Dredd (2012) – The comic book character “Judge Dredd” was created as a British exaggeration of the already hyperbolic American “Dirty Harry” cop who has to become as violent and ruthless as the criminals he hunts. As such, it’s over-the-top, tongue-in-cheek, and knowingly campy. When the Powers That Be produced the 1995 movie Judge Dredd starring Sylvester Stallone, they pretty much forgot the first two (it kind of had to end up campy, because Stallone). The 2012 feature Dredd hits much closer to the original — the camp is still there, if toned down, and the over-the-topness is present in the HOLY COW SO MUCH VIOLENCE that approaches the levels of Peter Jackson’s Dead Alive.
On top of that, it doesn’t try to be a story with world-shattering consequences. Two cops go into a 200-story slum building and try to make it out again. It’s a story small enough that it could be (gasp!) a storyline in the comics, not an “event.”
And unlike Stallone, Karl Urban as Judge Dredd knows to never take the helmet off.
Gamera: The Giant Monster (aka Daikaiju Gamera) (1965) – The original Gamera movie isn’t nearly as kid-focused as the later installments are, although the signs are there: in between scenes of Godzilla-esque urban destruction, we spend half our running time with a little kid who thinks that his pet turtle transformed into Gamera. By the end, Gamera has made as much transition from monster to hero as Godzilla did over the course of his first five films.
The black and white shooting hides the constrained budget (hey, it worked on Godzilla’s first outing, too).
Ghost Town (2008) – You can hear the pitch: “It’s The Sixth Sense, but with Ricky Gervais instead of Bruce Willis!” Further support for the thesis that any movie concept can be turned into a comedy by prepending “Wackiness ensues when…”
Want to know how much the world has changed in just thirteen years? Think about the (hilarious) scene where Ricky’s character says, “Everybody’s equal. Color, creed or circumstance, we’re all the same on this planet. Except the Chinese.” And then he keeps going on them being “the odd ones out,” citing their names and stuff…” Can you imagine anyone DARING to include that scene in a movie in 2021? I’m surprised that someone hasn’t organized a campaign to get it pulled from Amazon Prime. “LITERALLY SHAKING!!1!”
Abandoned movies:
Warning From Space (1956) – Even the novelty of seeing the aliens at the start — GIANT STARFISH WITH EYES IN THE CENTER — wasn’t enough to keep me watching through dumb “character” scenes while the aliens are doing nothing but stretching out the plot.