Dredd (2012) Review - Action, Thrill, Explosive, Bloody

This year alot of good movies have been cropping up and  Dredd 3D (2012) in my opinion, is one of them. Although it can't reach the levels and standards of The Avengers and The Dark Knight Rises, it does pretty well considering the low expectation level surrounding it. Oh it's been a bumper year for comic book flicks. Avengers was fantastic, as was Batman and Dredd is slowly becoming a hit. To those who don't know, Dredd is actually based on a comic. Here's the Wiki excerpt.

Judge Joseph Dredd is a fictional character whose comic strip in the British science fiction anthology 2000 AD is the magazine's longest running, having been featured there since its second issue in 1977. Dredd is an American law enforcement officer in a violent city of the future where uniformed Judges combine the powers of police, judge, jury and executioner. Dredd and his fellow Judges are empowered to arrest, sentence, and even execute criminals on the spot. Judge Dredd is amongst the UK's best known home-grown comic characters. So great is the character's name recognition that his name is sometimes invoked over similar issues to those explored by the comic series, such as the police state, authoritarianism, and the rule of law.^[2]Judge Dredd was named the Seventh Greatest Comic Character by the British magazine Empire.^[3] In 2011, IGN ranked him 35th in the Top 100 Comic Book Heroes

There was a movie back in 1995 by the title of Judge Dredd in which Sylvester Stallone starred, and it was barely entertaining. And especially the ending was pure crap lol. It badly sucked. But this new remake is way wayy better in many ways and in every department. This time, it is efficient and entertaining as well as containing loads of memorable comic lines and one-liners.The basic aim of Dredd is simple – it needs to be bold, true to the source material and full of juicy violence, enough to wipe out the memories of the notoriously poor Stallone attempt of 1995 that threw plenty of money at the screen without bothering to work on anything resembling a decent script.

Karl Urban plays Dredd and well he was pretty good. He doesn't really need to act here though. He just had to show a tough, cold, bad-ass demeanor and he succeeds with flying colours. He perfectly portrays the character of an emotionless, robotic deadpan who cares for nothing but law and the safety of his city by slaying baddies left,right and center. Olivia Thirlby plays Dredd's new assistant rookie, Anderson and she gives a worthy performance too. Good thing she doesn't wear a mask like Dredd (you'll know why when you've hit the flick) as it shows her pretty face and generally her humanity value. Expect lots of movies coming up with Olivia in the lead soon. 

The premise is reasonably simple, something that works well as an introduction to what is, in the comics at least, a sprawling future world. Dredd is accompanied on patrol by rookie Judge Anderson, who is on the verge of failing her final assessment but is being given a second chance because of her powerful, and rare, psi abilities. A routine triple homicide (it's that sort of city) turns into a siege when they are trapped in a massive tower block by criminal nutjob Ma Ma (Lena Headey) and forced to fight their way out and stop her manufacturing the addictive new drug, Slo Mo. Obviously there's a bit more to it than that, but this is the basic set up and it works very well indeed, allowing for plenty of violence and lil bit of gore, some character development and no few explosions. The story is very well and aptly written and you'll be hard put to find any boring moments or any excuses for you to go take a piss or something. :P

Overall, this movie kicks ass and is like a cross between Robocop, Daredevil and Batman with a tad more violence and bloodshed. I heartily recommend it to teens and guys in particular with a love for violence and action sequences. I would say this film is a flat no-no for kids younger than 12, weak-hearted slobs or those who faint at the sight of blood. There's even a hint of a sequel so be sure to catch it soon. Quite simply a superior and a satisfying action film, and whilst it's no masterpiece (then again, it's not supposed to be) it's as good as fans could ever have hoped.  A callback to the great high concept action films of a bygone era, Dredd is, dare I say it, the one must watch comic book film of the year. Here's to the sequels…Cheers! I give it a 8/10 rating. Go watch it! :)

Judge Dredd.

Judge Anderson.

