Action stars are not what they used to be in the 80´s and 90´s. Nothing wrong with skinny action stars in one way, but the action films of the 80´s showed us how it should be. You should have big muscles, a lot of guns, plots that didn´t make much sense and of course characters who were cool. It didn´t matter how cheesy the dialogue was because that was the way it should be. I remember when i had a very bizarre dream as a teenager in the early 90´s. There was a postman i didn´t like delivering letters in our neighboorhood and he was not friendly at all. Everytime i saw him he looked so mean and it felt like he wanted to kill me ( he had a very evil look ). So in this dream i had i was walking downtown with a grenade launcher to see this postman at his job. I went inside the building and asked for him and post office workers were terrified and as they pointed to where he was, i raised my grenade launcher and said:- You gave me the wrong letter, here is the right one. I shot him with the grenade launcher so he exploded and as i walked out i saw the building begin to burn. This is honesty the best dream i have ever had and i still remember it almost 30 years later. I understand that it might be difficult to do today in 2023, but in 1993 things were much more easier. There was a lot of things you could do back then like blow up smaller mountains ( yes we made like pipe bombs in a friends home ) and decapitate manequin dolls at a garbage station. Those were the good days when everything made perfect sense compared to today. Speaking of 1993 this was really a golden year for action films, no matter what your favourite action star was at that time. You had Jean-Claude Van Damme kicking a lot of ass in John Woo´s film Hard Target, Sniper with Tom Berenger and Billy Zane as snipers in the jungles of Panama, True Romance with Patricia Arquette and Christian Slater, or how about the classic American Yakuza with Viggo Mortensen? The list just never ends so i have to say there are a lot of films you have to see if you have not seen the ones that i mentioned. You all know legendary action star Sylvester Stallone right? Of course you do as John Rambo in the Rambo franchise, and in 1993 he released a huge action film under the name of Demolition Man. A futuristic action film where he battled against Wesley Snipes on screen. This film turns 30 years this autumn so it felt like a perfect time to do a 30 Years Anniversary Review of Demolition Man. Is this still one of the better action films of 1993 or have Demolition Man aged more than i want to admit?
The year is 1996, and psychopathic criminal Simon Phoenix ( Wesley Snipes ) kidnaps a busload of hostages and takes refuge in an abandoned building. LAPD Sergeant John Spartan ( Sylvester Stallone ), nicknamed "The Demolition Man" enter the abandoned building without any permission. He manage to capture Simon as the building blows up, but he finds out that all civilians are dead and they don´t believe he checked the whole building. As punishment for the death of all the civilians Spartan is sentenced together with Phoenix to lengthy terms in the city´s new "California Cryo-Penitentiary", a prison where you freeze down prisoners by using subliminal rehabilitation techniques. In 2032, the city of Los Angeles - a megapolis formed from the merger of Los Angeles, San Diego and Santa Barbara - is a seemingly peaceful utopia designed and run by Dr. Raymond Cocteau ( Nighel Hawthorne ). Phoenix is thaowed for a parole hearing and escapes the Cryo-Prison thanks to a secret password. With Simon Phoenix out on the streets all hell breaks loose. No one is used handling a criminal as he kill police officers and civilians, so they only have once choice, they need to wake up John who really knows who Phoenix is and how he functions.
If you look at Demolition Man today you might think that there are some details that may be strange, thinking this was supposed to be the future. But in the 90´s they had their way to predict the future so i would advise you not to think about that too much. If you leave certain details behind and just look at the full picture of what Demolition Man really is, this is an action feast that does not only smell like the 90´s but looks very 90´s as well. Since i have always been a big fan of Sylvester Stallone he knows exactly what he needs to do to make a film like this entertaining. His character John Spartan is just as tough and loud as you want him to be, and he clearly doesn´t take shit from anyone. Stallone always knew how to make certain moments funny with his comedic timing, and the future version of how people are having sex is definetely a highlight. Never have i seen a man so disappointed finding out that in the future 2 people don´t have physical sex together. I also enjoy the scene where John finds out they have a Arnold Schwarzenegger library, dedicated to President Scwarzengger . Actress Sandra Bullock is not only charming as Lieutenant Lenina Huxley but she also deliver some funny dialogue as well when she´s trying to be cool, just as they were in the 90´s ( that im sure not everyone would agree on ). Wesley Snipes as the bad ass evil charactor Simon Phoenix is perfect in this role. He knows how to say his dialogue in a smooth unique way that matches his character so well, and his physical performance kicking ass looks really good. The action scenes are bombastic and you get plenty of shooting scenes and explosions as well. Director Marco Brambilla knows exactly what the audience wants in a film like this, and he manage to balance this in a professional way, Demolition Man may have turned 30 years but it is just as much fun as it was back in the cinema in 1993. There is just something special about seeing Stallone in the future and Demolition Man proved that you can combine comedy and action and make it work. Demolition Man is without a doubt still today one of the big classics of Sylvester Stallone´s amazing career and will continue to be so.
Rating: DDDD
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