DEMOLITION MAN [1993 / 2019] [Blu-ray] [UK Release]
The 21st Century Most Dangerous Cop! The 21st Century Most Ruthless Criminal!
Sylvester Stallone and Wesley Snipes go at it amid a dazzling cyber-future in this explosive hit. In 2032 arch criminal Simon Phoenix [Wesley Snipes] awakens from a 35-year deep freeze in CryoPrision to find a serene, non-violent Los Angeles ready for the taking. Unable to deal with Simon Phoenix’s brutal 1990s style, officials seek an old-fashioned cop to fight old-fashioned crime. They revive LAPD Sgt John Spartan [Sylvester Stallone], unjustly serving a CryoPrison sentence because of his last encounter with Phoenix. Sandra Bullock, Benjamin Bratt and Denis Leary also plays rough and tough in this terrific mix of action and humour.
FILM FACT No.1: Awards and Nominations: 1993 Awards Circuit Community Awards: Nominated: Best Visual Effects. 1993 Motion Picture Sound Editors, USA: Nominated: Golden Reel Award for Best Sound Editing in Feature Film Music for Franklin Jones Jr. 1994 Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy & Horror Films, USA: Nominated: Saturn Award for Best Science Fiction Film. Nominated: Saturn Award for Best Costumes for Bob Ringwood. Nominated: Saturn Award for Best Special Effects for Kimberly Nelson LoCascio and Michael J. McAlister. 1994 ASCAP Film and Television Music Awards: Win: Top Box Office Film for Elliot Goldenthal. 1994 MTV Movie + TV Awards: Nominated: MTV Movie Award for Best Villain for Wesley Snipes. 1994 Razzie Awards: Nominated: Worst Supporting Actress for Sandra Bullock.
FILM FACT No.2: Some aspects of the film ‘DEMOLITION MAN’ allude to Aldous Huxley's dystopian novel, “Brave New World.” General Motors provided the production team with 18 concept vehicles, including the Ultralite. More than 20 fiberglass replicas of the Ultralite were produced to portray civilian and SAPD patrol vehicles in the film. After filming had completed, the remaining Ultralites were returned to Michigan as part of GM's concept vehicle fleet. The film featured the actual demolition of one of the buildings of the famed, no longer operative Belknap Hardware and Manufacturing Company in Louisville, Kentucky. The film mentions Arnold Schwarzenegger having served as President of the United States, after a Constitutional amendment was passed allowing him to run for the office due to his popularity. Coincidentally, a day short of exactly ten years after the film's release, the Californian "The Governator" election was scheduled.
Cast: Sylvester Stallone, Wesley Snipes, Sandra Bullock, Nigel Hawthorne, Benjamin Bratt, Bob Gunton, Glenn Shadix, Denis Leary, Grand L. Bush, Pat Skipper, Steve Kahan, Paul Bollen, Mark Colson, Andre Gregory, John Enos III, Troy Evans, Don Charles McGovern, Bill Cobbs, Patricia Rive, Anneliza Scott, Dean Minerd, Kristopher Logan, Paul Perri, Susan Lentini, Casey Wallace, Trent Walker, Chris Durand, Brett A. Jones, Dan Cortese, Lara Harris, Sam Nehira, Claude Oatts, Alex Chapman, Brandy Ledford, Rosemarie Lagunas, Ken Baldwin, Jack Black, Michael Buice, Carlton Wilborn, Charles Glass, Ben Jurand, Billy D. Lucas, Rhino Michaels, Toshishiro Obata, Jesse Ventura, Alex Ardenti (uncredited), Mark Atteberry (uncredited), Adrienne Barbeau (Main Frame Computer voice) (uncredited), Vanna Bonta (Computer voice) (uncredited), Tom Bysiek (uncredited), Tracee Cocco (uncredited), Jennifer Darling (uncredited), Mogens Eckert (uncredited), Robert Grasmere (uncredited), Bryan Hanna (uncredited), Paul Dion Monte (uncredited), Christopher Sararo (uncredited), Rob Schneider (uncredited), Stewart Skelton (uncredited) and Kevin Ula Christie (uncredited)
Director: Marco Brambilla
Producers: Aaron Schwab, Craig Sheffer, Faye Schwab, Howard G. Kazanjian, Jacqueline George, James Herbert, Joel Silver, Michael Levy, Pete Catalano, Steven Bratter, Steven Fazekas and Tony Munafo
Screenplay: Peter M. Lenkov (story/ screenplay), Robert Reneau (story/ screenplay) and Daniel Waters (screenplay)
