Filmed in South Africa on what passes for a tight budget these days (especially for Sci-Fi), it could be compared to District 9 in terms of the sheer effort put into it, with a result that is similarly impressive although aesthetically miles apart. The film is written by long time fan Alex Garland (28 Days later, Sunshine), and has had plenty of input from Dredd's creator (and still main writer even now) John Wagner. This, people, is as thin as the blue line gets. It's quite the scumhole, and the only thing that stands between it and total chaos are the Judges, trained for years to be the ultimate in law enforcement, yet so outnumbered they can only handle 6% of the crimes committed. The time is the future, and amidst the wasteland that is America there is a single, massive city with 800 million inhabitants, appropriately called Mega City One. He is, as he is fond of stating, the law. The character of Judge Dredd, now entering his 35th year in UK comic 2000AD (they know it's 2012 - don't ask), isn't a complicated one. The basic aim of Dredd is simple – it needs to be bold, true to the source material and full of juicy violence, enough to wipe out the memories of the notoriously poor Stallone attempt of 1995 that threw plenty of money at the screen without bothering to work on anything resembling a decent script.

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