In 1995 the movie Judge Dredd was released. Sylvester Stallone plays the titular masked man. Its sequel, known as Dredd 3D, was released Sept. 21 with Karl Urban taking Stallone’s place.

In the 1995 film, Dredd (Judge is his profession) gets framed for cold-blooded murder by an anarchistic prison escapee. After being sentenced to life in solitary confinement, Dredd is dealt an even worse fate—keeping alive an unfunny wimp played by Rob Schneider. This is a challenge because Judges, the authoritarian police of the future, are universally hated and therefore under constant assault by baddies of all stripes.

In spite of its flaw (the vast majority of Schneider’s time on-camera) Judge Dredd was a blast. It had all the makings of a great action movie and seemed to draw inspiration from a wide variety of films, from Con Air to Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope.

As if that isn’t enough, Judge Dredd features a killer humanoid war-bot, a cannibal mutant hillbilly cyborg berzerker, a plane crash, an army of clones, stunning 1995 visual effects and a performance by Stallone so stellar it seemed Judge Dredd was Sylvester Stallone, not the other way around.

In the world of Judge Dredd, Judges function as police, judge, jury and executioner all rolled into one tight package. Since Judges wear bulletproof armor, their helmets have heads-up display and their special guns have a multitude of special bullet types, they are nearly indestructible and excellent at killing bad guys. Judge Dredd is rated R for violence, but felt comparatively mild (probably due to Schneider’s presence) to Dredd 3D (also rated R), which has drug use and some sexual imagery in addition to visions of brutality and gore befitting Saw.

Dredd 3D feels more bloody partly due to modern graphics and partly because much of the fighting is shown in slow motion. While on its face using lots of slow motion sounds like a cheap trick to extend a movie’s length without adding content, Dredd 3D seamlessly integrates the effect into its plot. Whenever anyone uses the new drug SLO-MO, the camerawork mimics the user’s experience by reducing the action to one percent of its actual speed, which makes the gunfights among the most graphic and shocking in any movie.

In Dredd 3D, Dredd takes the lovely rookie Anderson out for her first field day and evaluation, and it turns into a complete bloodbath when they become trapped in mortal combat with the psychotic SLO-MO-dealing Ma-ma clan. Although a multitude of innocents die in the crossfire, in the end justice is served.

Dredd 3D is a visually stunning movie that actually does justice to its forebear, but those who become ill from viewing blood might prefer to wait for a home release so they can fast-forward.