Demolition Man, 1993.
Directed by Marco Brambilla.
Starring Sylvester Stallone, Wesley Snipes, Sandra Bullock, Nigel Hawthorne, Denis Leary, Benjamin Bratt, Bob Gunton, Glenn Shadix, and Grand L. Bush.
SYNOPSIS:
In the year 2032, a cop frozen in suspended animation for 40 years is thawed out to catch the criminal he put away in the 1990s.
A bit of a mainstream choice for cult movie specialists Arrow Video to give a limited edition 4K UHD release, but 1993s Demolition Man has been one of those movies that crops up every so often in memes or hashtags whenever certain themes or ideas happen in real life, which you could say was predicted in the opening scenes of a burning Hollywood sign amidst a city seemingly destroying itself.
Of course, the movie originally came out a year after the infamous 1992 riots in Los Angeles in the wake of the Rodney King incident, and a lot of movies at the time reflected this social upheaval, distrust in the police, different methods of punishment, etc. What re-releasing Demolition Man in 2024 does is show how far we have moved on as a society, and that these things cannot happen in today’s… hang on.
Despite coming from a serious place, Demolition Man is really quite a silly movie and this is highlighted by the movie’s main antagonist, Simon Phoenix, and the performance that Wesley Snipes gives as said character. The pre-credit sequence is set in the then-futuristic world of 1996, and Phoenix is given bleach-blond hair, piercings, a goatee and he leaps about cackling and shouting out slogans and puns, so as well as predicting a future with softer authority, Demolition Man also anticipated nu-metal.
Snipes knows exactly what he is doing as he gives a Joker-esque performance, with the psychopathic Phoenix taking hostages and daring hardened detective John ‘Demolition Man’ Spartan (Sylvester Stallone) – so-called because of the destruction that usually follows in his wake – to come and rescue them. Phoenix calls Spartan’s bluff and as well as Phoenix being imprisoned by being frozen, Spartan receives the same punishment for allegedly allowing the hostages to die.
Fast forward to 2032 and San Angeles, as the city is now known, has become a peaceful and law-abiding place, run by Dr. Raymond Cocteau (Nigel Hawthorne) with its police force being a placid team who have never had to face any real violent crime. That is, until Phoenix is thawed out and let loose to assassinate underground rebel leader Edgar Friendly (Denis Leary), but Phoenix is a loose cannon and after bringing chaos to San Angeles the decision is made to thaw out John Spartan, because in order to catch an old-fashioned criminal, you need an old-fashioned cop.
Sci-fi action movies had to leap a little higher than they had done previously thanks to Terminator 2 setting new standards in 1991, and Demolition Man was clearly Sylvester Stallone’s shot at giving his old sparring partner Arnold Schwarzenegger a beating at the box office. Unfortunately for him, Terminator 2 had James Cameron pulling the strings and Demolition Man had Marco Brambilla, whose only previous directing credit before this movie had been a music video, and while Brambilla’s direction here is solid enough, most of the movie’s charm and/or appeal comes from its two lead actors and its likeable supporting cast, which includes Sandra Bullock as the 1990s-worshipping cop Lenina Huxley, whose double-act with Stallone works a lot better than it probably did on paper (although the kiss at the end was probably a bit much).
The real benefit of having a boutique edition of a big Hollywood movie is that you get lots of supplementary material to wade through, and whilst there is nothing here from Stallone, Snipes or any other cast members sharing their memories, you do get three informative audio commentaries, one an archive track with Marco Brambilla and producer Joel Silver, and two brand new ones featuring Brambilla with screenwriter Daniel Waters, and also The Projection Booth podcast. The rest is made up with interviews with various crew members plus video essays to add context, all of which build the picture of a movie that had a lot of goodwill behind it but also had to overcome a lot of obstacles.
Speaking of obstacles, Stallone was in need of a hit after a rocky(!) start to the 1990s, and 1993 was a banner year for him with Cliffhanger and Demolition Man both hitting within a few months of each other, although the following year’s The Specialist signalled the start of another decline for him at the box office, a slump that not even a return to sci-fi action in 1995 with Judge Dredd could salvage.
But sarcasm aside, it is well documented that the 1990s were not kind to Sylvester Stallone, many of his muscle-bound contemporaries and old-school action movies in general, but Demolition Man has always been a good answer for when the question of his career from that decade is brought up. There was a time during first few years of the 21st century that the movie felt a little flat, a daft relic of a decade that predicted a lot of things for future tech and social upheaval but also got a lot wrong. However, watching it in 2024 it feels a lot fresher and even more relevant than it has done in years.
Of course, the puns are still as groansome and the clearer – not great, but clearer – 4K UHD image shows up a lot of the production shortcomings – ropes around actors are visible, items of clothing change or move during certain scenes, glass shatters before anything hits it, etc. – but for entertainment value, Demolition Man remains a fun blast of 1990s nostalgia, even down to the unnaturally telegraphed Denis Leary routine that the movie comes to a halt to incorporate – totally unnecessary, but that was the ‘90s. It also remains an odd title for a 4K UHD release from Arrow Video, but be glad that it is here, if only to show future generations where the idea of replacing toilet paper with three seashells came from.
Flickering Myth Rating – Film: ★ ★ / Movie: ★ ★ ★ ★
Chris Ward
