Demolish all (Demolition Man (DVD))

Member Name: Ice_Blaster

Product:	Demolition Man (DVD)
Date:	05/10/01 (37 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: loads

Disadvantages: few

Demolition Man is pure entertainment from the word go. It is a fast-paced action hero showpiece with an unusual degree of humour and insight. Most action hero movie humour is simplistic to say the least (i.e. door of camp is blown off hinges with rocket launcher, cue Arnie: "knock, knock"). Demolition Man manages some real belly laughs along the way with some
cosistently witty ideas. The story is that in the late 20th century a gung-ho cop (Sylvester Stallone) and his evil criminal nemisis Simon Pheonix(Wesley Snipes) were cryogenically frozen as punishment after their last destructive encounter. However, in the 21st century Pheonix is mysteriously thawed out and once again goes on the rampage in LA.

The 21st century is a very different world to the one they left, howwever. Violent crime has disappeared, bad language is outlawed and everything is very, well, nice. This is apparantly the outcome of some large scale social
engineering but the corporation that now controls the city. In this era, the police are totally ill equiped to deal with a 20th century psycopath
having never even witnessed a 'Murder Death Kill'. Their only chance is to thaw out Stallone and use his experience. However as the fight between Stallone and Snipes resumes the LAPD find that Stallone is just as hard to control as the man he was released to find.

The majority of the humour comes from the juxtopostion of a 20th century man is this sanitised sci-fi utopia. There are great touches such as the cigarettes which are 90% filter, TV ad jingles treated as classic music and automatic fines for bad language. The cast all give energetic performances and Snipes particularly is in his element as the crazed Pheonix. Stallone
plays up to the jokes with good effect and Sandra Bullock is adorable as the 21st century cop that tries to introduce Stallone to this futuristic new
world. It is also nice to see Dennis Leary pop up as the leader of an
undergound resistance who want to be free to eat meat, swear, drive cars and
control their own lives. While he has recenltly been cast as a romantic lead in a couple of films, here Leary is at his caustic, stand-up comedy style best. Great fun.

Summary: