Demolition Man (1993)

Too much of everything

Great visuals, story delivers no surprises

Brilliant and touching

The story, direction, characters, and writing/dialogue is akin to taking a tranquilizer shot to the neck, but everything else was so well done.

In the 90's when action films where big and loud, filled with explosions and usually had one of the Planet Hollywood super owners in them (Sly, Bruce, or Arnie) films a plenty were made. "Demolition Man" was carved out in that era. Stallone plays John Spartan; a cop from the 90's who is framed for mass murder while he attempted to bring down Simon Phoenix's (Wesley Snipes) reign of terror to an end. Rather than the death sentence, both are cryogenically frozen and left to be forgotten for the duration of their sentences. Fast Forward to the year 2032 where crime has been eradicated and society is happy happy nice nice, Spartan is unfrozen. With a police force ill equipped to handle a 90's villain, Office Lenina Huxley (Sandra Bullock) - obsessed with 90's culture - suggests bringing Spartan out of cryogenic retirement to fight Spartan. The battle begins, both men out of their own time, fighting in a world that isn't ready for them - unbeknown to them, there is a sinister and secret plot unravelling for which they have been used as the fuse, bait and blame. The cheesy action film is more than just an action film; it's funny and satirical too. While being OTT and very in your face, it's also clever and sly too. The cast all deliver, and it's an odd and jumbled cast at that - but it works, from Nigel Hawthorne and Dennis Leary, all the way to Stallone and Snipes. Visually and narratively, the film is clever enough to not take itself too seriously and it's that which makes it a very approachable film. I'd put this in the same category as 90's "Total Recall" or "Starship Trooper" as they all offer a satirical look into life and the future of society - it's just that "Demotion Man" does it in a friendlier way. I remember when this first came out at the cinema and it didn't receive the best reviews, I've never been able to see a reason why - I think it's a lovely film which is easy to watch and very entertaining. 7 out of 10.

I cannot understand why this movie gets such a bad overall rating. From my point of view, the movie is both entertaining and interesting. Beside Sylvester Stallone and Wesley Snipes did great with both their characters and action in the movie. Plus the story for the movie is very good.I call this Sandra Bullock's one good movie, I can't even see how she kept a straight face while talking her character's mistakes in simple sayings. That part was just hilarious.I have to say the future technology doesn't look like it's going to make the year they had for the movie, but that isn't any big deal. The movie is very entertaining; full of action scenes, and even some humidity. Just watch it, and I'll bet you will like it.

