Chief among them is, yes, you guessed it, Judge Dredd, who was played by a glum Sylvester Stallone in the fairly dreadful 1995 film "Judge Dredd, " and who is played this time around by Karl Urban.

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The setting is a hamlet in the American countryside, ringed by crackling woods and inhabited by a community so glum that its leader is played by William Hurt.

NEWYORKER: The Village