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Demolition Man
Set in the future, this highly implausible action movie still seems to push all the right buttons.
In present day, cop John Spartan (Sly Stallone) is charged with the deaths of hostages in a botched rescue, he is frozen in suspended animation as a ‘jail’ sentence. At the same time, an ultraviolent Simon Phoenix (Wesley Snipes) is also frozen as he was the one who initially kidnapped the people.
In the future, Phoenix is released to find that the place is a giant utopia of peace and tranquillity. He immediately sets about showing the softy residents and police officers how it’s done ‘old skool’ and goes about trying to make the city his own.
So Spartan is released also. They need an old fashioned cop to catch an old fashioned criminal.
As you can imagine, with Sly and Snipes in the lead roles, from then on it’s all smash and crash and cheesy one-liners for 90 minutes.
It’s a fun no-brainer, primarily aimed at mid-teenaged boys and the acting is about standard for the type of smash-em-up movie it is.
One thing that doesn’t make sense, is that this utopian future is based solely in one city after the event of a massive earthquake. What about the rest of the world outside? Surely this is the movie’s biggest plot hole.
Snipes in particular is fun, doing all the things most of the mid-teens watching would like to do.
Stallone is at his usual.
The supporting cast works well, Sandra Bullock is wonderfully out of place amongst the action and Nigel Hawthorne is, as always, very natural in his surroundings.
All in all a loud, brash no-brainer that shouldn’t make sense, yet in a way, does.
My rating 70%
Set in the future, this highly implausible action movie still seems to push all the right buttons.
In present day, cop John Spartan (Sly Stallone) is charged with the deaths of hostages in a botched rescue, he is frozen in suspended animation as a ‘jail’ sentence. At the same time, an ultraviolent Simon Phoenix (Wesley Snipes) is also frozen as he was the one who initially kidnapped the people.
In the future, Phoenix is released to find that the place is a giant utopia of peace and tranquillity. He immediately sets about showing the softy residents and police officers how it’s done ‘old skool’ and goes about trying to make the city his own.
So Spartan is released also. They need an old fashioned cop to catch an old fashioned criminal.
As you can imagine, with Sly and Snipes in the lead roles, from then on it’s all smash and crash and cheesy one-liners for 90 minutes.
It’s a fun no-brainer, primarily aimed at mid-teenaged boys and the acting is about standard for the type of smash-em-up movie it is.
One thing that doesn’t make sense, is that this utopian future is based solely in one city after the event of a massive earthquake. What about the rest of the world outside? Surely this is the movie’s biggest plot hole.
Snipes in particular is fun, doing all the things most of the mid-teens watching would like to do.
Stallone is at his usual.
The supporting cast works well, Sandra Bullock is wonderfully out of place amongst the action and Nigel Hawthorne is, as always, very natural in his surroundings.
All in all a loud, brash no-brainer that shouldn’t make sense, yet in a way, does.
My rating 70%
