♥♥♥♥
+ Best Action Movie of the Year
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| The over-the-top, funny poster for Marco Brambilla's Demolition Man |
Demolition Man is a fun mix of romance, comedy, action and science fiction.
Bad egg LA criminal Simon Phoenix is caught by heroic cop John Spartan in the violent Los Angeles of 1996, but both are then frozen for 40 years. When Phoenix breaks out in 2036, Spartan is de-frozen to catch him in a dystopic, ultra-serene future metropolis.
The uncommon dystopia, where future people have simply become too nice and peaceful, is very interesting, and the future folk are certainly ridiculous in Demolition Man.
The film is heightened by gags, action references and comedy throughout, - like Sandra Bullock's (Gravity (2013)) 'sex scene' with Sylvester Stallone (Creed (2015)), or the three sea shell business, (no one who sees the movie seems to forget this funny detail.)
Along with being a fine action production, Demolition Man has a very entertaining cast that all give it their best: Stallone vs. Wesley Snipes (Blade (1998)) are both acting, in between shootouts, - Bullock and handsome Benjamin Bratt (Despicable Me 2 (2013)), Dennis Leary (The Amazing Spider-Man (2012)), Rob Schneider (The Animal (2001)) and the wonderful Glenn Shadix (Beetlejuice (1988)) in small parts. Shadix tragically passed away in 2010, but he is a joy in Demolition Man. He only has very few lines, but so many shots just of his many facial expressions and graceful movement adorning the screen.
The film is entertainment of a very high caliber, and anyone who says they haven't enjoyed watching it is, as far as I am concerned, a liar or should have their head examined.
Unfortunately, action movies today are very rarely as good or as fun as they used to be, and Demolition Man is a good example of this former glory.
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| To the right, Glenn Shadix, an extraordinary actor with an extraordinary look, here in Marco Brambilla's Demolition Man |
Bullock was actually nominated for a Razzie for her part in Demolition Man. - Totally undeserved, as she clearly does everything possible with some very strange, silly and awkward lines, and manages to come across sweet and cool anyway.
The film's Italian director Marco Brambilla (Excess Baggage (1997)) hasn't done much since he suddenly popped up and did this huge movie as his debut feature, a curious feat in any decade. It is written by Daniel Waters (Batman Returns (1992)), Robert Reneau (Action Jackson (1988)) and Peter M. Lenkov (24 (2005), TV-series).
SPOILER The ending of Demolition Man is as over-the-top fun and exciting as the rest of the film: Upon kicking Snipes' frozen head off to shatter on the floor, Stallone runs out of the exploding building, screaming and jumping through iron bars that shatter as he touches them!!
The humor and many fine one-liners of the film mixed with its infectious unpretentiousness really makes it very futile to argue with all the strange coincidences in the plot. So just sit back and enjoy this one.
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| Benjamin Bratt, Sylvester Stallone and Sandra Bullock in campy future uniforms in Marco Brambilla's Demolition Man |
Cost: 59-77 mil. $ (different reports)
Box office: 159.1 mil. $
= Box office success or a flop, depending on the precise cost figure (returned somewhere between 2.06 - 2.69 times the cost)
[Demolition Man premiered 7 October and runs 115 minutes. Jean-Claude Van Damme, Steven Seagal and Jackie Chan were initially sought out for the leads. General Motors supplied 18 concept vehicles for the future section of the film. Shooting took place from February - July 1993 in Kentucky and California, including Los Angeles and San Diego. The shoot and budget ballooned from 45 mil. $ to disputed heights. Taco Bell as the sole surviving fast food chain in the future was changed to Pizza Hut in post production for Europe, where Taco Bell was not widely known. The film opened #1 to a 14.2 mil. $ opening weekend in North America, where it spent three consecutive weeks at #1 and another week in the top 5 (#3) and grossed 58 mil. $ (36.5 % of the total gross.) A Hungarian sci-fi writer has claimed that the film is plagiary of one of his novels; however, he hasn't followed up with a lawsuit. A limited DC Comics adaptation, a video game and a pinball machine were made to further exploit the film's success. Brambilla returned with Excess Baggage (1997). Stallone returned in The Specialist (1994), Snipes in Sugar Hills (1993). Demolition Man is fresh at 64 % with a 5.6 critical average on Rotten Tomatoes.]
What do you think of Demolition Man?
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