Ma Ma (Wow what a nasty piece of work)

Next up, Hotel Transylvania and Thaandavam. :D

The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly (Man Utd 2 Spurs 3)

This article is not mine and was taken from some corner of the world wide web (WWW). I was just too lazy to write one and this guy who wrote it literally took the words right out of my very mouth, so to speak.

So here you go ppl. Manchester United 2 Tottenham 3 Post-Match Analysis.

Its just one of those days when things don't go your way.

THE GOOD – United’s second half performance is by far the best of the season. They were incisive in their passing, had a purpose in the build up and more importantly harried the opposition whenever the possession was lost.  In the first half United looked as if they would rather be somewhere else than on the pitch. The second half was completely different and there was a sense of urgency in the play. The players wanted control of the ball unlike the first half where Spurs could play blindfolded and still end up on the winning side. One significant change from the first half was the emergence of Wayne Rooney. Ryan Giggs had a match to forget and was unsurprisingly substituted at the start of the second half. Rooney is one of those players whose energy rubs onto the whole team. With Rooney playing alongside Robin van Persie and Shinji Kagawa, United looked a completely different side from the first half.

If there was any doubts as to whether to egos of Rooney and Persie could fit in together, there will be none anymore after this match. The duo, yet to start a match together but from what everyone saw in this match that won’t be very far away. United needed inspiration from somewhere and Rooney provided it. Kagawa and Persie also reveled in the presence of Rooney and United looked a side transformed. Nani, who had a decent first half saw much more of the ball in the second and United needed that. He linked up well with Rooney in the opening minutes of the first half and scored United’s opener. He may be under pressure this season with all the contract negotiations and the loss of form but United need more performances like this from him.

The best part of the second half was the constant closing down of the Spurs players. Spurs ran havoc in the first half because they were given far too much time with the ball. Both the goals that they scored in the first half were down to ridiculous time on the ball rather than individual brilliance. They were not afforded that much time and the result was clear. They ran like headless chickens and were clearly out of their comfort zone.  The willingness to get the ball back after losing possession was one of the highlights of the second half. Scholes, even at the age of 37 runs the show at United. “If anyone says to you premier league is about pace, ask him to watch Paul Scholes.” This pretty much sums up the genius of Paul Scholes. He was brilliant last night and orchestrated the United play in a nonchalant manner. This may be his final season at United and everyone will miss the Ginger Ninja at his marauding best.

THE BAD – Despite United’s attacking onslaught in the second half, they were still vulnerable on the defensive side. Dempsey’s killer blow was a perfect example of that. Ferdinand, the senior most defender in the side got easily turned by Defoe in the build up to the goal. Missing Vidic, Jones and Smalling is big blow. Add to the fact that Ferdinand is showing sign of age catching up and the situation become far worse. The first half was nothing short of disaster in every sense of the word. The London club’s first goal was school boy defense written all over it. Nani let Vertonghen slip past it way too easily. On came Ferdinand to the scene and he was reluctant to tackle or get anywhere close to the Spurs full back. This gave Vertonghen enough time and space in the box to fire a low shot which was deflected by Evans despairing tackle. There seems nothing wrong with the tackle Evans but he was way too slow in making the slide. Like his central partner Evans did not want to get anywhere close to the player which is a crime in itself.

United may have nearly salvaged a draw but that does not take attention away from the fact that United were poor. Evra, who has become a scapegoat in the recent past also, had a disappointing half. He was beaten by Lennon far too easily. Having a 38 year old with him did not really help. Evra and Giggs against the young and pacy partnership of Walker and Lennon looked wrong from every angle. If United are to be challenging for top honors domestically and Europe, the defending needs to improve. Constant injuries do not help but school boy mistakes are inexcusable. Giving a players like Gareth Bale acres and acres of space and time in absolutely criminal. Ferdinand, who is presumed to take the mantle from Vidic, is not looking

The continuous rotation of the goalkeepers is perplexing at best. Firstly it hardly gives either goalkeeper any sort of confidence as no matter how good either one of them performs, he won’t be playing the next match. Secondly, trust which is extremely important between a goalkeeper and his defenders is never going to be there if the same personnel are not deployed for a sustainable period of time. Lindergaard, by his own accords did not have the best of games. He could have done much better for the 2^nd and 3^rd goals. Bale’s shot did not beat Lindegaard dive, rather it went below his hands. For Dempsey’s goal, the Dane could have parried the ball away from goal rather than straight in the path of Dempsey.

