Thankfully, Joel Silver, the man who gave such great films as Predator and the Matrix, decided otherwise and put some hefty muscle into a smart and quirky script.
For the uninitiated, Demolition Man is about John Spartan (Sylvester Stallone), a cop from apocalyptic 1996 Los Angeles who gets framed for the incineration of a bus full of hostages after capturing the cities most psychotic criminal, Simon Phoenix (Played by an ironically incarcerated Wesley Snipes). Both get cryogenically frozen as punishment for their crimes. In the year 2032 Phoenix is thawed out of his popsicle state and is let loose on a utopian San Angeles, a city that rose from the ashes of Los Angeles after it was devastated by an earthquake in 2010 (TIMELY IRONY!!!!). From the ashes rises a city populated by people who have little if any understanding of violence and live passive, tech enriched lives. Under this utopia live a rebellious group of people lead by Edgar Friendly (Denis Leary) on a constant search to tag walls with graffiti and steal food because they are starving (the bastards!).
Oh, and Sandra Bullock plays Lenina Huxley, a cop that lives in this future and becomes his guide, showing Spartan the ropes of this new society and revealing that she’s a fan of his work after watching it on laserdisc. Tee Hee. (For Sci Fi readers out there, according IMDB and Wikipedia her name is a combo of Aldous Huxley, the author of Brave New World, and the first name of Lenina Crowne, a character from the book).
So what, you say? Stallone stars in a futuristic buddy cop film? Why should I care?
Ok. I understand. Navigating the wilderness of cinema can be a confusing endeavor, but fear not ladies and gentleman, that's what I'm here for!
First off, let’s see what this movie got right as a Sci Fi film.
- Tablet Computers
- Face Time (or face to face communication as an everyday thing)
- The Interwebs! Or an interconnected world where “most” everything is accessible by computer.
- Camera surveillance everywhere, as well as a general invasion of privacy and free speech (every time someone cusses in the film they get a fine, every time I get on an airplane a TSA person cups my balls.)
- Retina Scanning
- Alternative powered vehicles as well as self driving vehicles (check out the cars that Google will drive for you)
- Arnold Schwarzenegger as politician! (That ones better than anything I’ve heard from Nostradamus)
Not too bad for a movie starring Stallone from 1993. Nowadays people keep mentioning Minority Report (2002) as being the “got it right” Sci Fi film of recent times, but this does just as good, really.
The most entertaining moments come from what it gets wrong. As mentioned before, Huxley knows about Spartan’s history because of Laserdisc. Very funny. Also, Hollywood
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| "I" see what you did there Mr. Snipes... |
Moving on, Wesley Snipes plays one of the best on screen bad guys of the 90’s, bar none. I mean, he’s enjoying the hell out of this part and makes being a psyco look fun. But it’s the little things about the character that make it work. What makes it even better is that he’s been gifted with the keys to the castle. While Spartan can’t figure out how to drive a car Phoenix
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| Nothing say's "REAL MAN" like uncontrollably knitting a sweater. |
The perfect foil to all this is Stallone. By all means, he’s definitely done better acting jobs before, but in this movie he is so damn likable it’s easy to forget whatever ridiculous elements of the movie are in front of you and just roll with it. A couple scenes that stand out are the classic “He hasn’t figured out how to work the sea shells” as well as the “Not a Sex Scene” scene with Bullock. He grounds the movie with an everyman persona and adds vivacity with that effortless snarl he gives whenever he’s kicking ass. At the worst you could say he’s going through the motions, but for this movie that’s all he needs to do. What’s going on around him is more important, and his reactions to what is going on in front of him push the story along and let the viewer know where the cracks are in this utopia.
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| The future never looked so good. Sandra Bullock in DEMOLITION MAN (1993) |
Besides those two big characters the supporting cast of the film is second to none. Most famously, Sandra Bullock got her first major brake as a movie star alongside Sly, and after this came the monster hit SPEED (1994) where she became a full on star herself. But throughout Demolition Man her talents shine through. She helps make the buddy cop moments between them palatable with some whole hearted delivery of genuinely hilarious lines. She even makes her impromptu history lessons interesting as Spartan is constantly trying to make sense of this world around him. If Stallone is Dante in this Paradise , Bullock is Beatrice showing him the way. In short, if you pay enough attention you’ll laugh your ass off and see the talent that’s been with Bullock for a long time. Also, she is so hot. Just mind numbingly hot.
Glen Shadix makes an appearance as Associate Bob. He plays a great slippery slime ball that manages to assist anyone who has the upper hand at any particular time. You might remember Shadix as Ortho from BEETLEJUICE (1988). He recently passed away, and you would do yourself a favor if you check out his IMDB page and look at his work. If you make a night of watching a collection of films he's been in you won’t be disappointed.
Dennis Leary also makes one of his more memorable performances as Edgar Friendly, the leader of the underground. It’s mostly a transposition of his standup personality (some of his lines are taken verbatim from his standup) and he manages give a ballsy performance among some huge Hollywood stars.
Benjamin Bratt also has a role in the film. Much like Bullock he gives a great performance while saying the corniest lines with the sincerest, glossy eyed delivery that does add some fun to it.
The other main heavy in the movie is Raymond Cocteau, played by exceptionally by Nigel Hawthorne. This brings us to the meatiest part of our discussion. Every time I watch this movie now I can't help but compare this character to Steve Jobs. I mean this "Utopia" he has created where certain people have access to the future while others stand outside the gilded walls could easily be juxtaposed with the modern Cell Phone Operating System wars going on between APPLE and Google in the smartphone arena right now (Full disclosure, I use Android, but I did desire and iPhone). It might sound like a stretch, but watch the movie and look at how this Cocteau goes about things. In a strange way watching him defend his utopia is just like listening to Jobs and Co talk about how wonderful their app “ecosystem” is.
And that to me is the best part of this movie. No, it has nothing to do with cell phones, but the theme that goes all the way back to METROPOLIS (1927) and the novel BRAVE NEW WORLD (1932). It involves asking questions, like how much of our humanity can be surpassed before some part of society explodes? How much do we want to give up for our own safety, and what are the consequencees of giving so much up? This movie in its own strange and fun way explores those answers, and Hawthorne
There are other tid bits that are worth mentioning that make it worth a look. All the future vehicles in the film (to my knowledge) are actual General Motors concept cars and it's impressive that the vehicles still look futuristic even to this day. Rob Schnieder has a role in the film as a futuristic panzy cop and Jesse “The Body" Ventura
The last and most mysterious part of this film is the director, Marco Brambilla. If you look at his IMDB page he directed Excess Baggage (1997), the Dinotopia T.V mini series, some short film and that’s about it. After doing a bit more research (various Google Searches) it looks like he’s just gone off and become a video artist. He recently directed a music video that was commissioned by Kanye West. The song is POWER and Brambilla worked on it in 2010. Brambilla has his own website, and his video and art can be checked out here.
It’s seems to be a strange career path for someone who directed some of the largest stars in Hollywood Hollywood movie making. It’s clear he’s got some level of genius brewing in his skull.
So there you have it. Demolition Man is available to watch instantly on Netflix and definitely at any local video store (if they still exist by the time you're reading this). Redbox probably won't have it. Now sit your ass on the couch, have a few drinks, and check out one of the finer examples of early nineties action adventure. If you enjoy it, remember who sent you!
Signed with Big Explosions, Guns, Fast Cars, Speed, Scantily Clad Vixens, and Booze.
Sincerely,
Mr. Scarz.
