Production Year: 1993 - Action/Adventure - Director: Marco Brambilla - Original Language: English - Classification: 15 years and over - Starring:Sylvester Stallone, Wesley Snipes, Sandra Bullock, Nigel Hawthorne, Dan Cortese more
San Angeles, a megalopolis stretching from Santa Barbara to San Diego, is the futuristic utopia of the politically correct. Red meat, salt, sugar, smoking and sex have all been... more
Demolition Man [DVD] [1993]
Searching for new directions, Sylvester Stallone starred in this farcical, 1993 SF piece ... more
about an ex-cop (Stallone) freed from 36 years of forced hibernation to help catch a criminal (Wesley Snipes) who released himself from a similar incarceration. Th...
Demolition Man [DVD] [1993]
Searching for new directions, Sylvester Stallone starred in this farcical, 1993 SF piece ... more
about an ex-cop (Stallone) freed from 36 years of forced hibernation to help catch a criminal (Wesley Snipes) who released himself from a similar incarceration. Th...
Demolition Man
Sylvester Stallone and Wesley Snipes go at it amid a dazzling cyber-future in this ... more
explosive hit. In 2032 arch-criminal Simon Phoenix (Snipes) awakens from a 35-year deep freeze in CryoPrison to find a serene, nonviolent Los Angeles ready for the taking. Unable to deal with Phoenix's brutal 1990's style, officials-seek an old-fashioned cop to fight old-fashion crime. They revive Sgt. John Spartan (Stallone), unjustly serving a CryoPrison sentence because of his last encounter with Phoenix. Sandra Bullock and Benjamin Bratt (TV's Law and Order) also uphold the law in this 'terrific mix of action and humour' (Joel Siegel, Good Morning America/ABC-TV).
Production Year: 2003 - Action/Adventure - Director: Jonathon Mostow - Original Language: English - Classification: 12 years and over - Starring:Arnold Schwarzenegger, Nick Stahl, Claire Danes, Kristinna Loken, David Andrews
Production Year: 1964 - Action/Adventure - Director: Cyril Endfield - Original Language: English - Classification: Parental Guidance - Starring:Stanley Baker, Jack Hawkins, Ulla Jacobsson, James Booth, Michael Caine, Nigel Green
Production Year: 2002 - Action/Adventure - Director: Vincenzo Natali - Original Language: English - Classification: 15 years and over - Starring:Lucy Liu, David Hewlett, Anne Marie Scheffler, Joseph Scoren, Matthew Sharp, Jeremy Northam
A review by DarkMark on Demolition Man (DVD) June 27th, 2003
Author's product rating:
Did you enjoy it?
Liked it
Story
Good
Characters / Performances
Good
Special Effects
Good
Soundtrack
Good
Advantages:
Humerous in places, believable future
Disadvantages:
Typical (yet enjoyable) 90's action film
Recommend to potential buyers:
yes
Full review
Demolition Man, Action, Sci-Fi and Comedy putting action hardmen Sylvester Stallone ("Rocky", "D-Tox") and Wesley Snipes ("Blade", "The Art Of War") together.
In 1996, Sergeant John Spartan (Stallone) is framed for the masacre of a large group of hostages. His sentence: Cryo-Suspension. Evil arch-criminal Simon Pheonix (Snipes) was also caught and frozen after the explosive opening sequence. Fast forward to the year 2032, the world has changed. Los Angeles is a crime free, non violent utopia where physical contact is unthought of and sex can only be performed with a VR headset (where's the fun in that?). Simon Pheonix is thored out (for reason's I won't specify) and escapes captivity, the city is his oyster. The new LA Police can't handle this breed of crime so they reluctantly decide to thor out an old fashioned cop to hunt Pheonix down (that would be Spartan). Sparton is partnered up with police woman Lenina Huxley (Sandra Bullock - "Speed") who has a fasination with late twentith century history. Basically from then on it is a cat & mouse story with kick a$$ action in between.
I have to say this film boasts the most comical and original view of the future I have ever seen. Films such as "Minority Report" and "Equilibrium" (see its review) see the future world as run down and dark. This film goes tottally in the oposite direction. It is a time and place I would consider living in.
Performances on the whole are good. Stallone isn't particulary brilliant as he does exactly what his 'Demolition Man' nickname suggests, which doesn't leave too much room for major character development. Snipes is just as destructive as he progresses through his mission to kill rebel ring leader Edgar Friendly (Denis Leary). Snipes however, does provide a certain charisma and immaturity as if social disobedeance is hobby for his character. Sandra Bullock and fellow officer Benjamin Bratt provide some hilarity in trying to tame John Spartan's 'unneccessary' destruction. They also provide some of the most annoying lines of the film, which perfectly shows the ignorence of their crime-free society. Leary's performance of rebel leader Edgar Friendly is very good, he also provides one of the most hilarious excuses for why he is a rebel...
