Dredd: Karl Urban's Wet Dream

After accepting a few warm reviews of Dredd, and needing to use a free coupon at Family Video, I rented it last night. I was immediately worried knowing that Karl Urban is the "star" since most pictures he's in go straight to video and suck donkey balls. The story is same old, same old in the respect that Judge Dredd is the ultimate bad-ass in a world totally destroyed and ravaged from nuclear war. 800 million people occupy a strip of land from Boston to Washington D.C. (Go Sawx). Dredd's job is to assess a new "recruit" who is slightly below the passing grade (which remains unexplained since she's like a female Terminator), but can read minds, which seems helpful in this line of work (Played by Olivia Thirlby, thanks IMDB). Wood Harris is in it (Avon Barksdale from The Wire is who he forever shall be), the wife of King Leonidus from 300 (Lena Headley) is the ruthless slum ganglord, that's about all you'll recognize. Dredd + rookie investigate three bodies thrown from the 25 floor of a giant building slum occupied by the "Mama's" gang. Dredd + rookie find the killer (Wood Harris) and try to escort him to interrogation, "Mama" (300 Lady) locks down the building and tries to kill them. It really is a pretty decent action movie that isn't completely ridiculous, which is refreshing. Urban plays a Terminator clone that's a person, which isn't a stretch at all. Thrilby is pretty decent too actually, and she's very good looking, so maybe that's something worth taking from this experience. They move through the building, killing people, escaping death, having a good time. Really, it's a pretty basic, no-frill action movie that moves along pretty decently and doesn't introduce a bunch of stupid bullshit. Bottom Line: 6.4 out of 10. It's really not shitty and puts a lot of dicks in the dirt. If you like action (A bunch of shooting) and nothing else, it's for you, if you don't IT IS MOST CERTAINLY NOT FOR YOU AND DO NOT WATCH IT UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCE. I imagine I'm missing something not seeing it in 3D, but it was pretty entertaining. Worth a free rental or whenever Showtime (I'm assuming) picks it up if you want 1.5 hours of violence.