Dredd 3D (18)
HHH
Dir: Pete Travis
With: Karl Urban, Olivia Thirlby, Lena Headey
Runtime: 95 minutes
GIVEN its grim world and stoic, unforgiving hero, Judge Dredd was always going to be a tough nut to crack cinematically. But this latest incarnation of the 2000AD comic surpasses expectations to deliver a fan-pleasing reboot. Scripted by Alex Garland and starring Karl Urban, this is a go-for-broke attempt that wisely stays faithful to the look and tone of the comics to banish the memory of 1995's abysmal Stallone vehicle. Set in a futuristic America where cops serve as judge, jury and executioner, it follows Dredd (Urban) and his rookie partner (Olivia Thirlby) as they find themselves trapped in a tower block ruled by a vicious crime-lord (Lena Headey's Ma-Ma) and forced to shoot their way out. Unflattering comparisons with The Raid aside, Dredd is ultra-violent, darkly comic and visually impressive.
Reviewed by Rob Carnevale
KARL URBAN INTERVIEW: PAGE 20
Tabu (15)
HHH
Dir: Miguel Gomes
With: Laura Soveral, Teresa Madruga
Runtime: 118 minutes
AFTER winding its way around the festival circuit and picking up several audience prizes, Miguel Gomes's strange but beguiling Portuguese drama (below) goes on limited release. You will need patience to follow the tale of Aurora (Laura Soveral) from present-day Lisbon back to a farm in Africa, but making the expedition easier to bear is Gomes's style, which mixes lush colour for the contemporary scenes and romantic black and white for the flashbacks. If that is not enough to keep you involved there is the deliciously sly sense of humour in the screenplay. A satisfying saunter on the weird side.
Glasgow Film Theatre, tomorrow-September 13
The Possession (15)
HH
Dir: Ole Bornedal
With: Jeffrey Dean Morgan, Natasha Calis
Runtime: 92 minutes
AT many a point in Ole Borendal's psychological potboiler the question arises that always does with such films: why, for the love of The Exorcist, do characters in stupendously creepy situations never turn a blinking light on? Pondering such things might just keep you sane as Bornedal's chiller goes from initially intriguing to out and out bonkers. Jeffrey Dean Morgan stars as the separated dad of two daughters. It's on a weekend with the kids that one of the girls picks up a mysterious box at a car boot sale. Before you can say "should have got the jigsaws instead" the box is causing all kinds of havoc. Some nicely creepy moments early on, but it all ends up as mad as a box of frogs.
To Kill a Mockingbird (PG)
HHHH
Dir: Robert Mulligan
With: Gregory Peck, Mary Badham
Runtime: 129 minutes
THE Harper Lee novel is given an appropriately classy screen retelling in the 1962 drama. Lawyer Atticus Finch (perfect casting in Gregory Peck), is a good man used to doing quiet battle against the toxic racial politics of the South. But in taking on the defence of a black man falsely accused of rape, Atticus puts himself and his family on a collision course with racism. Like Lee's novel, Robert Mulligan's picture is still as thrilling now as it was brave and principled then.
Glasgow Film Theatre, September 10-13
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