Composer: Elliot Goldenthal
Cinematography: Alex Thomson, B.S.C. (Director of Photography)
Image Resolution: 1080p (Technicolor)
Aspect Ratio: 2.40:1
Audio: English: 5.1 DTS-HD Master Audio
French: 5.1 Dolby Digital Audio
Spanish 5.1 Dolby Digital Audio
Português: 5.1 Dolby Digital Audio
English: 5.1 Dolby Digital Audio
Subtitles: English SDH, French, Spanish and Português
Running Time: 115 minutes
Region: All Regions
Number of discs: 1
Studio: Silver Pictures / Warner Home Video
Andrew’s Blu-ray Review: With the film ‘DEMOLITION MAN’ [1993] we find that it is the year is 1996, and Los Angeles is a burning war zone in ‘DEMOLITION MAN.’ Psychopathic criminal Simon Phoenix [Wesley Snipes] has taken 30 hostages inside an abandoned building, and LAPD Sgt John Spartan [Sylvester Stallone], operating under the maxim "Send a maniac to catch one," jumps out of a police chopper onto the building in order to stop Simon Phoenix. Instead, Simon Phoenix detonates the building, presumably killing the hostages as a result, and while Simon Phoenix is caught, Spartan is charged with manslaughter. They are sentenced to being cryogenically frozen while being exposed to subliminal messages intended to correct their violent tendencies.
In 2032, Simon Phoenix is unthawed long enough to have a parole hearing. During the hearing, Simon Phoenix breaks out of the prison to find a world much different than the world he left. It's a society in which pacifism and docility is strictly enforced, so much so that the police now have zero experience with apprehending violent criminals. The only option for the police is to unthaw LAPD Sgt John Spartan and promise him parole if he apprehends Simon Phoenix. But the leader and mastermind of this sanitized society of forced civility, Dr. Raymond Cocteau [Sir Nigel Hawthorne], sees in Simon Phoenix an opportunity to kill Edgar Friendly [Denis Leary], a leader of an underground resistance group who wants to bring back a world where it's OK to swear, eat meat, and have direct sexual intercourse. With Lieutenant Leina Huxley [Sandra Bullock], a contemporary cop with both a fascination and repulsion for the savagery of the 20th century as embodied by Simon Phoenix. So Lieutenant Leina Huxley and LAPD Sgt John Spartan who must not only find a way to end Simon Phoenix's reign of terror before it starts, but also find a way to balance the safety of contemporary society with the freedoms lost as a result.
With its sci-fi satire of modern-day consumerism and forced civility at the cost of personal freedom, this film had a message to convey. The humour of futuristic toilets, fines for cursing, and the cops who don't know how to arrest anyone is clever, no matter what debts it might owe to Brave New World and the Hungarian sci-fi writer who claimed the film plagiarized one of his novels. But these messages on behaviourism and social engineering don't get much space to breathe amongst the bombast and frenzy of two action-movie stars knocking hell out of each other in a plethora of very violent ways.
The film ‘DEMOLITION MAN’ has Sylvester Stallone; the big beefy no holds barred LAPD Sgt John Spartan who does a lot of rolling his eyes at a world that no longer places any value on 20th century testosterone attitudes, and gets some light chemistry going with Sandra Bullock, who is also a cop who’s such a product of the post-aggressive future that she speaks like an android. As for the real evil baddie, Simon Phoenix, who has hair dyed the colour of an upset stomach, gives a performance of operatic schlockiest, laughing in the face of everything.
With the film ‘DEMOLITION MAN’ is as much a piece of cheesy tongue in cheek humour as a grade-B sci-fi film of the 1950s, which also much satirised, with an outlook of edging towards a literal-mindless brainy emasculation of the future. The main difference is that those films of the 1950s didn’t climax with 45 minutes of over the top smashing mayhem.