THE UGLY – Everything about United in the first half was pub football. Not keeping hold of the goal, no real commitment, letting the opposition players run 40 yards unchallenged with the ball and so much more. There was no passion among the players. As Evra, captain on the night put it ” This is what happens when you only play for 45 minutes. The game is 90 minutes long and we deserved to lose…” The 2-0 score line suggests that Spurs were on another planet which is not the case. United just gave them bucket loads of time and space to which Spurs duly obliged. For both the goals the London club scored in the half, United players were nowhere to be seen. It was as if they scared to get close or put a tackle in. The team selection was hard to understand. Ryan Giggs, started as a winger and Kagawa played in the role behind the striker. Giggs doesn’t have the electric pace of yesteryears and that is why Ferguson usually deploys him in a more central role. Many times in the first half Evra looked for a pass on the left side and Giggs was nowhere to be seen. The reason being he had drifted into the middle of the park rather than being on the left flank. Due to this Evra had to either pass back or in a central area. Kagawa, who is at his most effective when playing in an advanced midfield role had to cover up for Giggs on the left flank.  This basically robbed United of his effectiveness in the box. He 75000 inside Old Trafford one of the direst United displays the fans have ever witnessed.  The United faithful never question the decisions of Sir Alex Ferguson but the team selection was a disaster waiting to happen.

Just a food for thought.

Howdy do friends, strangers, enemies, stalkers, aliens, and fellow living creatures in general? :D How are you all doing? How is life and all those things? :D
I am doing awesome here myself. :) A bit bored but great nevertheless. It's been a very hectic and 'jumping snakes' kind of a semester I'd had concluded weeks ago. Like I alluded in my previous posts, it was a semester I was always going to do very badly due to the EURO 2012 and the Olympics and turns out, I was right. Well it wasn't that bad actually but lets just say that I got out alive by the skin of my very teeth. Thank goodness for that :) It's an addiction, I have to cure, football and sports in general. Well maybe not haha. They're a part of my life and getting rid of them would certainly leave a gaping chasm and we don't want that, do we?

         

         Alright, recently I've read an article in the papers that made me really ponder about life. About who your true friends are. People who you can really count on or would even give your lives for. Do they exist or cease to exist today in a world where faith in humanity is rapidly decreasing everywhere? In human nature, it's not unusual to see the nice ones attracting loads of friends and the emphatic ones attracting loads of people who feel comfortable in confiding in them. But unfortunately, sometimes the "wrong" people are attracted too, for example people who take advantage of others, people who are sycophants, people who need human crutches and finally people who wallow in self-pity. This is where wisdom comes in, where we do not let others misuse and abuse our niceness and innocence and hurt ourselves and our families in its wake.  

                       
        There is an often quoted proverb which states that you can please some of the people, some of the time, but you cannot please all of the people, all of the time. This probably originated about 2500 years ago where the famous Greek slave Aesop illustrated this gem in his fable, 

                         

                           The Miller, the Son and the Donkey.

The story is about a miller and his son who were driving their donkey to the market. First they met some girls who thought they were fools because they were not riding the donkey. So the father lifted his son onto the donkey and walked along by his side. 

Next they met an old man who accused the son of not respecting his father and letting him walk. So red-faced with shame, the son got down and his father got onto the donkey's back.

Then they met a group of young men who thought both the father and son should ride the donkey.

So the father lifted his son up, and the two of them rode along.

Finally they were stopped by a townsman who accused them of animal cruelty and the miller and his son got off the donkey, tied his legs together, slung him on a pole, and carried him on their shoulders.

When other passers-by saw this spectacle, they laughed so loudly that the donkey was frightened, broke free from the cords, fell off the pole into a river and drowned.

