Movie Throwdown! - The Raid: Redemption vs. Dredd Part 2

Well, here is the rest of my match-up between The Raid: Redemption and Dredd.

SETTING

Next up is a small one: the setting. The Raid takes in present-day Jakarta. We’re pretty much stuck in a 15-story building. We don’t see much of the outside world other than a couple of stuff at the beginning. After Rama’s intro, we’re thrown right into the mission. We also find out that Jakarta has a pretty bad problem with corruption. As for Dredd, it takes place in a post-apocalyptic United States. It’s a wasteland (insert random Trump joke here) and all that’s left is Mega-City One on the Eastern Coast. Since it’s crap, the Judges are there to do what they can. We also got mutants and sometimes they don’t come out pretty like Judge Anderson.

The setting that appealed to me the most was Dredd’s. Even though we don’t get much, a lot of the city is detailed through dialogue. The city itself looks interesting since you got all of these large towers standing everywhere. Even Peach Trees had some interesting stuff in it. The Raid doesn’t get this since the mission is pretty much the thing in the movie. So, this point is going to Dredd.

The Raid – 1

Dredd – 2

Movie Throwdown! - The Raid: Redemption vs. Dredd Part 1

Today’s two post are about something I’ve had my mind on for a while now. In 2011, The Raid: Redemption was released. It’s about an Indonesian SWAT team that’s trapped in a building run by a dangerous gangster. Butts are kicked, shots are fired aplenty, and a lotta folk die. In 2012, Dredd, based off of 2000AD's Judge Dredd, was released in theatres. The movie is about how two law officers (Judges) get trapped in a district (Mega-Block) ran by a dangerous gangster. Shots are fired aplenty and a lotta folk die.

If these two movies sound familiar, then you’re not the only one who thinks that. It’s kind of unclear if the creators got ideas from each other or if it’s just a coincidence. It’s not like the plots for these movies are original, so it doesn’t really matter in the end. Just know that they are both good films in their respective rights. They’re up there with some of the best in their genres. Still, which one is better? I know there are some folk out there that have done this, but I think it’s time to add my voice to “The Raid vs. Dredd” debate.

Before I get to the match-ups, here is a general overview of both movies:

• The Raid: Redemption – The Raid takes place in Jakarta, Indonesia. It follows a Special Forces unit as they are tasked with conducting a raid on an apartment block. Their goal is to take out Tama, the head gangster over the block. Of course, things go bad when Tama finds out they’re coming and unleashes the whole block which is full of a lot of criminals. Rama, a rookie cop, and the rest of the team do their best to survive in the block and meet their objective. Rama also has a personal reason for being there since his brother is in Tama’s gang.
• Dredd – Dredd takes place in a dystopic, futuristic metropolis called Mega City-One. The Judges are the law of the town and enact swift justice on criminals. We end up following Judge Dredd (Karl Urban) and a rookie named Cassandra Anderson (Olivia Thirbly). They’re tasked to find out about a new drug that’s hit the street. When they make it to Peach Trees, a 30-story tower, they run into trouble. Gangster Madeline Mardgril, aka Ma-Ma (Lena Headey), finds out about them, locks down the tower, and sends the lowlifes after them. Dredd and Anderson must use their weapons and abilities (Anderson’s a mutant) in order to survive and enact justice on Ma-Ma.

Favorites - 15 Favorite Reboots/Rehashes/Reimaginings...You get the point.

Remakes, reboots, and re-imaginings… where do I begin? If you think I’m anti-remake, you’re somewhat right. Remakes of movies and TV rarely ever go so well. Don’t worry, I’m not that guy on the side of the street that’s yelling about Hollywood losing its way and being unoriginal. Remakes and re-tellings have been around at least since the 1930s. Did you know that Hollywood (Paramount and MGM) released two versions of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde a decade apart? That’s not counting the other versions of that story Hollywood did in those days.