A measure of how bad "Demolition Man" is lies in the fact the IMDb's trivia pages inform me that both Steven Seagal AND Jean-Claude Van Damme turned the film down. The reason? We may never know, but Marco Brambilla's film certainly has that 'numbing' quality and sense of overuse of action which would not have been out of place in a feature starring the aforementioned stars. I think it would be wrong to say that there lies not an interesting idea at the epicentre of "Demolition Man", but anyone would be damned if they admit to what the final product resembles is the best way to go about executing it.Sylvester Stallone plays John Spartan, an all-action police officer in the LAPD occupying a dystopian then-future set in accordance to the film's 1993 release. Crime, despite the law now essentially coming to resemble what some armies around the world might look like, is overrunning the city to the extent that the "Hollywood" sign is permanently alight. Perhaps there is a hidden subtext to this dramatic opening vista. Perhaps not. Filmed in the aftermath of the riots which were induced post-Rodney King fiasco, buildings are ruined; gunfire sprays up from the ground at patrol choppers and rubble often dominates the ground.For reasons unexplained, Spartan is hunting a stock psychopath in the form of Simon Phoenix (Wesley Snipes), who this time has overrun a building with a gang of thugs and is holding some hostages he intends on killing. We sense the two share a backstory, in the mould of Batman and The Joker, but it is never clear. Phoenix is not an especially interesting villain – his reasoning for what he does seems to be to merely invoke chaos at a time when all law and civility has broken down. Spartan eventually apprehends his man, but the police force denigrates him for his blasé approach which leads to the building blowing up and the hostages dying.Consequently, Spartan is frozen in ice, without being killed, so that he may be thawed and possibly paroled at a future date. This should strike us as strange for the fact much of what lies behind a prisoner being granted parole in the first place is good prison behaviour. Frozen in a block of ice, of course, negates this. However, he is thawed prematurely in 2032 when Phoenix escapes the very same prison (why Snipes' character was not given the death penalty, we do not know) and goes on a rampage for reasons which later become clearer. Spartan is charged with initially trying to put a stop to the violence and terror Phoenix is now unleashing.The entire premise is mostly an excuse to have Snipes and Stallone duke it out in a variety of locations using their fists and an array of exotic weaponry not limited to: Kalashnikov rifles; sawn off shotguns; futuristic laser-blaster guns and, on one especially silly occasion, a Napoleonic era canon. But in a post-"Terminator 2: Judgment Day" era, the hand to hand combat is not up to standard while the action sequences themselves are rapid and unmoving.More interesting is the world into which they are thawed, namely a future very much removed from the era they came from: a dreamy, gooey, wide-eyed Utopia stuck in a strange place on the political spectrum between liberalism and conservatism, and one which is now free of violence and anything which was once considered harmful to society – things not limited to: spicy food; sugar; cigarettes; sex and kissing. The pioneer of this world is Raymond Cocteau (Nigel Hawthorne), who despite being a political visionary, is not adept enough to guard his own well-being following the bringing of other pre-frozen criminals into the new future.Also in the future is Sandra Bullock's existing police officer Lenina Huxley, whose character arc blunders onto the screen when she whines about the lack of crime in the city: "I want some action!" she moans. She'll get it eventually, although is curiously absent during the film's climax when her catharsis of really learning about violence should have happened.The film is a mostly weak exercise. Very little is made of the fact Spartan lost his wife in the interim of being frozen and then thawed and it is not satisfyingly tied in with his newfound fondness for Bullock. Can we remember, by the end, that he was even married? Similarly, the roots of Stallone's character are flaccid – he is seemingly responsible for the deaths of dozens of hostages in the beginning, but maintains this gung-ho approach again in the future when granted the opportunity to go after Phoenix again. Despite craving violence early on, and having experienced what she experiences, what does Bullock's character learn about anything? By the end, when certain twists and turns have played out, we think we've seen something more interesting than we actually have, while the film's heavy reliance on elements from works such as Aldous Huxley's "Brave New World" has the film feel loftier than it actually is. The film's insistence on bombarding us with product placement in-between its actions sequences becomes ingratiating, with no fewer than Taco Bell; Armour Hotdogs and Marlboro getting in on the act becomes insulting. Meanwhile, somewhat central to the film is a joke about seashells and going to the bathroom... When all is said and done, "Demolition Man" is a mostly empty, numbing experience.

I'd caught bits and pieces of this on TV over the years and always thought it looked pretty dumb however when I watched the whole thing on DVD the other night I had a great time. Plenty of action, shoot outs, car chases and explosions along the way with a super fun sci-fi view of the future in 2032 "San Angles". And its funny, all-round way more entertaining than I thought it would be.Sure it has moments where its just your average action movie but it never takes itself too seriously and is bolstered by a strong performance from Sylvester Stallone -who I find usually struggles with the comedy roles but he does a great job here as John Spartan aka The "Demolition man." Wesley Snipes also must have had a ton of fun playing bad guy Simon Pheonix as he basically steals the show.Stallone as Spartan is one of LAPD's most notorious cops and the opening sequence sees him wrongly blamed for the death of several hostages while in pursuit of the crazed Phoenix (Snipes). Both men are then (encased in carbonate) cryogenically frozen to remove their violence from society.The film then shifts to 2032 where Los Angles has become a peaceful and bland place known as San Angles. There is no poverty, violence, sex or swearing and Taco Bell is the sole survivor of the Franchise Wars.Snipes is defrosted to help remove the leader of a group of underground rebels led by (Denis Leary), but of course he is more than anyone can handle, and proceeds to go on a murder/death/kill looting spree. Now the only way to stop him is to defrost an old-fashioned cop. Their final showdown is really good.As Spartan adjusts to self-driving cars and having sex wearing helmets, he's paired up with Lenina Huxley (Sandra Bullock), a bored cop with a (convenient) fascination for 20th-century culture. I guess this would have been an early role for Bullock and she and Stallone play well off each other -the scene where they "make love" is hilarious. 3/30/16