Clearly Sylvester Stallone and Wesley Snipes clearly had a blast, and you can't help but share the joke: from acquiring 20th Century memorabilia that is collected by 21st Century police officer Sandra Bullock who has a poster for the film ‘Lethal Weapon 3,’ to in-references to the Arnold Schwarzenegger Presidential Library. Wesley Snipes gets to quote lots of references from the film ‘Scarface’ and Sylvester Stallone sends himself up something rotten. The techno-gadgetry used in the film is just brilliant, and there is even sort of a message in here somewhere, like for instance "Hurting people is not a good thing," chides our Sly, "well, sometimes it is."
First-time director Marco Brambilla delivers the ultraviolence with spectacular comic book genre and results from a running start to a build-up to the mind-boggling action into climactic special effects frenzy so stupendous as to freeze any criticism in its tracks. Think of the film ‘Rocky I’ not ‘Rocky IV,’ with a tongue firmly in its cheek and of course what Sylvester Stallone does best: kicking ass! If ever there was a film equivalent to the one-night stand this is it — not necessarily something you'll remember next day, but fast, furious and damn good fun while it lasts, so sit back and enjoy the ride of your life, you will not be disappointed.
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DEMOLITION MAN MUSIC TRACK LIST
PLOP, PLOP, FIZZ, FIZZ (Written by Tom Dawes and Bob Wilvers)
COME ALIVE (You're in the Pepsi Generation) (Written by Sid Ramin) (Courtesy of Pepsi-Cola Company)
MY DOG’S BETTER THAN YOUR DOG (Written by Dick Marx and Tom Paxton) (Courtesy of Quaker Oats Company)
THE ARMOUR HOT DOG JINGLE (Courtesy of Armour Swift Eckrich)
GOOD THINGS FROM THE GARDEN (Written by Bernie Saber and Robert Noel) [Performed by Dan Cortese]
THE LOVE BOAT THEME (Written by Charles Fox and Paul Williams)
NOBODY DOESN’T LIKE SARA LEE (Written by Fred Ebb and Mitch Leigh) (Courtesy of Sara Lee Bakery)
DEMOLITON MAN (Written by Sting) [Performed by Sting]
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Blu-ray Image Quality – The film ‘DEMOLITION MAN’ is presented to you via Warner Home Video with an exceptional 1080p transfer and looks really great with very good detail. Small strands of hair and textures of the skin can be seen on Sylvester Stallone and Sandra Bullock. Also good are the background images that have very good definition without appearing too out of focus. I’m am also very impressed with the look of the colour as it’s neither aggressive nor muted, and seems to fit nicely within this future sci-fi genre film. But be warned, especially with Wesley Snipes rather camp colour 1990s outfits! On top of all that, the image contrasts are also very good quality. White levels are nice and bright without getting too washed out and black level colours are suitably deep without any loss in the shadow detail. Overall this is a very nice improved 1080p image upgrade when compared to my inferior DVD copy. So very well done Warner Home Video.
Blu-ray Audio Quality – The ‘DEMOLITION MAN’ Warner Home Video brings you an awesome 5.1 DTS-HD Master Audio and being a film nearly 20 years old, it holds up very well compared to modern technology recordings. Sound effects are spread around all of the speakers with the music film score coming through as the best element within the boundaries of your speakers. Dialogue is very clear among the massive amount of sound effects, but Sylvester Stallone’s low mumbling voice is near on perfectly audible, and Sandra Bullock’s excitement is decidedly captured without any hindrance. Gun shots are limited audio fidelity and especially the audio dynamics scenes during the escape from the museum. As for a surround sound experiences, all five speakers are filled with music and effects to wrap the viewer with excitement, especially with the action packed scenes in the film. So once again, well done Warner Home Video for producing a really excellent audio experience.
