Still a clever poke at PC culture
Whether you see “Demolition Man” as a predictor of a sanitized future or just a satire of a society that has lost all sense of balance, it’s hard to not love what Sylvester Stallone gave us with this sci-fi gem. Even when the film came out in 1993, there was the feeling that action movies were being lightened up. “DM” was Sylvester Stallone going with the flow, but thanks to very funny “Heathers” screenwriter Daniel Watters, he doesn’t do so without some very smart commentary.
The film begins in 1996, which is already an “Escape From L.A.”-like hell hole. Maniac cop John Spartan (Stallone) repels from a helicopter, jumps through a glass window, causes all sorts of explosions, gunfire, and even demolishes a building in the hopes of getting his man, rival maniac Simon Phoenix (Wesley Snipes). Anyone might see this world and think it couldn’t get any worse but “DM” then takes the unexpected course of skewing the other side. Both men are put on ice in cryo-sleep til 2032, where Phoenix somehow manages to escape and cause mayhem. To catch him, the future will need an old-fashioned cop so the battle continues as Spartan is granted parole to kill him.
The hook here is that the future has become a serene bore; even profanity, individuality, caffiene, smoking, choice, pregnancy, and sex are all regulated by tunic-wearing, placid higher-ups who have eliminated the need of worry or thought by anyone else. It’s a fun kind of dystopia where instead of punks wearing silly futuristic garb, nearly everyone here is a wimp. As Rob Schneider, playing a cop, observes of Phoenix’s mayhem “We’re cops. We’re not trained to handle this kind of violence”.
But the film also gets some things about the future very right- that no matter how bad our baser impulses may be, we do have a right to some of them. In a world where anything bad is considered a no-no, it’s also no surprise when we see emotionally suffering people turning to machines, or virtual sex taking over for the real thing.
After the dumpster fire that was “Stop! Or My Mom Will Shoot”, this was also a needed Stallone comedic comeback which he handles with fish out of water consternation- rolling his eyes through funny scenes concerning the explanations of the ridding of masculinity, the three seashells, Taco Bell winning something called the Franchise Wars (hope the sequel touches on this more), and, in a funny returned shot, The Schwarzenegger Presidential Library. Snipes is campy perfection as a man so depraved, he brays laughter at his own mayhem. And Sandra Bullock is very cute at Stallone’s partner, a cop so into 90’s tough guy culture she’s researched it, but doesn’t quite understand it. “You really licked his ass”, she says in one of numerous times she fumbles doing tough banter with Stallone. And Denis Leary is perfectly cast as a ranting underground leader of real progressives who want their right to a cheeseburger, a cigarette, and a beer to remain unscathed.
As for violence, director Marco Brambilla gives us more than enough mayhem, explosions, Stallone running in slo-mo away from them, dangerous looking car chases, and gun fights. But “Demolition Man” has withstood the test of time for a much better reason at the end of the day- it’s a very clever poke at PC culture.