Not Even Trying

Conditions: Pretty Good, Really. 

Getting In Early

Despite the fact that there are still about 10 days left before election day in the U.S race for the presidency, in several states people can already vote – due to an “early voting” initiative set up years ago.  The idea is that people with their busy lives and chores maybe won’t be able to find the time to vote on the actual day of the election, but they can get their vote in early, so it’s all out of the way.

MIAMI – Early voting opened on Saturday in Florida, the largest battleground state in the presidential election, with people waiting hours in some cases to cast ballots.

“I’ll wait six hours” if necessary, said Mia Waters, 45, of Miami, a retired U.S. Army soldier, as she stood outside a county government building in downtown Miami, waiting to vote. “I want to exercise my right, no matter how long it takes.”

Wait times at some Miami-Dade county polling locations reached five hours as of mid-afternoon Saturday, the county elections department said.

- http://blogs.wsj.com/

See, I’m not entirely sure how good an idea this early voting is.  The election cycle is not over yet, while there may only be 10 odd days to go, there’s still 10 odd days to go.  Things can change, developments can occur that may well have the effect of changing the race.  To make your vote already essentially casts you as stuffing your fingers in your ears and shutting your eyes tightly, unwilling to accept any further ideas in making your decision.  And that’s just ignorant.

Film Review: Dredd.

Hands up all those who remember the first Dredd movie starring Stallone back in the 90’s.  Yeah, that’s what I thought.  Stallone’s film presented Dredd as a tough no-nonsense cop of a dystopian future who is betrayed by the law and is forced to break all the rules to get the bad guy, who’s his brother.  It was a fairly straight forward futuristic action film with some cool ideas, and Rob Schnieder as the sidekick.  It wasn’t terrific, but it worked.  However it flopped, due essentially (some people believe) to Stallone breaking the one rule of Dredd: he never takes his helmet off.  Yes, apparently Stallone trying to tell a more involving and complicated story about this barely-known cartoon character was not wanted.  What was wanted was a straight-up Dredd action movie, ripped from the comic books.  Which, all these years later, is now what we’ve got.

Karl Urban keeps his helmet on all the way through this one, along with his teeth permently gritted.  His Dredd is a simple walking force of law.  Tough to the borders of comedy, stoic past all sense, grimmer than the reaper himself.  In no way is there any exploration or explanation into the character of Judge Dredd in this film.  And this refusal to even dip a toe into the waters of complication spreads out in ripples to the other characters, the plot, and the world it’s all set in.  This is as by the numbers as it is possible to be.  A movie so simple it barely qualifies as a movie, and I think would’ve worked better as a weekly television show, which at least would have given us the relief of ad breaks.  Seemingly the fans have got what they wanted: a simple, blood-soaked, violent and gritty portrayal of a day in the life of Judge Dredd and I have to say: meh.

Seriously, for all the violence, all the slow-motion, all the apparent despair of Mega City One, who gives a shit, really?  Strip away character arcs or idea exploration, or even basic dramatic conflict and you know what you end up with?  This violenty-empty siege of a film.  Dredd and a rookie (who’s psychic) get trapped in a giant apartment complex, where the resident drug dealer puts out a hit on the both of them.  Chaos ensues.  The end.  You know, there’s been a series of empty and flat remakes that have come along in recent months, and you have to start wondering at some point what really is the point of movies anymore?  They used to be about ideas and characters.  Worlds you could imagine yourself to be in.  This film is a tiny droplet of what happens when all of that drains away, faded out in the waterfalls of simplistic crap that can be easily manufacted and pumped out to the masses sucking down their big gulps in the back rows.  The way it’s supposed to work is with the element of risk.  Which meant some films would work, and some wouldn’t.  What we’re seeing here is the rise of the risk-averse blockbuster.  Films that refuse to invest in any actual idea or character, but do so with as much style and grit as possible.  Films that in the end are completely devoid of any value at all.

Oh, and the 3D sucked as well.  One double whammy out of five.

- Peace out