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Blu-ray Special Features and Extras:
Audio Commentary with Director Marco Brambilla and Producer Joel Silver: Here to first introduce themselves is Marco Brambilla who informs us that he is the director of ‘DEMOLITION MAN,’ which annoyingly informs us that this id the inferior DVD audio commentary. Next to introduce themselves is Joel Silver, who of course is the producer of this animated film and throughout the audio commentary it is mainly Marco Brambilla who does most of the talking. We are informed that the first image of the film is the view of Los Angeles in 1986, and is under military regime and we view how the city has become lawless and in a civil war situation, which when filmed, and tells us that 6 months later was when Los Angeles had the real civil riots with lots of burning of buildings and excessive looting. But when you see the large building on fire it was all done with CGI optical. But when you see the actual building being blown up and collapse, this was actually designated to be demolished anyway and of course they brought in expert demolishing team to supervise the job of blowing up the building and of course this is what you see in the film. They were really pleased to get the actor Bob Gunton on-board, because they really liked his character in the film ‘The Shawshank Redemption.’ All the futuristic buildings we see in the distance were all done by matt paintings. They were also very pleased to get the actor Sir Nigel Hawthorn on-board because they felt his character reflected his English persona of portraying a superior type person, especially working with scenes with Wesley Snipes. When we see Sylvester Stallone defrosted, he was quite happy to be filmed in the nude, but just before they shot that scene, Sylvester Stallone wanted to do some pumping of iron to beef up his body, especially the whole of his muscular body. When you see Sylvester Stallone again in another scene talking to Sir Nigel Hawthorn via the monitor screens, sometimes they got some flare from the lighting and they were very expensive then, despite Sylvester Stallone shooting his gun at the LCD screen. When we get near to the end of the film, where Sylvester Stallone and Wesley Snipes have that massive shootout in the Cryogenics facility where they were both frozen, we find out it was the most complicated scene to film, especially with all of the 40 Nitro-glycerine containers, and especially the strobe lighting and the steam, on top of that there were a lot of the special effects team on hand to facilitate the filming this massive scene, because there were a considerable amount of elements were involved in setting up the scene. When you see Wesley Snipes gets frozen and all the massive amount of explosions happening at the same time, this was filmed at 300 frames a second and this was a real set and not one done by CGI computer generated scenes. But when you see the outside of the building and the massive flames shooting out of the building, this was actually done with CGI special effects. We find out that Sylvester Stallone’s daughter had a bit part in the film, but due to circumstances, her scenes ended up on the cutting room floor, I wonder why that was? Both audio commentators say what they like about the film ‘DEMOLITION MAN’ is the tongue in cheek humour, but whereas most action films get very generic and very formulaic, and they did not the film to be PC [Political Correctness] gone mad, which I agree 100%, which would be so dullsville, and having Sylvester Stallone as a barbaric policeman of the 20th century attitude worked well for them, and it was very enjoyable to make the film, especially with this type of sci-fi film, and felt it had a fresh look to the film, despite going slightly over budget and they both hope you enjoyed their audio commentary. As a sort of post script, I felt most of the time they just rambled on about things that went right over my head that would have only been of interest with people in the film industry, other than that, about 50% of the audio commentary was of interest to me, and were very interesting to listen to. So give it a try and see if you agree with my last comments.
Theatrical Trailer [1993] [1980i] [1.78:1] [2:06] This is the Original Trailer for the film ‘DEMOLITION MAN.’
Finally, with the film ‘DEMOLITION MAN,’ there is the cop LAPD Sgt John Spartan [Sylvester Stallone] who breaks the law to enforce the law. There is the totally maniac criminal Simon Phoenix [Wesley Snipes] who laughs a lot and makes twisted witticisms and both played by big-name stars. ‘DEMOLITION MAN’ tries to please the deep thinkers attracted to this type of sci-fi film, while also trying to please the not-so-deep thinkers who just want escapism in the form of the type of entertainment you can expect with this type of with this type of film, where you get loud bone-crushing violence. The fact that the latter wins out in this blockbuster film should surprise no one, but by going for that lowest common denominator, it is a potentially great film of a slightly more thoughtful 1990s type of action film, where you leave your brain elsewhere and just sit back and enjoy this rollercoaster action packed film, from start to the finish. Highly Recommended!
Andrew C. Miller – Your Ultimate No.1 Film Aficionado
Le Cinema Paradiso
United Kingdom
