Blu-ray Essentials- Dredd 3D (2012)

When it comes to buying horror movies on Blu-ray, we have one issue; we already own so many horror movies on DVD, that upgrading them all to Blu-ray would cost a small fortune. There are some titles that we have to own in the best format available however, and so we open to you our Blu-ray Archives which consist of what we consider to be Must Own Horror Blu-ray's.

Dredd 3D (2012)
Lionsgate Films
Price: $12.99+
Discs: 1 50 GB BR Disc
UV digital copy
Digital Copy download
Blu-ray 3D
Video: 1080p
MPEG-4 MVC (27.50 Mbps)
2:40:1 AR
Audio: DTS-HD Master Audio 7.1, Neo:X
English: Dolby Digital 2.0
Spanish: Dolby Digital 5.1
Subtitles: English, English SDH, Spanish
Region A (Locked)

Dredd 3D is a visually stunning, tight, bloody, action-packed flick that bombed at the Box Office, which is a fact that we're still in denial about. It was a great movie that deserved far more love than it got, period.
Karl Urban was the perfect Dredd, and Olivia Thirlby and Lena Headey were just as good in their roles. This movie played it straight, unlike the 1995 Stallone version, and was a better movie for it. It was nice to see that they stuck to canon and didn't have Dredd show his face this time out too.

As for the action... tons of people and things blew up, got shot up, got burnt up, got beat up... and it was all shamelessly and excessively violent. It was mindless fun that wasn't dumbed down like most actions flicks tend to be, and yet it didn't take itself too seriously.

BFG.

Dredd 3D hit #1 in its first week on DVD and BD, selling more than 650,000 copies, and was the top film download in its debut week as well, which is good news for we fans. It proves that the film's audience is there, and as word of the movie's quality spreads, I have to imagine that its audience will grow and possibly pave way for a sequel. Maybe. Hopefully.

This is honestly one of the best film experiences that we had in 2012, and I imagine we'll be re-watching this movie plenty in the months to come.

He'll pretty much shoot anything.

Dredd looks beautiful on BD, and the movie's slo-mo provided some of the best visuals bits of the movie; watching crazy acts of death and violence in super slow motion was a thing of beauty, especially when it all seemed so... colorful. This disc will make plenty of people "oooh" and "aaah."

I can't comment on the quality of the 3D for Dredd, because we've only watched it in 2D thus far, but I will say this; as amazing as it looks in 2D, it just has to look equally as amazing, if not more so, in 3D.

Drugs are bad, mmmkay?

The Lossless DTS mix on this disc is incredible, especially for those blessed with a 7.1 surround sound system. I used to geek-out whenever I bought a new DVD that was encoded with DTS, because with a good surround system, it made watching a movie more of an immersive experience. It goes without saying that it's an even better one on Blu-ray, and this movie especially delivers the hell out of the sonic goods.

The rape scene sounded amazing.

As poorly as this movie performed at the Box Office, I suppose we should be grateful that we got any special features at all,and and not just a bare-bones home video release. That being said, the special features included here while fun, just don't seem like enough. I wanted more of everything we get here, and would have liked to have seen some like deleted/extended scenes thrown in the mix too. Then again, I was hoping for a 2 hour extended cut of the movie, but that's just me being greedy. Still, it's fun stuff.

* Mega-City Masters: 35 Years of Judge Dredd featurette
* Day of Chaos: The Visual Effects of Dredd 3D featurette
* Dredd featurette
* Dredd's Gear featurette
* The 3rd Dimension featurette
* Welcome to Peachtrees featurette
* Dredd Motion Comic Prequel
* Theatrical Trailers

He really is the 'effing law.

 

Dredd 3D is one hell of an action flick, and it's now one of our favorite Blu-ray's in our collection. Aside from The Raid: Redemption, Dredd is the best action flick we saw in 2012, and oddly enough, the two movies are fairly similar in plot.

The marketing for this movie sucked, it should have never been released in the crappy-for-movies month of September, and Lionsgate should have played the 3D aspect of things down a bit. If I was skeptical about this movie sucking as bad as Stallone's original did, then general audiences were even more so. Dredd bombed at the Box Office, and it's a way better film than that. This is no John Carter or Battleship; Dredd 3D is an action lover's/Fanboy's dream.

Whatever the reason(s) for its BO failure, it all comes down to the fact that it was handled wrong. 

If you blind buy one DVD/BD this month, make it this one. If it sells well on the various home video platforms, which it is so far, we may be lucky enough to get a sequel somewhere down the line, and we'd love that. This great flick certainly deserves to have one.

Did you know that there were two pretty hot chicks in this movie? True story. The picture proof is right below...