JUDGE DREDD is fine, of its type, but wasn't as much fun as say....DEMOLITION MAN. Stallone has his place in the universe. Actually, I'm all for big loud dopey popcorn movies. They satisfy a certain need, and I say DIE HARD is at least a top twenty for me, because it delivers every last thing it promises with NO SHAME. The truly comical thing about DREDD is watching gravely serious people like Jürgen give it more WEIGHT than it deserves -- I think Von Sydow has just the right balance between "yeah I'm phonin' this one in for another cool mill." and "we have to give the good people what they came for -- it's our job." It always looks to me like Jürgen is really looking at him with respect on a personal level in their scenes -- all crappy Dredd-story lines aside. It's kind of sweet. (Yes, I'm reading into it. That's what happens when the movie starts to get boring.)
Such fun to argue about! Of course you can't call it a "good" movie and keep your self-respect, but when I hear people go off on this one I just think, "Geez, don't you get it?" The movie is entirely tongue-in-cheek: based on a comic book, a fact which they put right up in your face during the opening credits. Jürgen may have given the character more weight than he deserved, but I think not more than was called for under the circumstances. I've never seen the comic but can visualize this movie in comic-book form - Jürgen's character would be rather looming and shadowy and over-villanous, with ground-zero sense of humor. Jürgen managed to make the guy into a human being, or darn near - a miracle, considering what he had to work with. (That would be basically nothing.) But I believe it would have been inappropriate NOT to throw in a fair dose of caricature. (Compare his villain to Stallone's hero. Yikes! Jürgen's performance suddenly looks EVEN BETTER now, doesn't it?) Von Sydow had it easier, being a good guy who never has to do anything really silly in this film.
And yes - marvellous, marvellous chemistry between those two actors, as in DUNE... just not enough of it. A "buddy" movie starring those two would be a serious treat.
I won't say I can't understand why anybody wouldn't consider JUDGE DREDD to be good popcorn, but I kinda feel sorry for anyone who just thinks it's no fun. They missed out. Certainly DEMOLITION MAN is much better in this genre... but I think folks who can't sit through JD and have a pretty good time just haven't seen as many rotten futuristic sci-fi fantasy films as I have. It looks cool; all the actors were good; the funny parts - and there are plenty of those - made me laugh; and I didn't get bored at any point (very rare for me).
Good popcorn.