Edgar Friendly: "You got that right. You see, according to Cockteau's plan, I'm the enemy because I like to think. I like to read, I'm into freedom of speech and freedom of choice. I'm the kind of guy that could sit in a greasy spoon and wonder gee, should I have the T-bone steak or the jumbo rack of barbecue ribs or the side order of gravy fries. I want high cholesterol. I would eat bacon and butter and buckets of cheese. OK. I want to smoke Cuban cigars the size of Cincinnati in the non-smoking section. I want to run through the streets naked with green Jell-O all over my body reading Playboy magazine. Why, because I might suddenly feel the need to. OK? Pal, I've seen the future. Know what it is? It's a 47-year-old virgin sitting around in his pajamas, sipping a banana-broccoli shake, singing 'I'm the Oscar Meyer wiener'. You live up top, you live how he wants. Your other choice: come down here and maybe starve to death"
Nigel Hawthorne play's evilman Raymond Cocteau, the man incharge of the city basically, his performance is also good.
The action in this film is good old fashioned 90s action. And yes there is a difference between 80s/90s action and 21st century action. 21st century action is all CGI, wires etc (The Matrix Reloaded is a good example) 80s/90s action is guns and blood (Best examples are "Die Hard", "Lethal Weapon", "Total Recall" etc) Although the violence factor in demolition man might not be that high, it still follows the same formula. The action is also of good variety from punch ups, explosions, car chases and gun fights. It may seem a little dated now but it is still entertaining to watch.
Soundtrack is very soothing throughout despite it being an action picture, the soundtrack refelects the tame future that the story presents.
There are some hilarious moments in this film, which probably wasn't fully intended but there are parts that did make me laugh. Examples mainly being John Spartan adapting to the very friendly environment of the future. The machine on the wall that fines you a credit for swearing is very funny. The banning of physical contact all the way from sex to hand shaking. For example; Spartan pats a guy on the back saying "How ya doin?", there is then a shot of the guy looking like he's just been raped or something. Another funny moment being the descovery of having to use three seashells after using the toilet as opposed to toilet roll as it no longer exists. (Don't ask me how the three sea shells work, they don't really explain it much in the film)
BOTTOM LINE Demolition Man is good entertainment. Dated maybe, but it is ammusing to see violence and destruction in a light-hearted future, it's just so damn tempting. Stallone flexes his action muscles yet again and puts in a rare, good perfomance. The future portrayed has some much irony within in it that that alone is worth watching. For example, after the San Angeles police watch on CCTV monitors from their police station, Simon Pheonix (Snipes) take out half a dozen officers during their first attempt at arresting him. Officer Erwin (Rob Schinder - uncredited) says:
"We're police officers! We're not trained to handle this kind of violence!"
Ah, how funny...
CERTIFICATE : 15 TIME APPROX : 110 minutes
CAUTION strong violence strong language some moderate sex references
IF YOU LIKE THIS TRY Cliffhanger - Stallone again in arguably his best action outing
'Beep' You Are Find 1 Credit For Abusing The Verbal Morality Statue...
Advantages: Lots of fun, plentiful action and just a little food for thought. Disadvantages: Future 'geek-speak' dialogue grates after a while, a little TOO silly in places.
...actually found myself quite enjoying Demolition Man. And besides, TheNeil says I'm no good at writing those sort of reviews anyway (isn't he beastly?), so if you've clicked onto this opinion expecting to see an onslaught of verbal abuse aimed in the general direction of poor old Sly Stallone, then I'm afraid, in this case, you're going to be sorely disappointed. Granted, the back catalogue of Stallone offers no shortage of targets when it comes to ... ...bad guy maniac' routine but Demolition Man does at least have a streak of originality and enough fresh ideas and snazzy tricks to keep interest levels reasonably high.
It's the not-too-distant-future of Los Angeles, 1996 (?) and Sylvester Stallone is detective John Spartan - The Demolition Man, so called because he has a knack of blowing up buildings in the line of duty. Wesley Snipes is Simon Pheonix, a homicidal madman with a knack of blowing ...
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Ciao members have rated this review on average very helpful
Advantages: Interesting story with some good humour Disadvantages: Some bad acting
Director: Marco Brambilla.
Producers: Joel Silver and Howard Kazanjian.