          

                        

            The moral of the story is, " He who tries to please everybody pleases nobody and often is the most lonely person". Strange but true. It is an age-old maxim that our greatest strength is also our greatest weakness and we will fail if we do not expand. Most people will certainly know what I mean. If you are too nice, people take advantage of you and will just trample and walk all over you. They don't care how you feel. They don't give a shit. Some will claim that they're your friends and they miss you and instead will proceed to make fun of you in a bad way and laugh at you, not to mention humiliating you in the public, not giving a damn to your feelings. They won't be there when you need them. They'll ignore you at all times and will only be there to back stab you with a great big dagger and to make fun,mockery or an embarrassment of you. And they say bad things or negatives about you behind your back. Even though you didn't do anything to deserve it. You won't know what hit you but you'll know one thing for sure, About who you could put your complete trust on.

                        
            Sadly, I had to experience this and trust me, it is certainly not one you will cherish.  I'm a pretty sensitive guy so I get offended easily. God knows why I couldn't help it. I guess I was just brought up that way so yeah. And those experiences always put me into a pretty darn rotten mood which lasts for days. It's the main reason why I started hating people in general and reason why I became extremely paranoid when it comes to putting trust and faith into certain people I call friends or rather single-serving passengers. Some people and their shits sheesh! However, those memories you want to forget make you learn from your mistakes though. It tells you who your true friends are and who you should hang out with or avoid.  

                        
            True friends are hard to come by these days and should you get them, cherish them with all your heart. By true friends I mean those who stick with you through thick and thin, those who celebrate your ups and share your downs and are there for you when you are going through a rotten patch, patting your shoulders vowing to bring you up again. True friends don't listen bad rumours about you and judge you based on them.  True friends are certainly the ones who make you feel comfortable around them, make you feel happy and glad that you're living your life. True friends are also the ones who laugh with you, not laugh at you and will never make you feel humiliated or alienated in any way. They'll certainly never even dream of making fun of you in a disgusting or a bad way in public. They will be the ones to defend you or shield you from anything that might make you feel bad or sad. True friends never talk bad about you when you've turned your back and they certainly will put in good words for you, ignoring the negatives. And this one's my favourite- True friends are the ones who will insult you and call you with each and every offensive term there is and you respond back, smiling, with an even more offensive term. :) Hah it's true! And true friends are faithful, a trait which a dog defines if you ask me, and is a rarity in the cruel world today. I am truly glad I have a few of those around me and I'm extremely thankful for that. 

                        
           I sounded like a broken record back there didn't I? :P But in some people's cases, it needs drumming in. People have to learn the simple fact that they can't please all the people all the time and put their unwavering trust in everyone. They have to learn to judge who their true friends are. People are not stupid. When they see an opportunity opening up, they're not gonna miss it. They'll take advantage and, thus wreck havoc. And some may never recover from the effect. Well that's all I'm gonna say. Sorry for sounding too sombre or dull this time round. It's just something I needed to emphasize because everywhere I see, people are falling apart because of misplaced trust and betrayal. I'll be back again, so do stick around :) Again wise up people. Do the right thing and stand up for your principles and people who are most important in your life. Let the fakers go. Find strength in yourselves. Friends come and go but life goes on. Again, do the right thing. You be the judge. :)

Stay safe and do spend time with your loved ones. Remember, tomorrow may never come. Be thankful to the Almighty that you're still living in one piece, without any diseases or sickness. God Bless. :)

                                      

                                            

You seriously gotta feel for Liverpool haha!

Hallo mates! Ill be here for just a short while to underline a few things. Well to start off, Manchester United has won at Anfield after quite some time :DD And I just had to miss the match to go listen to a certain speech. -________- Guess who made me? lol but the result was what I had exactly wanted. Maybe we didn't play as well as we could have or deserve it but we needed the result. Besides, some Reds were shooting off their mouths lately and I thought they needed a nice, big cup of STFU for the time being. And I thought our dear neighbours were the noisy ones. Still noisy even now, the reds. Ah the referees...the FA...the weather...Sir Alex...the pitch...the wind...Santa Claus...aliens... Excuses, excuses tsk tsk. Liverpool dominated for 45 minutes yet they produced nothing. Cue 1000 comments whining about the ref. Cut the guy some slack for goodness sake. Everybody makes mistakes and when a ref does it during a Manchester United match, suddenly he's a new player for them.  And Halsey not fit to referee? He beat cancer to do it. Period! But I have to agree after seeing the highlights. Even as a United fan, that was daylight robbery. The three points we don't deserve.

