User Reviews

John Spartan (Sylvester Stallone) is a reckless Los Angeles policeman, known as the "demolition man" for the destruction he routinely engenders while apprehending big baddies. After a particularly ruthless criminal, Simon Phoenix (Wesley Snipes), sets him up by making it appear that Spartan wantonly caused the deaths of a bus load of hostages, Spartan is sentenced to 60 years or so in prison. The film begins in a not-too-distant future (relative to its 1992/1993 production date) of 1996. Prisons are quite a bit different, and there's a new policy of cryogenically freezing inmates. We cut forward to 2032. Phoenix is up for an obligatory parole hearing when he escapes. The film's 21st Century society is extremely different (worsening cultural chaos, exacerbated by a huge earthquake, precipitated the change), and the "San Angeles" police cannot capture Phoenix or keep him in check. Chief Earle makes a decision to revive Spartan, reasoning that an out of control but effective cop mired in the ways of the late 20th Century may be the only one who can capture the out of control criminal, but he, and the future society, may be in for a lot more than they bargained for by reawakening the Demolition Man.

Demolition Man is one of the funniest, most action-packed and most poignant social satires of at least the last 30 years. It's not necessarily the easiest film to appreciate, as it makes its points through extremely over-the-top "mindless" action and tongue-in-cheek, purposefully cheesy plot and dialogue, but it's well worth trying to acclimate oneself to the style if you're not an action or sci-fi fan, as the satire cuts deep. There are other films with somewhat similar aims, such as Total Recall (1990) and Starship Troopers (1997), which are perhaps just as good as Demolition Man, but they certainly can't top it, and they have aims other than the purely satirical.

The opening scene feels like a typical late 1980s/early 1990s action sequence. At least until we realize that there's not going to be a happy ending for the hostages that Spartan is trying to save. Once we arrive at the future, a lot of viewers might misjudge the performances of the principal cast besides Stallone and Snipes. Sandra Bullock, as Lieutenant Lenina Huxley (a reference to Aldous Huxley's book Brave New World), and Benjamin Bratt, as Alfredo Garcia (a reference to Sam Peckinpah's 1974 film, Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia), at first seem to be turning in bizarrely incompetent performances. It's only later that we realize they are spot on for the film's "brave new world", which is basically an instantiation of a staunchly moralist cult run by Dr. Raymond Cocteau (a reference to famed director Jean Cocteau combined with Cocteau's friend, novelist Raymond Radiguet).

Technically, the film is quite impressive. The production design, cinematography, effects, staging of the action sequences, score and soundtrack are excellent. But what sets Demolition Man a cut above the rest are the script and the performances--yes, even from Stallone and Snipes, although Bullock, and especially Denis Leary, in a relatively minor part where he gets to do his motor-mouthed, ranting comedy schtick that made him famous, both threaten to steal the show.

Director Marco Brambilla (who has remained oddly inactive since Demolition Man, which was his first film) and his writing "team" skewer a lot of cultural norms as relatively arbitrary conventions. Radio and television commercial jingles are considered the pinnacle of musical art in the film's world. Strict morality is enforced through constant computer monitoring of behavior combined with fines--a running joke throughout the film is that profanity results in fines. Meat and alcohol have been outlawed. So has physical contact, including sex. All restaurants are now Taco Bells (in some cuts of the film intended for foreign markets, this was changed to Pizza Hut instead). There is an underground, outside of the cultic mainstream society, but they're literally underground, living relatively lawless (well, at least they eat meat and drink beers) in tunnels strewn with utility pipes.

As a result, serious crime is a thing of the past, swept under the rug (or into the sewers) and labeled with Orwellian newspeak. Phoenix and Spartan's reintroduction of violence and mayhem, including "murder/death/kill", results in a reawakening of cultural freedom, analogous to their own thawing out. The anti-utopian, anti-utilitarian political message, like that of Orwell's 1984 and later films influenced by the same, such as Equilibrium (2002), couldn't be clearer. And the message can be extended to situations that are not political. I didn't use "cult" above carelessly. The idea is that the society's warts are necessary for individual authenticity. Yes, things can run smoother under a dictatorship, but who wants to live under a dictatorship, even a supposedly "benevolent" one?

The movie begins with an action sequence where some innocent people are killed. Stallone, who plays a cop, is wrongly blamed, and both he and the real culprit, Snipes, are put into stasis. 22 years later, a corrupt government leader lets Snipes free and hires him as an assassin. Stallone is freed by the police to capture Snipes.

Snipes character is so freakin' nuts that he makes you laugh and think "wtf" quite often. The world in 2032 is so wacked-out that it leaves you intrigued. All the characters are so weird, too. There's some action involved but it's all very unrealistic. So, basically, it's a half-decent movie that's poorly made and some of the crazy things in it are so crazy that their funny.

Basically if you get this in a Stallone set (as I did) it's worth about $3 dollars (if a regular DVD costs like $10) or if you're a die-hard Stallone fan it's worth it, and you get to see pretty much all of Stallone's body minus his junk, if you're into that.

The streets are ruled by acts of violence and terror, nothing and nobody is safe.

Simon Phoenix is one of the worst criminals that Los Angeles has ever seen, and only one man can stop him - L.A.P.D. officer John "Demotion Man" Spartan.

When John apprehended Phoenix, he was surprisingly found as an accessory to the recent crime and was also sent to the "Cryo Prison".

During John Spartan's sentence, Los Angeles' theme and society had dramatically changed from one of violence to one of peace. Phoenix, revived for a parole hearing managed to escape and uses Los Angeles to his advantage.

The Police are unable to stop him with their non-violent solutions and have no choice but to let out John Spartan to stop him. Now, Spartan not only has to stop Phoenix, but to adapt himself to the future society he has no knowledge about....

Ever so slightly riffing on 'Brave new world', the movie is one of Stallones most entertaining films of the nineties, and he was at this peak during his little resurgence thanks to Cliffhanger.

But Stallone is outshone by snipes, playing a cross between Nicholsons Joker and Nino Brown. He exudes evil, and has some fantastic lines and set pieces.

The story gets thrown to the side in favour of the action and one liners, but seeing as this is produced by Silver, story isn't really one of it's main concerns.

My only gripe is that the opening scene is so fantastically made, with an explosion to make Lethal Weapon 3 embarrassed, the rest of the film struggle to keep up with it action wise, so we are left with Stallone trying to come to terms with earths changes in many 'comedy' ways.

but all in all it's a great movie, very underrated by snobs, and a perfect Friday night film.

Just don't remember 1996 being like that.

I knew this was a film that involved Sylvester Stallone and a lot of explosions, but I had no idea of the plot, and I'm glad I gave into it. Basically it is 1996 (three years ahead of the release of this film) and one of the worst criminals of the city of Los Angeles is Simon Phoenix (Wesley Snipes), and the man who apprehended him L.A.P.D. officer John Spartan, aka 'The Demolition Man' (Stallone) is taken with him for being an accessory in his crime, and both are put in a new prison system called Cryo Prison, yep, they're cryogenically frozen. Years later, 2035, the city changed to San Angeles, and society became peaceful, nice, kind and understanding, like the people of Pleasantville! In this world all things that can ruin this peace (with argument), e.g. meat, sex, swearing (which becomes a common joke, they hear a buzz and get a fine ticket) violence, and of course weapons are banned and unseen. When Phoenix manages to escape from his Cryo chamber, the cops decide that Spartan as the only other person with knowledge of the early 21st Century and Phoenix should be thawed out as well. So begins a chase of the bad guy with Lt. Lenina Huxley (Sandra Bullock) by Spartan's side, education of this new (and pretty absurd) world, and many explosions and gun play. Also starring The Madness of King Geroge's Nigel Hawthorne as Dr. Raymond Cocteau (the man mainly responsible for this peaceful world), Catwoman's Benjamin Bratt as Alfredo Garcia, The Shawshank Redemption's Bob Gunton as Chief George Earle, Beetle Juice's Glenn Shadix as Associate Bob, Small Soldiers' Denis Leary as Edgar Friendly, Die Hard and Licence to Kill's Grand L. Bush as Young Zachary Lamb, Steve Kahan as Captain Healy, I Still Know What You Did Last Summer's Bill Cobbs as Aged Zachary Lamb, Rob Schneider as Erwin, look out for Jack Black as Wasteland Scrap and Predator's Jesse Ventura as CryoCon. Snipes is a great mad villain (Stallone wanted Jackie Chan, who refused to become a bad guy), the humour of this future is not only amusing, but slightly hard to deal with, just a fun film. Wesley Snipes was number 96 on The 100 Greatest Movie Stars. Very good!