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I have very, very vague memories of Sylvester Stallone as the perpetually grimacing Judge Dredd (from the film adaptation that strayed from the source material and became a commercial and critical disappointment), and I haven’t read any of the 2000 AD titles where the character appears, but it doesn’t matter: Dredd is that rare kind of science fiction film that immerses the audience in a fleshed-out world without resorting to infodumps and endless exposition.

Judge Dredd (Karl Urban) is a member of a group of urban cops called “Judges”, who has the combined powers of a policeman,  judge, jury, and instant executioner. They maintain order in the American wasteland of Mega City One, which runs from Boston to Washington DC. During a routine day, Dredd rides out with a rookie named Anderson (Olivia Thirlby) to a 200-storey building now controlled by drug lord Ma-Ma (Lena Headey) after the Ma-Ma gang wins in a bloody turf war.

This is not an origin story. It is a routine day on the job of a policeman in a world so bleak and ruined that the Judges become a necessity. This is the world. This is the crime. These are the Judges. This is what they must do. It is a straightforward action film that only hints at the past lives and tragedies of Anderson and Ma-Ma. Of Judge Dredd’s past we will know nothing at all. We don’t know if his thirst for justice is propelled by a personal experience. In this film at least, he is more of a symbol than an actual character. Not once does he take off his helmet.

The script is by Alex Garland, one of my favorite screenwriters and novelists. I absolutely loved the look and atmosphere of the film.  I would watch Dredd again.

(Based on a true story. TV film by BBC and HBO – you might catch it on HBO one night.)

Alexander Masters (Benedict Cumberbatch) works for a charity group that helps homeless people. One day, their facility gets raided and the two charity workers in charge, later dubbed as the Cambridge Two, are arrested. Apparently, some of the homeless men they are helping have been selling drugs. Alexander helps set up a campaign to free the Cambridge Two, and in one meeting, he meets Stuart Shorter (Tom Hardy), who has brilliant ideas to help free the charity workers. “My name is Psycho, but you can call me Stuart,” he says, and he and Alexander become fast friends. Alexander tells Stuart that he wants to write a book about him, and though baffled by his interest, Stuart tells him to tell it backwards, to make it exciting, “like a Tom Clancy novel”.

In one scene, Stuart asks Alexander why he considers him – a criminal and a man with an unstable mind – as a friend. “Because you’re funny, intelligent, good company- what do you want, a fucking love letter?” Alexander says, but in the end that’s what Stuart gets. A love letter in the form of a biography, and later, this film, from a friend who has heard his darkest secrets but still loved him and wanted him understood and remembered.

Fine, fine performances from Benedict Cumberbatch and Tom Hardy. I can’t praise them enough.