Principal Cast Karl Urban -- Judge Dredd Rachel Wood -- Control Operator 1 Jason Cope -- Zwirner Emma Breschi -- Hostage Olivia Thirlby -- Anderson Rakie Ayola -- Chief Judge Lena Headey -- Ma-Ma Ratings Ratings are based on Rick's four star system. One star - the commercials are more entertaining than the viewing. Two stars - watch if you have nothing better to do. Three stars - good solid entertainment. Four stars - you never dreamed viewing could be this good.

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Americans have no idea who Judge Dredd is. They're staying away from this movie in droves. Which is just as well, since this Americanized version of Judge Dredd is a milksop compared to the version from the British weekly comic paper 2000 AD.

If you are looking for mindless violence, there is plenty of that, but none of the over-the-top ruthlessness that is the whole appeal of Judge Dredd. Why, this Dredd actually lets a couple of perps live just because they're underage. The real Dredd would have killed them even if they were still in knickers, and then killed their babysitter for aiding and abetting.

There are some nice slo-mo special effects involving in one case soapsuds and in another broken glass, but that is about the best the movie has to offer.

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Rick Norwood is a mathematician and writer whose small press publishing house, Manuscript Press, has published books by Hal Clement, R.A. Lafferty, and Hal Foster. He is also the editor of Comics Revue Monthly, which publishes such classic comic strips as Flash Gordon, Sky Masters, Modesty Blaise, Tarzan, Odd Bodkins, Casey Ruggles, The Phantom, Gasoline Alley, Krazy Kat, Alley Oop, Little Orphan Annie, Barnaby, Buz Sawyer, and Steve Canyon. Visit his web site at comicsrevue.com.