DEMOLITION MAN
A film review by James Berardinelli
Copyright 1993 James Berardinelli
DEMOLITION MAN
Rating (Linear 0 to 10): 3.4
Date Released: 10/8/93
Running Length: 1:54
Rated: R (Violence, language, brief nudity)
Starring: Sylvester Stallone, Wesley Snipes, Sandra Bullock, Nigel Hawthorne, Denis Leary Director: Marco Brambilla Producers: Joel Silver, Michael Levy, and Howard Kazanjian Screenplay: Daniel Walters, Robert Reneau, and Peter M. Lenkov Music: Elliot Goldenthal Released by Warner Brothers
It's 1996 and Los Angeles has become a war zone. The Hollywood sign is on fire, and the rest of the city is in worse shape. Into this situation comes one of LA's most feared cops, John Spartan, the "demolition man" (Sylvester Stallone), an officer who will destroy a $7 million building to save one little girl's life. His nemesis is sadistic psycho Simon Phoenix (Wesley Snipes) who kills for the joy of it. In a seven-minute, action-filled prologue, Good Guy chases Bad Guy through a burning, exploding inferno. Alas, however, even though our valiant hero captures his prey, he gets blamed for the deaths of innocent hostages, and, like the evil villain he pursued, is sentenced to many years in cryogenic captivity.
Shift the scene to 2032. Bad Guy has escaped and the peace-loving cops of the decade have released Good Guy prematurely from his sleep, because he's the only one who can stop the sudden spree of death and mayhem. Accompanied by his partner Love Interest (aka Lenina Huxley, played by Sandra Bullock), Good Guy again sets off in pursuit. Many dead bodies, bruises, torn shirts, and explosions later, we in the audience start to feel that this film is going absolutely nowhere, and taking an awfully long time getting there.
Actually, it probably isn't as bad as all that, but the plot of this movie is too obviously just an idiotic framework upon which to hang the numerous action sequences that push DEMOLITION MAN forward. Although essentially pointless and ultimately repetitious, these are occasionally entertaining. The tedious part is when an attempt is made to create a story around the shoot-outs and explosions.
For something like this to work, suspension of disbelief is necessary, yet the movie makes no attempt to create a viable scenario whereby this can be achieved. The world of 2032 is cartoon-like, with silly, stilted dialogue peppered with awkward-sounding slang (perhaps a linguist should have been consulted), and technological achievements that are better- suited to one-hundred years beyond this time. The brief history lesson we're given of the years between 1996 and 2032 tells a tale that is so ludicrous it's laughable.
Laughter is something that DEMOLITION MAN is good at generating but, as you can probably guess, most of the funniest bits are supposed to be serious. Assuredly, the movie tries for a fair amount of comic relief, but those moments are mostly comprised of juvenile gags and one-liners. It's incidents like when Wesley Snipes gets whacked twice with a TV set and barely suffers a bruise that make up the real humor.
All-in-all, this is about as brainless as action films get. There might have been some attempt to imitate elements of TOTAL RECALL, but most of this seems to have gotten lost someplace in the numerous re-writes. There's a subplot about Good Guy's lost daughter that also gets dropped. My pet theory is that she was supposed to be Sandra Bullock, but when the decision was made to create Love Interest, that part of the story got stripped away. After all, it wouldn't do to have intimations of incest in a straightforward action flick. All we need in a Stallone movie are fights and profanity.
Speaking of profanity, one of the few running gags that works (at least in the beginning - it gets annoying with repetition) is a "Big Brother" machine that fines people for incidents of swearing. Also a source of mild amusement is the fascination of the people of 2032 with 20th century commercial jingles. "I Wish I Was an Oscar Meyer Wiener" is a big hit.
It's about as meaningless to talk about acting as characterization. Sylvester Stallone grunts and flexes his muscles. Wesley Snipes grimaces and bares his pearly-whites (and what's the deal with that awful blonde hairdo?). Sandra Bullock proves just how silly her dialogue is. And Denis Leary is Denis Leary, doing his slick fast-talking routine and seeming completely out of place (you keep waiting for the multi-nicknamed Deion Sanders to show up).
Yes, this film is worse than CLIFFHANGER, Stallone's last venture into chaos. And, while I'm not one to leap forward and extol the limitless virtues of TOTAL RECALL, that motion picture is a masterpiece in comparison to this one. At least there, the future was believable. Here, it's a hopelessly cliched place where the explosions can conveniently be boosted by a few nifty (but not especially original) special effects.
In the end, that's all this film is: flames, flying bullets, and special effects. It could be worse, I suppose, but as long as people go into this film with their eyes open, there shouldn't be any surprises. And if there's one lasting question to carry away from DEMOLITION MAN, it's how Arnold Schwarzenegger could become President of the United States, sixty- first amendment notwithstanding.
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