In every single game that I’ve watched United, they’ve been dreadful. Except maybe that second half last week against Wigan I guess. Yet here they are with four wins out of five. How do they do it? It’s truly baffling. Must be psychological. Other teams must already be half-beaten when they face them.


Or, to quote Sun Tzu (and reach new heights/depths of pretentiousness) “Every battle is won or lost before it’s fought”

But still SAF, please buy a midfielder or two. We just sucked today. Imagine Sterling outperforming everyone from our team despite being only 17. Thats just sad.

And it was nice to see the booing of Evra still continue. Who was the racist again?
Also Liverpool demanded respect from Manchester United all week and got it today and then what 
happens,Liverpool fans start making aeroplane gestures.Yet again Liverpool let themselves down. So all in all, they kinda deserved what they got.

By the way Scholes was immense again when I saw the highlights. I truly am dreading the day he finally retires. We're gonna lose a hell of a player. And I'm not gonna talk about old Fergie retiring yet lol. Overall it was a poor performance but a great result. That's justice for ya. I heard some funny things though. Things like 17 years old kid Raheem Sterling having more kids than Liverpool has points so far this season and Arsenal, Manchester United winning more games at Anfield than Liverpool themselves haha. But really, cut the club some slack. They have a new manager and only two strikers. And zero luck so far. They just need time to get things moving. Hope Brendan is not sacked or something like that. They just need to take a leap of faith or die filled with regrets. Took that from Inception haha. Great movie. And speaking about movies, I just watched one two days before that completely blew me away. Fight Club. Man oh man! I'll just have to talk about it sometime else. :) Got one big match going on now. City vs Arsenal. It was half time that's why I came here. Well spent 15 minutes eh?? :))

Gotta go. Thanks Rafael and Van Persie and uh well thanks ref lol for making my day. :D Here's to more happy weekends. Cheers! 

Updatess!

Hiyaa fellow humans! Been awhile eh? I'm on break again so its back to what I do best, ranting away! :D Alright there were a lot things I've been wanting to share. How I've been getting on, some movie reviews, football and mainly the current hot topic in Malaysia- Malaysian Government being complete morons and showing how far their heads are up their asses by endorsing a guide on how to spot and stop homosexuality. Alright the latter up first. Here ya go-

Dafuq? Just dafuq!

I couldn't believe my eyes when I saw this. How can he judge a person by the way they dress? I swear the fashion police will get a heart attack when they read this. Bloody hell. The things some would do just to get votes from people, who zombies would love to avoid, if you know what I mean. And I swear things only gets worse from there. It's easy to see this as funny because of that guy's goofy smile and how outlandishly played out the cliches are, but the whole "how to spot and stop homosexuality" thing just emits pure evil. So what are you supposed to do to stop it? It's just institutionalized discrimination. How fcking embarrassing. And I just I wonder how many of these guys have met Neil Patrick Harris. That would be a huge-ass *on your face* whack on these shameless people. 

Honestly, that first tip on how to spot a lesbian ("attracted to women") is just hilarious. It's like "How to spot a pig: 1. It is made of pork." And this one is another phrase of genius from our man of the moment ;

Symptoms of gay: 

Attracted to men.

                                                              YOU DON'T SAY!?
If being muscular is "gay," who'd have thought that being a fat slob would turn into the heterosexual ideal? Seriously, the more I read this the more brain cells I lose. 

Geez sometimes I just wonder. Does stupidity have a limit at all? 

Oh boy please get him Chuck Norris.

