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This review is a birthday present for Sly Stallone. On my coast the review would be counted as a belated birthday present, but since the site is on west coast time, and because I don’t want to end up like one of the goons from Rambo 4 for not posting this sooner, I’m counting this birthday present review on time… So, let us get on with the review of Stallone’s futuristic opus; Demolition Man.

Demolition Man, which was released in 1993, is a dystopian action flick. The film starts out in Los Angeles, in 1996. The city has been overrun by psychopaths. The only man brave, or crazy, enough to actually take these crazy fuckers on head to head is a man named John Spartan (Sylvester Stallone); nicknamed Demolition Man because of the amount of property damage he causes while trying to catch someone. Anyway, one day, the craziest of the crazies, Simon Phoenix (Wesley Snipes), kidnaps a shitload of people. Spartan goes in alone to save these people and is able to catch Phoenix. However, Phoenix sets off some explosives that level the build. The remains of the people are found among the debris and Phoenix spins a tale about how Spartan didn’t give a shit about the people and only wanted to get Phoenix. As a result, Spartan and Phoenix are arrested and sentenced to be cryogenically frozen in suspended animation to serve out their time.

The film then fast forwards another thirty-six years into the future… making it 2032. Phoenix is thawed out for his parole hearing and he promptly escapes from his restraints, kills every one in his way and goes along his merry way. After getting away from the prison, Phoenix stumbles upon a computer and is fascinated that he has no problems accessing any information he wants to look up. While Phoenix is at the computer, the police arrive and give a stern talking to Phoenix… mainly because in this future police officers are docile creatures. After Phoenix beats the shit out of the cops and blows up their car, the remaining members of the police force tremble in fear and try to figure out a way to stop him. Along comes Lt. Lenina Huxley (Sandra Bullock). Huxley, who is a 20th century history buff, suggests that they release John Spartan; the only man capable of stop Phoenix. From there on out, Spartan has to figure out a way to stop Phoenix… and deal with some dumb comedic moments, a “love story” and figure out how to master the three sea shells.

For the most part, Demolition Man is a good movie… in a bad way, but still a good movie. A majority of the story solid and because of that, we get some great chemistry between Stallone and Snipes. Marco Brambilla’s direction is fairly solid throughout the entire movie. His movie starts out dark, but then switches to light hearted movie with dark undertones almost effortlessly.

There are numerous areas that prevent Demolition Man from being a truly solid film, two of which were already mentioned above. I’ll refresh your memory just in case you don’t remember what they were, but let me point out that you’re a moron because those two elements aren’t that many lines above this one… Anyway, the first problem is that the film is laced with dumb comedic moments. Yeah, there are a few moments that you’ll laugh at, but the rest of them almost kill the momentum the movie has going for it. The other problem, mentioned before, is the love story between Bullock and Stallone. In short, it’s terrible and seems awkward because there is almost no chemistry between Bullock and Stallone. The last problem the movie has is a side story involving a character named Edgar Friendly (Denis Leary). Phoenix is supposed to go kill Friendly, but the story is uninteresting and never really materializes to anything.

Demolition Man is one of those cheesy movies that people love to watch. The film has its flaws, but they can easily be overlooked.

Final Synopsis: It’s a cheesy movie that you’ll probably love. If you like Stallone you probably already own it, but if you don’t, you should pick it up.

Points Lost: -1 for dumb comedic moments, -1 for the love story between Bullock and Stallone, -1 for the Edgar Friendly side story that wasn’t important in the first place.

Lesson Learned: One day Taco Bell will rule the culinary world.

Burning Question: How do you use the three sea shells?

Demolition Man
7/10

Tags: 1993, action, Benjamin Bratt, Bill Cobbs, comedy, denis leary, grand l. bush, jack black, Jesse "The Body" Ventura, latest movie reviews, Marco Brambilla, Nigel Hawthorne, recent3, Rob Schneider, sandra bullock, sylvester stallone, wesley snipes