Writers: Peter M. Lenkov, Robert Reneau, and Daniel Waters / Director: Marco Brambilla / 1993 / Runtime: 1 Hour, 55 Minutes / 1 Disc / Arrow Video
Buy the movie in 4K here or on Blu-Ray here!
16th December 2024
Review by Paul Dunne
The Pitch: Sylvester Stallone and Wesley Snipes go head-to-head in this classic sci-fi/action blockbuster from Joel Silver, the producer of Die Hard and The Matrix. In 2032, arch criminal Simon Phoenix (Snipes) awakens from a 35-year deep freeze in CryoPrison to find a world where crime is almost non-existent - a serene utopia ripe for the taking. With the police no longer equipped to deal with his 90s-style brutality, they revive 'Demolition Man' Sgt. John Spartan (Stallone), the no-holds-barred police officer unjustly sentenced to CryoPrison who originally took Phoenix down. Old-school cop against old-school criminal, settling their scores on the streets of San Angeles? The future won't know what's hit it. With a script co-written by Daniel Waters (Heathers, Batman Returns) and a supporting cast that includes Denis Leary, Benjamin Bratt, and Sandra Bullock in her breakout role, Demolition Man is an awesome mix of action and humour!
I was one of them. One of the people who just didn’t get it. When I first saw Demolition Man way back in 1993 at the tender age of 18, I thought it was a tonal mess, neither working as a comedy nor much of an action movie. As years went by, and I along with everyone else raced towards my own future, I was happy that the movie seemed to fade into semi-obscurity or at least the kind of obscurity only a major sci-fi action flick produced by one of action cinema’s greatest producer and starring one of the highest-paid actors in the world can actually fade into. That is to say, everyone knows it, but no one is watching. Luckily, there were a few folks at Arrow who didn’t share that view. With their recent Warner Bros catalogue deal in place, Arrow has picked a surprising and entertaining title for restoration and limited edition release, given me a chance to reappraise the film and my feelings about it.
As I mentioned, I dismissed Demolition Man as a nonsense film, thinking a few years later that it was a regressive step backwards in Stallone’s career as an actor – note: not a movie star, an actor – which had started off extremely well with the first and second Rocky films and First Blood, the latter being at the time something of an unsung masterpiece. Watching this reissue made me realise that Stallone may have actually been laying the groundwork for his brief reinvention as a major talent outside of the action genre with Copland, which would arrive three years after Demolition Man’s release. At first glance, this feels like someone learned all the wrong lessons from sci-fi satire Robocop a decade earlier and applied them here, only to be surprised that the laughs and ‘satire’ didn’t work as well in this picture as they had in Verhoeven’s. Now, I realise that director Marco Brambilla and screenwriters Peter M. Lenkov, Robert Reneau and Daniel Waters weren’t satirising the privatisation culture that had fed Robocop’s machine, but instead were looking to the society that we were to become, one of political correctness, leftist inclusionist politics giving license to viciousness and the actualisation of the class war, sharpened to a spear with which we would be stuck every day, wrapped in the soft paper of non-specific ‘threats’ – to our freedoms, our lives, our children!
Like the film itself, those threats were a complete fantasy but Demolition Man did ring warning bells on things we might have to be afraid of. Namely that fascism might wear a friendly mask, offer to make you safer but was in fact the tightening noose around your neck. Watching this again, post-COVID and post-9/11, it seems like a clairvoyant klaxon, sounding the alarm as the rough edges get smoothed out of our lives and our language, giving rise to the hyper-control of our emotions and therefore our actions which seem to be part and parcel of the daily grind now. Like Fight Club but where everyone talks in that vague office vernacular, Demolition Man presents a safe future where physical contact is non-existent, violence is a museum piece and you can’t even take a shit without instructions. Like that story about the Superman costume made for kids that had ‘Wearing this suit does not enable you to fly’ written on it, lest someone donned it and jumped off a roof, the future-scape of Demolition Man feels like a society crafted by lawyers, with boilerplate penalty drilled into every interaction and self-responsibility a non-existent concept. This further accentuates the line between the haves and have-nots, reducing people to committing crimes for food. I mean, shit, I bet even Brambilla didn’t know he was making a documentary. The film was made just after the L.A. riots but seems to duck any accusations of racism, despite the fact that Snipes is the film’s only major black character and arrives to fuck up the future for the pristine white community. It’s worth noting that Snipes himself dismissed any racism in the film’s script by weighing it against how much he, a fairly unknown black actor at the time, was getting paid to do the movie – a movie in which he is second billing just after one of America’s biggest actors of the last decade.
