Dredd was the first pick for tonight. It's got Carl Urban as Judge Dredd. Carl's cool and you never see his uncovered face during the whole movie. Dredd is Judge, Jury and Executioner in his crappy universe. He's rides a motorcycle in the Megacity sprawl along the eastern seaboard of the USA. He's got a big ass hand gun with lots of different types of ammunition. There are plenty of people to shot and the Judges are behind in crime control. Dredd has a new trainee who turns out to have some psychic abilities. It's why she doesn't wear a helmet. Olivia Thrilby plays Judge Anderson, she's got some issues, but she's willing to give it her all. A call comes in and off they ride. There are three dead bodies in the center plaza of the Peach Trees megablock. Seventy-five thousand people live there. No one saw anything, other than the splatty splat splat. The 3 men have had the skin stripped off of their bodies while they were still alive and then they were pushed off an upper balcony of the towering hive. Someone gave them a shot of Slo-Mo, a drug that makes reality seem 100 times slower than it is, before they took their flight to splash plaza. They were being punished by the horrible lady in charge of the big drug ring that controls the 200 story tall megablock. Lena Headey is Ma-Ma, she's nasty and the skinned men were a reminder not to fuck with her.
The megablock is mostly a slum and she only controlls by fear. The Judges go in and they blast some drug dealers. They even capture the guy who skinned the dead men. The problem is getting out after Ma-Ma locks down the building and closes all the blast doors. Now they have to get out and keep their prisoner alive. It's tough going as Ma-Ma aims all her bad guys, and some big ass machine guns, at our Judges. The movie is pretty much one fight after another. There are plenty of great stunts and flashy action scenes. They blow up one thing after another. There's a huge body count and lots of innocent victims. Reminds me how much people suck sometimes. It was written by Alex Garland who wrote 28 Days Later. It a well made and good looking film, with $45 mill in production values, that was made in CapeTown South Africa. It was directed by Pete Travis who made a couple of other movies. I'd never heard of him before but there's to much stuff to keep up with and I hardly bother. It didn't make it's cost back in the theatre but it's scores well at the IMDb so it might do well on dvd. I'm not sure I would need one but I might NetFlix it sometime. My library even has copies. Entertaining to me but I like those sort of action films.
The Story Of Robin Hood And His Merrie Men is a 1952 Disney movie that we all thought we'd probably seen on The Wonderful World Of Disney in the 1960's. The dvd box mentions that this movie was shown on that tv show. Millions of families in the US and Canada watched that show every Sunday at 6pm. At least in my area. Might have been earlier or later on the coasts. None of us could remember any of the movie after we had watched it. That's the nice thing about the failing memory, movies are new soon after you watch them.
The movie was made in Buckinghamshire England by Disney to use up some money that was being held in British Banks from the war era. Disney couldn't take it out of the country so they set up a studio and made several films. The first completely live action Disney films were made there. The 1950 Treasure Island with Robert Newton was the first and the movie we are watching tonight was the second. Treasure Island is another entertaining film worth taking a look at. Arrrggghhh, Jim! That be true.
The movie has Richard Todd as Robin Hood and Joan Rice as Maid Marion. I don't remember Richard from much. He was in a couple of other Disney Brit made movies and The Dam Busters. That was an interesting film but we're not watching that. In our Robin Hood story King Richard is getting ready to go off to the Crusades and Prince John and the Sheriff of Nottingham are planning their take over. Peter Finch plays the Sheriff. The new King piles the taxes on the citizens and you know the story from there. The movie spends more time on the King Richard going off to the Crusades than I remember other movies doing. All the usual guys you expect are there. Friar Tuck, Little John, Alan-a-dale and Will Scarlet. James Robertson Justice plays Little John. You can see him in a lot of British film and tv. Same goes for Michael Horndern. I have seen him in a ton of other movies and tv.
The dvd didn't look that good. It's the 2009 dvd that, if what I read in a review is the truth, is the same transfer that was used in the 1992 laserdisc. Sad, huh. The movie was shot in the three strip Technicolor process. It would have looked nice if it had been remastered. It's kind of washed out and the image is a bit blurry. Still I'm glad to have seen it and glad to have a copy. Especially at 3 bucks.
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