Demolition Man - Life Simulator 2020 Edition

picture this dear viewer california the early 21st century society and culture have changed beyond recognition becoming a nightmarish dystopia where people are forced by law to be nice to each other a world run by power-hungry tyrants hiding behind a mask of compassion and righteousness where every aspect of human behavior and thought is carefully controlled and conditioned so that nobody would dare to disobey a world where all traces of aggression individuality ambition and resilience have been ruthlessly purged leaving behind a population of docile timid feminized emotionally fragile weaklings that are ashamed and frightened of their natural impulses and are completely incapable of dealing with hardship or adversity anyway let's talk about today's movie demolition man is a sci-fi action film released in 1990 1993 starring sylvester stallone and wesley snipes as renegade cop john spartan and ruthless criminal simon phoenix it's a movie that's always had a special place in my heart because on the one hand it's a fun over-the-top action flick with all the good stuff you'd expect from early 90s cinema gonna regret just the rest of your life both seconds but on another level it's gained a bit of a reputation as the nostradamus of the movie world correctly predicting the modern rise of political correctness overzealous censorship liberal culture sinister nanny state governments hiding behind a thin veneer of compassion and [ __ ] zoom calls it's a film that asks intriguing questions about the dangers of surrendering personal freedoms in the name of security and if that all sounds a bit high-minded for a movie with scenes like this in it he doesn't know how to use the three seashells [Laughter] then allow me to enlighten you nah i've changed that illuminate sorry illuminate the movie kicks off in the near future of 1996. god i feel old where los angeles now looks more like a bad day in baghdad what was it with movies back then portraying l.a like the battle of [ __ ] stalingrad i'm looking at you predator 2. anyway whatever so the police are caught in a shoot site with simon phoenix a crime lord who's taken a bus load of hostages and barricaded himself into his fortified hideouts the police can't fight their way inside but that's okay because john spartan is on the case better known as the demolition man spartan has a habit of blowing stuff up whenever he gets involved don't we all mate so he flies in by chopper and bungee jumps down to the rooftop below i'd like to point out that a real dude actually did this and there was a genuine concern that he might rebound back up into the rotor blades they don't make them like this anymore that's for sure anyway spartan kills a bunch of goons and fights his way inside but instead of rescuing the hostages he runs into phoenix himself and spartans like you're under arrest and phoenix is like no i'm not because he's flooded the place with gasoline which kind of makes me wonder did spartan's nose stop working when he came in here wouldn't he be a little bit suspicious of the huge pool of liquids spilling over the floor right where he's standing nah whatever so spartan can't shoot phoenix without killing himself as well interesting setup i wonder how he's gonna get out of this one but then phoenix is just like [ __ ] it and sets the gas on fire anyway wait what that was your plan aren't you supposed to be relying on the threat of burning him alive rather than actually doing it i mean i'm pretty sure spartan could still gun you down before he burns up anyway it doesn't really matter spartan just kind of runs through the fire kicks the [ __ ] out of him and demands to know where the hostages are but phoenix won't tell him i love the foreshadowing here by the way i swear i lose my head if it wasn't attached [Music] also the script decides the building's about to blow up what have i told you about leaving your massive barrels of c4 next to open gasoline canisters now i'm no chemical expert but how the [ __ ] do you put c4 into barrels it's not like it's a liquid you can pour now whatever they have a fight and spartan knocks phoenix out and carries them out over there just before the place blows up and damn man they really did flatten the whole building for this scene and it looks spectacular unfortunately that's when spartan discovers that the hostages were still inside the building and now they're all dead so he gets arrested and charged with murder which is kind of weird when you think about it i mean phoenix was the one who kidnapped them imprisoned them rigged the place with explosives and triggered them spartan did everything he could to prevent it also he's a decorated police officer surely they'd believe his word over phoenix's but anyway the script needs the rest of the plot to happen so whatever both men are sentenced to be cryogenically frozen and given subconscious reprogramming to remove their violent instincts and rehabilitate them i'd like to point out that this movie begins in 1996. they really believed that within three years scientists would find a way to cryogenically freeze people and bring them back to life decades later without harming them not to mention subconsciously altering their personalities talk about disappointing man we'd barely even invented the internet by 1996. anyway flash forward 36 years and phoenix is walking up for his first parole hearing it looks like an opening shot case because he's clearly still an [ __ ] stop it but then he unlocks his electronic handcuffs somehow kills the guards and escapes like it's nothing that's interesting it's almost like someone told him the password anyway then we flashed over to the local police department where young officer lanina huxley is going about her day huxley is good at her job but for some reason she's obsessed with 90s culture and dreams about fighting real criminals see things have changed in the past few decades crime violence disease sex and drugs are all basically a thing of the past and the world's become a peaceful utopia where nothing bad happens god only knows what would become of tatiana in such a place her entire life revolves around all of those things now because there's no crime left to prevent the police are basically irrelevant that is until phoenix escapes the cryo prison and the police are mobilized to take him down needless to say it doesn't go well not only is phoenix stronger smarter and better at fighting than he was before but he can also hack computers and trigger security systems lucky number seven nice i love how he [ __ ] around with this guy here wesley snipes just had an absolute ball in this movie anyway because they're not equipped to deal with a violent criminal like phoenix huxley suggests that they defrost john spartan to hunt him down instead so the movie becomes a kind of cat and mouse game between the two men spartans on the hunt for phoenix but he's usually one step behind at the same time he struggles to adjust to life in a totally unfamiliar world and begins to uncover clues that it's not quite the perfect society it seems to be at the same time we begin to suspect that phoenix's escape from prison wasn't an accident he keeps hearing weird voices in his head telling him to kill the leader of