I LIKE MOVIES #18: DEMOLITION MAN

I wanted a bad action fix so I popped in Demolition Man. I hadn't seen it in years and was kind of surprised by how fun it still is. Part of the fun is how poorly it is aging. It all looks very early 90s and the timeline established within the movie will only become sillier as the real years go by. It's like when you watch Back to the Future II and wonder where your hoverboard is. The fancy pants future, in the case of Demolition Man, is 2032. So within the span of two generations there will be no more murder, no more swearing, and no more sex. A hard pill to swallow but who's looking for realism when this is clearly a case of big dumb escapism action?

Could it be that I'm just a pessimist and I can't imagine a social utopia arriving in the next two decades? Nah. They should have just set it a few hundred years later. You're trying to tell me that people won't know what toilet paper is in 2032? Get real, sista. Let's get back on topic.

Stallone plays John Spartan, a cop who plays by his own rules, who marches to the beat of his own drummer, who does what the the other cops won't, who takes it to the bad dudes despite the reprimands of his superiors, etc, etc. Wesley Snipes plays Simon Phoenix, the kind of amped up bad guy that they just don't seem to make anymore. The two get cryogenically frozen and subsequently thawed out in the TWENTY FIRST CENTURY! There is a plot involving political motivations and assassination attempts. But the whole affair is played lightly and the focus is on explosions and gun fights and jokes about how drastically times have changed.



Wesley Snipes seems to "get" this movie and just has fun with it. Some might say he hams it up, but that's the job of the villain in this type of action movie. His clothes and hair are spot on when it comes to dropping this movie into a time capsule. These are the elements that age like a fine wine. A wonderful Bad Action vintage.

Sandra Bullock adds the "sassy love interest" element that is essential in all great Bad Actioners. Though there is a lurking suspicion that she may be Spartan's daughter, luckily nothing ever comes of it. It would be weird, like when Princess Leia plants one on Luke in Empire. But weirder. Because they have that virtual reality head gear sex.

Demolition Man is a sci-fi/action movie that relies a lot on comedy to lighten the mood. It tries to put some social commentary in the humor for good measure but doesn't get bogged down in it. Like I said, it's big dumb escapism and a fun movie. I doubt the filmmakers expected Dennis Leary's character to inspire the nation to rise up and take to the streets, sticking it to the man from sea to shining sea.

So, yeah. Watch Demolition Man if you want. I give it 2 out of 3 seashells.