Don’t get me wrong. I do think Hollywood is a little too remake crazy these days. The problem that plagues a lot of them is that they aren’t really good. They don’t have what the original had, they go completely off base in a bad way, or they follow the original too much. Anyone remember The Omen from 2007? It wasn’t bad but I felt I should have just stuck with the original. If you thought movie reboots were bad, look at TV reboots… Man, there are rarely any good ones. I was going to do separate posts on this, but I might as well mix them together. Here are my 15 favorite rehashes from movies and television. I was going to go with 20, but I’m not that forgiving.

15. The Mummy (1999)

The Mummy was a reboot of the 1932 movie starring Boris Karloff. It sticks to the original pretty well. It’s just full of more action and funny moments. This is one of the Universal remakes that succeeded in actually being decent and even fun. I liked the characters, the villain, and the good special effects. What happened after the first movie with the third movie and the countless Scorpion King spinoffs is another thing entirely.

14. The Karate Kid (2010)

That’s right, folks. This movie is on the list. While it might seem like sacrilege to reboot the 1984 movie, that didn’t stop Hollywood. Luckily, it’s actually a pretty good one in my opinion. While the title actually needed to be something else (there’s no karate!) and it sticks to the movie a bit too much, it’s fine. I thought Jaden Smith (I know, I know) was fine in the lead role. The surprise of the movie was Jackie Chan as the mentor. The fight scenes were pretty good too. Even if you don’t like reboots, you do have to admit one thing: it’s much better than The Next Karate Kid.

13. Star Trek (2009)

I see you looking at me, Trekkies and Trekkers. I thought the Trek reboot was pretty good. While the story wasn’t the best, the cast made it work. Trying to recast the original crew sounds ludicrous but it works here. Bringing back Leonard Nimoy if only for a little bit was nice fan service even if how we got there didn’t make sense. I even thought Star Trek Into Darkness was a fine sequel when it wasn’t constantly reminding me of a better movie. Hopefully, the next movie can bring us good, NEW things. 

12. Dredd (2012)

Dredd is the reboot to the 1995 movie, Judge Dredd. While the 1995 movie might have some entertainment value, a lot of folk say that it wasn't good. I’m not a fan of the character, but I saw Dredd and thought it was pretty good for the most part.  I will say that The Raid: Redemption might be better, but that's a post for another time. I liked the dark atmosphere of the whole thing. Karl Urban was awesome as the Judge and Lena Headley was a nice villain. It brought enough stuff to the table to make me wish that a sequel gets made.

11. Godzilla (2014)

Just to reiterate, this is the 2014 version, not GINO (Godzilla In Name Only) from 1998. We finally got an American version of Godzilla and it was good. I thought the story, actors, and effects were pretty good. Gareth Edwards and the creative team did their best to stick to what made Godzilla work for 50 years. Even though the G-Man shows up for about 15 minutes, it’s still a good one. It may not the best Godzilla movie ever, but it did kick the 1998 version to the curb really fast.

Movie Talk - The Raid: Redemption and The Raid 2: Berandal

He may look short, but Mad Dog will tear you up and spit you out.

Today, I’ll be talking about a couple of martial arts movies that have been critically acclaimed.  They don’t come from China but from the land of Indonesia. In 2012, The Raid: Redemption was released. It was an Indonesian film directed by Gareth Evans. To say this movie did fine is an understatement. The movie was met with positive reviews when it was released. It did so well it even spawned a sequel which was released last year. Even Hollywood wants to remake the film using American actors, so that should tell you that the movie might be good.

I heard about how the first movie was really similar to 2012’s Dredd, so I rented it. By the way, their plots are similar, but the movies are different enough. I’m guessing it was a coincidence since they were released in the same year. I will say that I was interested in how a sequel would pan out. When The Raid 2: Berandal was released in theatres last year, I tried to see it. Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to and just decided to rent it. I remember enough about them to give an opinion. I even watched them undubbed which is something I’ve been doing with most foreign movies. With that said, let’s hit it.