an underground resistance movement and when he runs into this [ __ ] after a shootout he can't pull the trigger could there be a connection i wonder all of these different plot threads culminate in a revolution against the oppressive government and a final confrontation between spartan and phoenix before he can revive a whole army of criminals phoenix literally loses the head by the ends sorry couldn't resist much like starship troopers demolition man is a movie that i didn't properly appreciate until i saw it years later from an adult perspective on the surface it's your typical early 90s action flick there's lots of over-the-top fighting close-range gun battles where the participants managed to hit everything except each other lots of explosions car chases for no other reason than to have car chases and stallone yelling and running in slow motion while stuff explodes behind him it's all competently shot with good stunt work and choreography and some of the set pieces hold up pretty well even today and damn it's just nice to see practical effects being used again it's also a surprisingly witty takedown of the progressive touchy feely culture that was starting to emerge in hollywood in the early 90s the macho bravado of the 80s was fading out and with it the action stars who made their names there stallone schwarzenegger willis and van damme all saw their careers wane from the mid 90s and this movie is clearly a reaction to that john spartan embodies everything you'd expect from a classic action hero he's big gruff and no nonsense he smokes what a marlboro just cigarette any cigarette he eats junk food this is a rapper he drives an old-fashioned sports car because it looks cool and he struggles to adapt to the sensitive caring world he's now living in not to mention the three seashells [Laughter] so you want to know how it's done eh right you take the first two and shove them into as far as they'll go then you need to spread wide as far as you can no there's a real danger your rupture finally take the third one and all the way in and for god's sake don't or you'll tear it right in half i can see how that could be confusing but the script also takes the time to show a more compassionate thoughtful side to the man like when he discovers his family was killed while he was in cryosleep or that the criminals he just beat up are basically desperate refugees scavenging for foods i like how he even rebukes huxley when she cheers him on all caught up in romantic notions of the world that he came from it's a subtle but very effective subversion of the action hero archetype suggesting that it's not quite as glamorous as we all believe phoenix on the other hand represents pure destructive chaos wesley snipes is having the time of his life with this role and it's great fun to watch i love how he's just a total [ __ ] to random people like here when he arrives at the museum he's not just the criminal light of necessity the guy revels in the mayhem he's cousin and now he has the tools and expertise to make all his violent dreams come true what's interesting though is that phoenix is also the one to kill arguably the main antagonist of the movie by convincing him to defrost some of his former gang members to help him out will you please kill him he's pissing me off i can't believe you never saw this one coming mate now this is all fine and dandy and it makes for an entertaining movie to be sure but there's a deeper message lurking beneath the flashy explosions and satirical humor demolition man dares to pose some interesting questions about the wider impact of this change to society gradually exposing the sinister flaws beneath the utopian facade something that would absolutely not be allowed today in a world where violence aggression profanity competition and physical intimacy have been made obsolete and technology is gradually taken over to fill the void superficially happy people are left unfulfilled and unable to cope with adversity or even relate to each other like in this scene where some [ __ ] was talking about his emotions to an automated terminal rather than friends or loved ones although i have to admit i do like the ego boost button you look great today the problem also spills over into romantic relationships in that they basically don't exist anymore physical sex has been outlawed to prevent the spread of disease and they have to use some weird virtual reality system to do it now [ __ ] man i'd be willing to bet that google and facebook are working on this thing right now i have to say though i like this random completely out of context booty call just so they could get some tna on screen god i'll have old action movies it's interesting to note that huxley's relationships with her co-workers are entirely platonic and she only becomes physically attracted to spartan when she watches him beating the [ __ ] out of some criminals wow it's almost like the movie's suggesting that women tend to be attracted to strong tough confident masculine men who can get stuff done instead of you know [Laughter] the point is that every facet of demolition man's society from music to movies to food and even personal conversations and romantic relationships has been censored and controlled and restricted personal freedoms have been curtailed in the name of peace harmony and safety and the result is a weak fragile stagnant repressed culturally homogenized dystopia where nobody is allowed to be bold or ambitious or controversial a world run by supposedly benevolent technocrats who preach tolerance and compassion but only use these things as tools to enhance their own power damn this movie really was ahead of its time on the opposite side of the coin you've got a small group of resistance fighters led by a charismatic libertarian who rejected this fake utopia and now eeks out a living below ground in the decaying remains of the former city free but impoverished and disorganized they pose a small but growing threat that could eventually spill over into widespread revolution hence they have to be ruthlessly destroyed the fundamental conflict of demolition man is the clash between lawless freedom and structured security and the movie ends by suggesting that perhaps the best way forward is to find a balance between these two extremes not a bad idea that it's not a perfect film of course there are flaws in the narrative and subplots that get hinted at but drop later like spartans searching for his lost daughter but then just going nah it'll be fine and given up or the idea that fully functional weapons would be on display in a public museum or the general stupidity of giving a violent criminal insane amounts of power and believing that you can somehow still control him but overall demolition man is a pretty good action movie with a solid cast good fight scenes and a script that's probably a lot smarter than people gave it credit for and if you haven't seen it for a while give it a watch in 2020 trust me you'll see it from a very different perspective anyway that's all i've got for today be well be [ __ ]

Channel: The Critical Drinker

Views: 1,508,451

Keywords: Sylvester Stallone, Wesley Snipes, Sandra Bullock, SJW, review, future utopia

Id: FiG99WmpX7c

Length: 15min 14sec (914 seconds)

Published: Tue Aug 18 2020