Box office The film was considered a
box-office disappointment. It grossed $34.7 million in North American domestic box office receipts. It did better internationally, with $78.8 million internationally, reaching a total of $113.5 million worldwide against a production budget of $85-90 million.
Critical response On
Rotten Tomatoes the film has an approval rating of 22% based on reviews from 55 critics, with an average rating of 4.00/10; the site's critical consensus is "
Judge Dredd wants to be both a legitimate violent action flick and a parody of one but director Danny Cannon fails to find the necessary balance to make it work." Audiences polled by
CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "B" on an A+ to F scale.
Gene Siskel named Judge Dredd one of the worst motion pictures of 1995 as part of his 'Worst of 1995' review on
Siskel and Ebert.
Roger Ebert, in his review for the
Chicago Sun-Times, gave the film 2 out of 4 and wrote: "Stallone survives it, but his supporting cast, also including an uninvolved Joan Chen and a tremendously intense Jürgen Prochnow, isn't well used." Todd McCarthy of
Variety called it "A thunderous, unoriginal futuristic hardware show for teenage boys."
Owen Gleiberman of
Entertainment Weekly gave it a grade of C+ and wrote: "The movie, by the end, practically seems intent on destroying itself." Jonathan Rosenbaum of the
Chicago Reader gave a negative review: "Directed without inspiration by Danny Cannon from a stupid script by Michael De Luca, William Wisher, and Steven de Souza." Caryn James of
The New York Times wrote: "Although it is full of noise and fake firepower, Dredd simply lies there on the screen until the final scenes." Mick LaSalle of the
San Francisco Chronicle gave the film 1 out of 4, and wrote: "Usually engaging and sympathetic, Stallone is blank and tongue-tied here, an immovable slab in the midst of 95 minutes of gunfire, explosions and Gothic excess." Rita Kempley of
The Washington Post wrote: "Aside from the affable Schneider and the able Lane, the cast seems to be in deep shock. Um, make that Dredd lock." James Berardinelli of
ReelViews wrote: "Sometimes, it's rather amusing, but it's impossible to decide whether this is accidental or on purpose." In a 2017 retrospective review Richard Trenholm from
CNET wrote that the film "drew shrewdly on the comic's abundant history than the 2012 version" and "absolutely nailed the look of Mega City One". Trenholm noted that "sets, costumes and vehicles were fantastic", while "looming ABC warrior and grotesque Angel Gang" were "both triumphs of pre-
CGI physical effects". In 2020, on the 25th Anniversary of the film, Drew Dietsch of
Giant Freakin Robot praised the surface elements of the film "As a piece of pure production, [Judge Dredd] needs to be heralded as one of the best achievements of the '90s. Everything about the film's texture is a resounding success."
Other response In 2008 Stallone discussed his feelings about the film in an issue of
Uncut magazine: I loved that property when I read it, because it took a genre that I love, what you could term the 'action morality film' and made it a bit more sophisticated. It had political overtones. It showed how if we don't curb the way we run our judicial system, the police may end up running our lives. It dealt with archaic governments; it dealt with cloning and all kinds of things that could happen in the future. It was also bigger than any film I've done in its physical stature and the way it was designed. All the people were dwarfed by the system and the architecture; it shows how insignificant human beings could be in the future. There's a lot of action in the movie and some great acting, too. It just wasn't balls to the wall. But I do look back on
Judge Dredd as a real missed opportunity. It seemed that lots of fans had a problem with Dredd removing his helmet, because he never does in the comic books. But for me it is more about wasting such great potential there was in that idea; just think of all the opportunities there were to do interesting stuff with the Cursed Earth scenes. It didn't live up to what it could have been. It probably should have been much more comic, really humorous, and fun. What I learned out of that experience was that we shouldn't have tried to make it
Hamlet; it's more
Hamlet and Eggs. He later elaborated: From what I recall, the whole project was troubled from the beginning. The philosophy of the film was not set in stone – by that I mean "Is this going to be a serious drama or with comic overtones" like other science fiction films that were successful? So a lotta pieces just didn't fit smoothly. It was sort of like a feathered fish. Some of the design work on it was fantastic and the sets were incredibly real, even standing two feet away, but there was just no communication. I knew we were in for a long shoot when, for no explainable reason Danny Cannon, who's rather diminutive, jumped down from his director's chair and yelled to everyone within earshot, "FEAR me! Everyone should FEAR me!" then jumped back up to his chair as if nothing happened. The British crew was taking bets on his life expectancy. Stallone admitted in 2010 to regret being involved with the film, calling it his "biggest mistake."
John Wagner, the creator of the comic character on which the film was based, said when interviewed by
Empire in 2012: "the story had nothing to do with Judge Dredd, and Judge Dredd wasn't really Judge Dredd." Wagner said it was a pity the way the film turned out, since the production values were great, and they had the budget for it. In an interview with
Total Film magazine, he said the film had "told the wrong story" because it "tried to do too much".
Accolades At the
22nd Saturn Awards the film received nominations in four categories (Best Science Fiction Film, Best Special Effects, Best Costume and Best Make-up). Stallone received a
Worst Actor nomination for his role as Judge Dredd at the 1995
Golden Raspberry Awards. At the 1995
Stinkers Bad Movie Awards, he won Worst Actor for his performance in the film and
Assassins. ==Reboot==