If you’ve never seen Demolition Man, you are fined one credit for a violation of the Awesome Nineties Movie Statute

It’s been a quarter of a century since “Demolition Man” first blew us on screen, licking our ass and matching our meet with its blend of high-octane action and surprisingly prescient sci-fi. With only 14 years to go until Simon Phoenix and John Spartan are thawed out, it’s time to celebrate the movies 25th anniversary, so I’d like to invite you to join me, at Taco Bell!

In 1996, a hostage rescue operation goes explosively wrong, apparently killing all the hostages but results in the apprehension of terrorist Simon Phoenix (Wesley Snipes) by John ‘Demolition Man’ Spartan (Sylvester Stallone). Both Phoenix and Spartan are imprisoned in a new state-of-the-art cryogenic correctional facility for their crimes but when Phoenix is thawed out for a routine parole hearing in a utopian 2032 San Angeles and escapes, the Police Department decide they need to defrost a maniac to catch a maniac.

Welcome to the future, John Spartan – the world is your three seashells! The film strikes a winning balance between sci-fi social commentary and wall-to-wall action with superb production design, costumes and practical effects transforming the well-chosen locations into an authentic-feeling superficially utopian future. Incredibly, its this aspect of the film which has aged the best, with its wry take on a society of fastidious avoidance of anything that may cause ‘offence’ and anything declared ‘unhealthy’ uncannily foreshadowing today’s culture of outrage, opprobrium and interventionist militant killjoys.

At the head of this seeming utopia is Doctor Raymond Cocteau, played by a magnificently mendacious Nigel Hawthorne, amping up the oily charm of his famous Sir Humphrey character to the nth degree. Reputedly he did not get on with the rest of the cast, notably Stallone and Snipes, but you’d never guess it from on screen and its Doctor Cocteau is an underrated and often overlooked cinematic villain of the time.

Stallone’s Spartan instantly feels like another tailor-made character for Sly (and would go on to inform much of his interpretation of Joseph Dredd in 1995’s “Judge Dredd” movie) and it’s ironic that the character’s dry sense of humour would be the thing that made it feel particularly Stallone-esque (it’s hard to imagine Schwarzenegger playing Spartan with the same lightness of touch) given that “Demolition Man” was the second part of Stallone’s two-step flight to action safety (the first being “Cliffhanger” after the near terminal cratering of “Stop Or My Mom Will Shoot”. As bad as 1992 had been for Stallone, 1993 was a banner year.

Snipes is clearly having a lot of fun as Simon Phoenix and although he wasn’t a fan of Phoenix’s bleach blonde hair, Dennis Rodman certainly was. The film also provided a break-out role for Sandra Bullock (which would be cemented the following year in “Speed”) after she replaced original Lenina Huxley actress Lori Petty. There’s also an early appearance by Jack Black as one of Edgar Friendly (Denis Leary)’s ‘scraps’.

Despite how polished and slick the final product is, it was not an untroubled production. Apart from Hawthorne’s antipathy to his fellow actors and the film in general (he only took the part to prove to producers that he had the cinematic gravitas to retain the role of King George III in the forthcoming production of “The Madness Of King George”), the executives at Warner Brothers were unhappy with the original two-hour cut (plus ça change), feeling it was too graphically violent so they brought in Stuart Baird (still ten years away from killing the “Star Trek” movie franchise stone dead) to work his editing magic and trimming the film and its levels of violence down to a more commercially marketable movie.

A smart, sci-fi actioner with a keen sense of social irony, “Demolition Man” was probably slightly ahead of its time when it was released but that’s probably why it’s stood the test of time so well. No need to put this one back in the freezer. Be well!

demolition man review
Score 8/10
logo

Related posts

The Equalizer (2014) Review

The Equalizer (2014) Review

Denzel Washington is a much more graphic Equalizer than I remember from TV “The Equalizer” is part remake, part reimagining and part origin story. Taking its inspiration from the 1980s Edward Woodward starring TV Series, the movie dirties it up a bit and adds a hard edge of...

The Two Popes (2019) Review

The Two Popes (2019) Review

Netflix's The Two Popes explores the fallibility of the infallible It would seem to be something of a contradiction in terms to deliver a warm and whimsical drama about the leadership of the Catholic Church during some of its most tumultuous years but that’s exactly what "The Two...

Jupiter Ascending (2015) Review

Jupiter Ascending (2015) Review

If the sequel is called "Saturn Ascending", we'd better hope it's not a trilogy! There’s been a lot of shade thrown (yeah, I’m down with the kids) at “Jupiter Ascending”. In fact, it rapidly took over from “The Interview” as the film people wanted to talk down and it’s...

Venom: The Last Dance (2024) Review

Venom: The Last Dance (2024) Review

Venom: The Last Dance is strictly dumb, chancing its luck. Venom: The Last Dance – a self-declared and self-imposed curtain call for cinema’s favourite symbiote – clearly has its eyes set on delivering a high-stakes, epic finale for Eddie Brock, as he faces off against both earthly foes...

Andy Warhol’s Blood For Dracula (1975) Review

Andy Warhol's Blood For Dracula (1975) Review

Come for the atrocious eurotrash acting, stay for the extended scenes of vomiting. Those of you who prefer to refer to “The Witch” as “The VVitch” will be delighted to know that you can refer to this curate’s egg of a horror movie as “Blood For Dracvla” if you wish. Be warned...

Star Trek: Lower Decks S2E03 – We’ll Always Have Tom Paris Review

Star Trek: Lower Decks S2E03 - We'll Always Have Tom Paris Review

WE’LL ALWAYS HAVE TOM PARIS not only honours one of STAR TREK VOYAGER’s more memorable characters, it also marks the first time I’ve felt STAR TREK LOWER DECKS stumble a little. There’s an odd self-consciousness to the shenanigans this week, a lack of polish that means you can almost hear...

Star Trek: The Motion Picture (1979) Review

Star Trek: The Motion Picture (1979) Review

"Ready or not, we launch in twelve hours" I guess I would consider myself a lapsed Trekkie (I was never that bothered about the difference between Trekkie and Trekker), losing my faith somewhere between the last couple of seasons of “Star Trek: Voyager” and the launch of...

What’s Past Is Prologue

What's Past Is Prologue

What's past may be prologue but what's ahead is pure Trekky goodness. *SPOILERS* By this point, “Star Trek: Discovery” has used more quotes as titles than you could shake a spear at (it’s also batting way above average in getting characters to announce the episode title in dialogue)...