Rent Demolition Man on Amazon Video (paid link)
Written by: Peter M. Lenkov and Robert Reneau (story), Daniel Waters and Robert Reneau and Peter M. Lenkov (screenplay)
Directed by: Marco Brambilla
Starring: Sylvester Stallone, Wesley Snipes, Sandra Bullock, Benjamin Bratt, Denis Leary
Rated: R
Watch the trailer
Plot
A police officer is brought out of suspended animation in prison to pursue an old ultra-violent nemesis who is loose in a non-violent future society.
Verdict
It's not a good movie, being rather predictable and generic. What sets this apart is the mocking of other action movies and this comedic future world that has sterilized all behavior. That society falls apart with one sociopath, and they need a cop that can fight back. It certainly can be entertaining at points, but it's not much more than a typical 90s action movie. What distinguishes this is the future setting.
Skip it.
Review
This was Stallone's follow up to Cliffhanger (1993). This is Brambilla's most well known movie.
This movie posited the world would turn to ruin in just three years. That's a pessimistic take. Top cop John Spartan (Sylvester Stallone) chases down psychopath Simon Phoenix (Wesley Snipes) in this dystopian world. While Phoenix follows no rules, Spartan doesn't mind bending them to catch the bad guy. He's nicknamed "demolition man" due to the collateral damage he causes. Only this time Phoenix has set him up to look guilty. They're both convicted and cryogenically frozen for fifty years as part of their sentencing in a newly developed prison.
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| Sylvester Stallone plays John Spartan |
Thirty-six years later and the world is peaceful. It's 2032 and cops only chase down people for dirty jokes and violating curfew. Officer Lenina Huxley (Sandra Bullock) longs for the 20th century. She's bored and wants action. This is an oppressive world that has taken cleaning the city up to an extreme.
Somehow Phoenix escapes, and he has plenty of new skills he didn't have before incarceration. With his level of violence unleashed on the city, there is no one to oppose him in this peaceful society. No one knows how to deal with him. Most of these inhabitants have never seen someone this violent, and most cops have never seen a murder.
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| Wesley Snipes plays Simon Phoenix |
The only way to stop Phoenix is to unfreeze the man that originally captured him, John Spartan. The incarcerated were supposed to learn life skills that would reform them. Phoenix learned how to fight better. Spartan learned how to knit. Soon enough they're in a shootout in a museum that just happens to have loaded guns on display. Spartan continues to live up to his name as the "demolition man." It turns out the creator of the cryo prison, Cocteau (Nigel Hawthorne) selected Phoenix as his back up plan in case freezing the incarcerated didn't work out en route to a peaceful society. It's either quite a bit of foresight or movie magic for the plot. It turns out there's an underground world that's against this enforced conformity of the current world. That's who Cocteau wants out of the city and why he unfroze Phoenix.
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| Sylvester Stallone, Sandra Bullock, Benjamin Bratt play John Spartan, Lenina Huxley, Alfredo Garcia |
At worst this is a silly action movie set in the future. It also may be a commentary on peaceful society and how violence is inevitable. This world has outlawed anything subversive. It's a totalitarian society that's masked by action and comedy. There's a running joke with Spartan wondering how the three seashells that replaced toilet paper work. That question is never answered.
This mocks other movies in the genre. Usually the cop that gets the job done while crashing a few cars in the process is heralded as the maverick. In this movie Spartan is some kind of cave man, crass and primitive. He's paired with Huxley as his guide in the world. I doubt she would fight so well without ever having practiced, but this movie isn't concerned with such details. Spartan tracks down Phoenix as they have a final face off. What will the escape of these two violent criminals mean for this utopian society? The future only knows.
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