Writers: Peter M. Lenkov, Robert Reneau and Daniel Waters
Stars: Sylvester Stallone, Wesley Snipes, Sandra Billock, Nigel Hawthorne, Denis Leary, Glen Shadix and Jack Black.
Released in 1993 this movie takes a look into hell on Earth Los Angeles in 1996 and a rather drastically changed place in the year 2032. (Sounds like two movies in one but it isn’t really?) ** BRIEF ... ...has turned into a cess pit full of criminal gangs running the majority of the city, with one gang being run by the evil Simon Phoenix (Wesley Snipes) who is being pursued by Sergeant John Spartan, (Sylvester Stallone).
Phoenix is cornered by Spartan but manages to turn the tables and it is Spartan that ends up on the wrong side of the law, both men soon ending up in a ‘Cryoprison’, where the inmates can cause no more trouble to anyone.
Then, jumping ...
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Ciao members have rated this review on average very helpful
Advantages: Great film Disadvantages: Quite old now
...and 50 minutes long.
Demolition Man even had its own song! Sung by 'STING' who is a well known artist nowadays, the track was named after the film, it was a pure hit and boosted the films ratings, the track wasn't that great though and was only played at the end of the movie in the credits.
ACTORS
As I mentioned before Wesley Snipes and Sylvesture Stallone starred together in this flik. Well known Sandra Bullock also starred a main role in the ... ...what made Sandras name. In Demolition Man, Sandra plays a young woman who is high up in the police squad. She makes most of the decisions in the film to do with what will happen next. She is really funny at times.
Wesley Snipes ~ In this film he plays the bad guy, the hard core criminal whose out to destroy and kill. He is great and full of loads of cheeky comments. I think this is one of Snipes' better films, I enjoyed seeing him as the bad guy.
...
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Ciao members have rated this review on average very helpful
Advantages: Non stop action Disadvantages: A bit cheesy
In 1993, a certain Mr Stallone made a movie which, in my opinion, is right up with the Rocky films as his best role.
Set in 1996, 3 years in the future from when it was made, the world has crumbled around people and criminals are running cities. One of the most persistent offender is Simon Phoenix (Wesley Snipes). After kidnapping a bus load of people and keeping them hostage in an old warehouse, John Spartan (Sly Stallone) turns up to save the ... ...is his chance to finally catch him. Phoenix is soon caught but due to the vast amount of damage caused by Phoenix and Spartan, they are both cryogenically frozen for foreseeable future.
Fast forward 36 years to 2032. The whole world has changed drastically and no longer is there violent crime and danger. LA no longer exists and they are now in San Angeles (the cities of San Diego, Los Angeles and San Francisco decide to become one big city after ...
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Ciao members have rated this review on average very helpful
Advantages: Great action film Disadvantages: Drags a touch in the middle, but nothing major
...film set in 2032, named Demolition Man. The result was a smashing film, with favoured Sly Stallone as a no nonsense cop pitted against crime lord Wesley Snipes. The film did relatively well at the box office, and it's always a good film to watch if you're in the mood for a no brain action film with a bit of a twist!
The film starts off in 1996 ( at the time this was 3 years in the future!), and shows a face off between risk-taking John Spartan (Stallone) ... ...successful capture, the authorities decide that Spartan's methods were unacceptable, and he and Phoenix are both cryogenically frozen. Fast forward to 2032, and Los Angeles has changed: now known as San Angeles, technology has advanced and the law is much stricter, fining people for swearing and with automated criminal detection devices everywhere. Phoenix escapes, and, faced with an unfamiliar villain with old styles of criminality, the only thing ...
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Ciao members have rated this review on average very helpful
Plot: An explosive tale of obsessive pursuit and revenge in 21st Century society. A maverick cop is arrested and sentenced when a hostage situation goes horribly wrong. Held in a cryogenic prison he is released into another century to find an old adversary causing mayhem in a crime-free city.
San Angeles, a megalopolis stretching from Santa Barbara to San Diego, is the futuristic utopia of the politically correct. Red meat, salt, sugar, smoking and sex have all been outlawed. This spells h-e-l-l for John Spartan, a 20th century cop revived to chase down a 20th century terrorist on the loose in this sterile paradise.
Languages
Main Language: English
Subtitle Language: Arabic, English
Hearing Impaired Language: English
Technical information
Special Features: Interactive Menus, Scene Access
Aspect Ratio: 2.35 Wide Screen
Sound: Dolby Digital 5.1
Dubbing Sound: Dolby Digital 5.1 English
Professional reviews
Review: "...DEMOLITION MAN is a significant artifact of our time..." (New York Times, p.C23, 08/10/1993)
"...[The film] is always fun to watch..." (Variety, 18/10/1993)
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