Demolition Man

Has any other person drenched our culture in more misguided pseudo-populism than Sylvester Stallone? Once again, in Demolition Man, the urbane and well-educated characters are predictably evil, and the trembling world must be saved from sophistication by muscle-bound vulgarians. And, of course, the firm conviction that one is right justifies the unrepented slaughter of countless extras. The ultra-violent ugliness of Mr. Stallone's world view, not to mention his grunting narcissism, has long been accepted as entertainment, but I, for one, have grown tired of his moral reductivism and insolent swagger. But, to be honest, I've felt that way since Rocky II.

The DVD looked like new when I got it and nothing was missing. I received it within a week and the price was very reasonable.

In the future, everyone lives in harmony; no one smokes, swears or dies of unnatural causes; and popular radio stations play advertising jingles from the 20th century. That is, until Simon Phoenix (Wesley Snipes), 20th century mega-criminal and all-around bad guy is defrosted from the cryogenic prison and goes on a rampage. The peace loving futurites can't cope with the situation, so resort to defrosting John Spartan (Sylvester Stallone), the man who originally captured Phoenix but who was also arrested for killing over 30 civilians in the process.

"Demolition Man" is an enjoyable film that had the potential to be better. With Daniel Waters (who also wrote "Heathers" and "Batman Returns") as one of the script writers, the script does have moments of his trademark black humour, but not enough to hide the fact that this is a typical, big-budget studio action film. The cast of the film is incredible and includes, among others, Stallone, Snipes, Sandra Bullock, Benjamin Bratt, Nigel Hawthorne, Rob Schneider and Denis Leary, but many of these actors are criminally underused (especially Leary, as the rebel leader, who only appears for about 10 minutes in total). Nevertheless, the vision of a future so perfect that fun has basically been outlawed is interesting and Snipes is in the role of his career, hamming it up as the villain.

Demolition Man is a film that can please just about everyone. The film mixes three genre's succesfully and has two great male leads, Stallone and Snipes. Snipes is more fun here because he gives a larger than life performance and Sanda Bullock provides a lot of one liners. Great way to waste a afternoon with the guys.

There is normally a glut of action oriented science fiction movies that come out each summer and it's hard to pick out the good ones from the bad ones. At times I can be as eager as the next guy to just have a fun popcorn movie that doesn't rely on any deep storytelling, but just good old high flying action. Demolition Man, while not deep, still pulls off some detailed storytelling while still keeping that mindless mayhem most action junkies look for. That being said Demolition Man isn't exactly top gun material either, but it is a worthwhile romp into an interesting (if not completely believable) future.

The premise alone is enough to pique my interest. It's a combination fish-out-of-water story and action cop flick. Lets talk about the former since that's where the story comes from. The beauty of fish-out-of-water scripts is seeing the reactions of the fish in question and how they cope with the new world they are in. This movie has a lot of fun with that concept without getting too over the top. It's really entertaining seeing Stallone trying to figure out stuff (especially the three shells incident). The future society is almost campy in how it's done, but it's very polished camp. It is the kind of camp that doesn't come off as camp. Though technically speaking the society in the movie is virtually impossible the way they show it you still can't help but enjoy all the little situations that happen within it.

The characters are really polished... save one. But lets talk about the polished ones first. You have some really talented actors here portraying their characters perfectly. From the starring cast to the supporting cast you get a wonderful ensemble that fits into their respective roles like a glove... save one. That one character Simon Phoenix, which feels way too cartoonish and aloof to fit in as well as the other characters in the movie. Don't get me wrong. Wesley Snipes did a superb job acting the role. It's just the role itself could have used some tweaking. With this kind of tight acting I will have to give props to Brambilla for some excellent directing here. The city design is equally polishes, using just enough future stuff to make it believable. The special effects are good, but keep in mind this being an action movie the explosions do get over the top. The fight scenes are nicely choreographed as well, showing some prowess on Snipes' part. In the end the production values are definitely worthy of high status.

Demolition Man looks a lot like a mindless action movie, and it actually is. Only this one has a little more brains in it than most. It knows how to have fun with its role. If you love action sci-fi with a good dose of comedy then you found your match here. If you like some depth to your storyline as well as action then you too found something here. While it's not high grade science fiction by any means Demolition Man is still a worthwhile jaunt if you crave a lighter diet of sci-fi.