Im a man of simple pleasures, gimmie a good simple premise, no matter how fantastical, and if you can make it work? Im in. Thus, ‘Demolition Man’ a 90’s Stallone Vehical that takes the core premise of ‘Metropolis’ and marries it up to ‘Biodome’.

Its the far off future of 1996, and L.A has burned to the ground, a dangerous maniac named Pheonix (Snipes) roams the wastes running drug cartels and leading with violence above all else. Tasked with taking him in? is John Spartan (Stallone) a tough guy, all action cop who punches first and asks questions later. After a high speed chase involving Pheonix hijacking a bus with 30 tourists on board, the chase winds up at a warehouse, where Spartan finally manages to capture Pheonix, but is faced with the choice of letting Pheonix go free without fully knowing where he’s hidden the hostages, or taking him in and risking all of the hostages lives.

He chooses to take him in, but its revealed that the hostages were all in the building that Pheonix has now just destroyed. Both men are sentenced to Cryo-stasis to pay for the crimes, but part way through Pheonix’s sentence, in 2032, during a parole hearing, he breaks free and goes on a rampage. and we’re introduced to a new society, where crime has been all but eliminated, impurities are criminalised and the folks who WANT that nasty ‘free speech’ business have been driven into an underground city of dirty, but free, inhabitants.

The police of this time dont know how to deal with a maniac like Pheonix, as there hasnt been a murder committed in over 16 years. So…they go to thaw out the only man who knows how to kick arse and take names. Spartan. Hilarity ensues.

And, I always kind of considered this the B-picture to ‘Total Recall’. Demolition Man is fun, but it takes its concept just a little *too* heartily and ends up leaning a little *too* into its own tropes at times, turning what is ultimately a very fun and self aware Sci-fi Action Comedy, into the cinematic equivilent of a comedian who only has one set they play incessantly.

The script itself is fun, light weight, it deals with themes of classism, contrasting a free speech society, with a literal eugenecist ethnostate. But it doesnt bog itself down *too* heavily in the class unrest. Most of the film, is Stallone rolling his eyes at a society that learned to love and empathize, trying to deal with hardened criminals who actively take advantage of the situation.

Its a pacey hour and 55 minutes long, it zips through most of it with a clip, and while the plotting itself is a little all over the place in terms of trying to balance kooky ‘WELCOME TO THE FUTURE!’ness, with actual important narrative tropes, I dont feel it ever TRUELY became unbalanced, it comes close a fair bit, but it never truely lost me on that front.

We have a group of interesting and fairly well rounded characters, all with interesting back stories who all get a pretty decent chunk of the plotting, noone seems surplus and everyone seems to get their chance to shine.

We have a solid 3 act structure that feels fairly well balanced and transitions between the acts fairly seamlessly. The tone is really the thing that makes this movie a ‘must see’ for me. the comedies VERY on the nose, but the film makers relentless attention to detail in trying to KEEP reminding the audience about just how ‘soft’ this society has become, I thought was decently handled, if not a bit TOO on the nose.

Direction and cine? No notes. this is a 90s slice of action movie, it looks great, has a great sense of ‘futurism’ about it, its colourful, vivid and really gets the audience immersed in the universe its trying to build. Theres decent creative shot compositions, plenty of B-roll, room for experimentation and the edit is pretty rock solid, with some really well timed cuts and great use of coverage. I equally enjoyed the fairly minimal reliance on CG effects, outside of computer monitors and some lightning effects here and there, this is largely practical, and SO much better for it!

Performance wise, its basically the Stallone and Snipes show, Both are excellent, with Snipes playing a genuinely unhinged and effortlessly watchable criminal in Pheonix. He has amazing physicality and really brings himself into the role in a way that I feel would be hard for other actors to better.

Stallone by contrast brings a nice blend of self aware comedy and his usual macho performance to proceedings deliveirng a unique flavour to this film that I equally just, really enjoy sitting through. I find his tough guy roles sometimes a bit dry outside of the staple performances, but his comedy roles a bit too weird…This blend? is perfect.

Thats not to talk down the supporting cast, and its a veritable who’s who of 90s and early 2000s super stars. All of whome bring themselves to their roles sincerely and wholeheartedly, resulting in a great contrast of a clearly farsical world, with characters who seem to genuinely believe it in.

And the soundtrack? well, apart from a significant chunk of it being a gag for the movie to lean on (and a spookily accurate prediction of the future) its kind of unmemorable to me. Like…it punctuates the film fine enough, but it just didnt really do anything to set it apart from any other 90s Action or futurist action flick. Not bad, but just kind of…meh.

I always forget how long ‘Demolition Man’ is, I always seem to put it at the 90 minute mark, but for me? Even with it clocking in at 115 mins, it doesnt FEEL that long. its a goofy, fairly well made bit of cannon fodder that you could quite easily sink in an afternoon. I have a real soft spot for it. And though I will admit, sometimes its humour teeters into grating, by the end I always find myself promising myself I wont wait so long until the next screening.

Defintely worth checking out.

source https://letterboxd.com/tytdreviews/film/demolition-man/