But hey, that’s enough about the subtext. As Garth Marenghi said, anyone using it is a coward (not really, I’m trying to be funny), what about the movie itself? Just how does it hold up after 31 years in cryogenic freeze? Pretty well, if I’m being honest. Arrow’s transfer retains the grain of the film well and enhances that nineties flat look that plagued a lot of the movies of that period. There’s a crisp, blue look to the movie that befits a picture about the gleaming future of cops. If you have to talk about the movie, you of course cannot do so without addressing its star Sylvester Stallone and in doing so, acknowledging just how good he was at this sort of thing. Here, he never looked more sculpted, more defined or more enthused. It also has to be noted just how good his comedy chops were, despite the earlier Stop! Or My Mom Will Shoot! and mob comedy Oscar and their attempts to prove otherwise. His facial tics and bemusement at the constant array of dehumanising changes that the future throws at him are excellent and allow him to actually have fun, something that tough-guy eighties flicks stole from him and by extension, us.
As good as Stallone is though, it’s Sandra Bullock and Wesley Snipes that make Demolition Man what it is. Snipes abandoned vast chunks of his character’s lines and 'improvised his way through scenes, making them funnier, sharper and frankly, edgier. Bullock in one of her earliest roles was shuttled in as a replacement for Lori Petty, after the Point Break actress was deemed to have little or no chemistry with her co-star, and this seems to have made Bullock’s career whilst damaging Petty’s. Bullock was never more charming, funny or attractive as she was in this, displaying the tomboyish qualities she would bring to Speed and While You Were Sleeping, and breathing vigorous energy into every scene she’s in. Dennis Leary also features, but feels like his role suffered a little from edits and the fact that really did not enjoy the experience of making the film. Demolition Man is actually a fun, satirical sci-fi flick that has become better with time as our lives have race to catch up with elements of its society whilst sitting in sharp juxtaposition with others. Does anyone really by the police as a toothless, demilitarised force? Brambilla, who only made one other picture after this, as well as a few bits of TV work, proved to be a capable filmmaker with a clear sense of storytelling and motivation throughout. Sure, there are some downsides to the film – you have to put up with Rob Schneider, after all. But with Arrow’s beautiful Limited Edition set, this film should now take its place as an under-appreciated, high-quality actioner that deserves rediscovery by an audience. Whilst it’s not a movie that’s about something, there are definitely undercurrents that are about something, even if they have to be retrofitted. The future nostalgia awaits you! Just don’t ask me how those Seashells work...
SPECIAL FEATURES
LIMITED EDITION BLU-RAY CONTENTS
Brand new 4K restoration from the original 35mm camera negative by Arrow Films, approved by director Marco Brambilla
Includes both the domestic "Taco Bell" and international "Pizza Hut" versions of the film presented via seamless branching
Original lossless DTS-HD MA 5.1 and Dolby Atmos audio options
Optional English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing
As mentioned in the review, Arrow’s transfer is excellent, giving you excellent colour reproduction and contrast. The grain is very noticeable on composited shots, but overall this looks as fresh as its release day. The Audio options are likewise, very good. The dialogue is clear and crisp throughout, with a focus on some of the sound effects, improving on previous releases of the film.
Brand new audio commentary by director Marco Brambilla and screenwriter Daniel Waters
Brand new audio commentary by film historian Mike White of the Projection Booth podcast
Archive audio commentary by Marco Brambilla and producer Joel Silver
The commentaries (two from this year, and one from a previous release) are informative and fun, with Waters and Brambilla sharing their reminiscences of making the film. Mike White adds more stories giving you a solid overall picture of the film’s creation, its release and subsequent rediscovery.
Demolition Design, a new interview with production designer David L. Snyder
Cryo Action, a new interview with stunt coordinator Charles Percini
Biggs' Body Shoppe, a new interview with special make-up effects artist Chris Biggs
Tacos and Hockey Pucks, a new interview with body effects set coordinator Jeff Farley
The four featurettes are nicely done, with various crew members discussing their contribution to the film, and have been created exclusively for this release.
Somewhere Over the Rambo, a new visual essay by film scholar Josh Nelson
Nelson offers up a fascinating deep dive into the film, Stallone’s career and this film’s place in it. Nelson, perhaps surprisingly, compares Stallone’s journey to Dorothy’s in The Wizard of Oz and makes a good argument for his case!
Theatrical trailer
Image Gallery
60-page perfect bound collector's book featuring new writing by film critics Clem Bastow, William Bibbiani, Priscilla Page and Martyn Pedler
Another excellent tome in Arrow’s ever-growing bookshelf, this offers further readings of the film by new and challenging critical voices.
Limited edition packaging featuring newly commissioned artwork by Laurie Greasley
Double-sided fold-out poster featuring original and newly commissioned artwork by Laurie Greasley
6 postcard-sized art cards
Three Seashells' and 'Edgar Friendly graffiti' stickers
Reversible sleeve featuring original and newly commissioned artwork by Laurie Greasley
Demolition Man is available in a Limited Edition 4K UHD Set and a Limited Edition Blu-Ray Set direct from Arrow films.
