Shameless Self Expression

Set in a post-apocalyptic USA, and principally Mega-City One, a place of barely contained anarchy. The Judges are all that stand in the way of total chaos, and Karl Urban stars as the titular Judge Dredd. He is partnered with Judge Anderson (Olivia Thirlby), a rookie with apparent psychic abilities. They are sent to a place called Peach Tree, a ginormous apartment block ruled by a drug lord named Ma-Ma (Lena Headey), who runs an extremely tight ship, and orders that every inhabitant of Peach Tree do their part in taking out the two judges. Anyone who aides them will be killed. Like something out of a classic western, the two Judges are considerably outmanned and outgunned, and reinforcements aren’t coming anytime soon. Wood Harris plays a murderer and Ma-Ma’s chief lieutenant, whom the Judges manage to apprehend early on and drag around with them, in order to bring him to justice, as it were. Which is precisely why Ma-Ma won’t let the Judges and Harris leave alive.   ...

Michael Douglas is a sleazy-looking, hog-riding cop with an IA investigation and financial concerns at home dogging him. He and his slightly more ingratiating partner (Andy Garcia) are witness to a brutal Japanese Yakuza slaying (admittedly unconvincingly staged in broad daylight), and after a pursuit, they manage to apprehend gangster Sato (Yusaku Matsuda). They are ordered to escort him on a flight back to Japan, which of course gets botched and Matsuda manages to flee. Douglas doesn’t want to go home since his job hasn’t been properly carried out, and thus the American duo form an uneasy alliance with their more by-the-book, reserved Japanese counterparts. Chief among these is humourless Ken Takakura, who is a real swell, fun guy. Kate Capshaw turns up as an American manager of a local nightclub, whom Douglas seems to fancy (Because he’s Michael Douglas and she doesn’t have a penis).   Released in 1989, this crime/action flick from director Ridley Scott ( “Alien” , “Bl...