There is a reason why these people were elected as the officials for the ministry of education. And instead of doing what they are paid and instructed to do, they do this. I mean whats the point? Those people who are found out to be bisexual aren't gonna do any harm, are they? And now because of all these shenanigans we are thrown into the spotlight for absolutely the wrong reasons.


That is all. My verdict :

Or at least in Malaysia.

Current song addiction.

I recently watched the Real Steel and got immediately hooked to one of its soundtracks. Here's A Little Something For Ya by Beastie Boys. Here it is.

Also recently Adam Yauch, MCA of the hip-hop band passed away. I'm a new fan so I don't know much but ask anybody who grew up in the 80s and 90s when hip-hop was on the verge of becoming an international phenomenon and they will tell you they grew up listening to the Boys and MCA's relatable rhymes. Since then, The Beastie Boys continued to have a lasting influence on the hip-hop and rap genre. RIP Adam. Here's a little something for ya. 

Adam Yauch, aka MCA of the Beastie Boys behind the mic

Busy busy busy!

The last post wasn't actually mine, I swiped it from the internetz with a few additions of my own. Why? Barely created over a month ago, my blog's verging on extinction, that's why! Haha but I'm not to be blamed. The break's over and I'm back in my college again. That more than explains it right? I switched rooms near my campus and there was more work there, moving stuff and all. But I promise I'll write something out-of-the-box fresh or interesting soon instead of recycling old school material. My semester's not too tight this time so I guess I'll be back here sooner rather than later.

I've been wanting to talk about the American Idol since the start but guess I've forgotten about it lol -__-
So here goes..

To those who live under the rocks or those who simply don't give a damn, another white guy who knows how to play guitar bagged the title away this time and he goes by the name of Philip Philips, the so-called clone of Dave Matthews.

White guy with a guitar. That's all you need to win American Idol.

That's five years in row now. Getting to be a drag eh? But when you've got the looks and the charm and a huge-ass female fan base, there's absolutely no chance of you going down, even if you dish out the worst performance of your lifetime. Statistics prove it. Philips never ended on the bottom three or two during his run and pretty much there will ALWAYS be a contestant with the same pattern every season. Personally, I was rooting for Joshua Ledet (his rendition of James Brown's It's a Man's Man's Man's World during the top four was absolutely amazing and I personally liked his version of Queen's Crazy Little Thing Called Love. Also he's a proven star-performer, much like James Brown and Chuck Berry and all them legendary old-timers) and the tide seemed to be on young Jessica Sanchez's side but it was Philips who ended up winning it. He deserved it though as peer pressure got Sanchez in the final round and he conveniently gave his best performance for the season. (You'll know why once you've watched the Finale).
I'm too lazy to post the details but you can help yourselves by heading on to Youtube or the American Idol official page. Also I read the newspaper the other day and it seems JLo will not be reprising her role as one of the judges and that Cheryl Cole is being lined up to replace her. A doll replacing another hot-but-not-so-young-doll eh?  I like it :D She was on the X-Factor panel a while ago and god knows why Simon Cowell kicked her out. Well his loss, is American Idol's gain. Pretty ironic when it was because of Cowell leaving that made American Idol lose loads of viewers years ago! o_O

Wowiee, if Cheryl's gonna be at the Idol next season,
I'm so not gonna miss it for anything!

But apart from JLo this season, American Idol was booooooring even though the top 6 singers were the best in years! The ooomph factor was missing there. Those who watch American Idol consistently will know what I'm getting at.

Now the other American reality singing talent show, The Voice seems a refreshing new change. I think I'll give it a shot when the following season kickstarts. It has got some of my favorite singers, Christina Aguilera and Adam Levine. :D

For now, it's back to sitcoms again! I recently added Friends and That 70's Show to my collection, so its gonna be a looong but fun ride this semester. :D Plus there's Euro 2012 and the Olympics so that can only mean two things- Lots of class bunking and marks going down like a ton of bricks. :x
Tchhh how infuriating. If only I had more time. :/
Oh well, I guess it's worth it. They only come four years once y'knoww! Right???

Alright time to hit the sack. I'll cook up something soon. :)

Goodnight and big balls! :D