Dredd

Dredd is the greatest box office failure on this list and one of the best action films of the 2010s. Karl Urban plays Judge Dredd, a law enforcer in a dystopian mega-city who serves as judge, jury, and executioner. Trapped in a 200-story tower block controlled by drug lord Ma-Ma (Lena Headey), Dredd and his psychic rookie partner must fight their way through an entire building of armed criminals. The premise is simple. The execution is exceptional.

Urban never removes his helmet — the entire performance is conveyed through his jaw and his voice, and it is magnetic. The Slo-Mo drug sequences, where time slows to a crawl and violence becomes horrifyingly beautiful, are the film’s visual signature. The gatling gun sequence, where Ma-Ma fires through multiple floors of the building, is one of the most viscerally terrifying action scenes of the decade.

Dredd earned just $41 million on a $45 million budget, a catastrophic commercial failure. But its cult following is enormous and justified. This is a lean, mean, 95-minute action film that does everything right and wastes nothing. Alex Garland’s screenplay (he reportedly directed much of the film as well) is a masterclass in stripped-down genre storytelling.