complaint for the franchise. The movies have always felt too serious for me to like them. This is no different. It’s trying too hard to be art. It’s trying to be Christopher Nolan’s Batman trilogy when the original material doesn’t have enough substance for him to pull it off. The movie ends up feeling like a giant Milla Jovovich billboard. Not that there’s anything bad about focusing entirely on one character, it’s just that the movie has too large of a cast for an intimate experience to be possible.
Better luck next time.
Bottom line: If you have watched Resident Evil: Afterlife and actually liked it, Retribution is a souped up, more awesome version of that movie. If you are looking for a decent action flick which includes hot women kicking asses and requires no critical thinking whatsoever, this is also a movie for you. If you are looking for a decent story, avoid at all costs.
Requiem for a Tuesday, literally, has a better storyline than Resident Evil: Retribution. (See what I did there?)
6.3/10
4 of those points went to the ladies in the movie. The rest for 3D being done well enough. [Ed. Note – somehow this equals 3/5 Grizzly’s]
Grizzly Bomb 
