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| Images courtesy of Arrow Video |
Italian-Canadian visual artist Marco Brambilla ordinarily
works in 3D imaging, video installations and video art usually shown at the
Museum of Modern Art or the Museum of the Moving Image. Often creating visual spectacles of
hyperkinetic synchronized art, the video artist would eventually embark on the Megaplex
series involving virtual reality artistic experiences. Working outside of the mainstream including
but not limited to creating a pornographic artistic short film called Sync for
the anthology film Destricted, Brambilla is the very definition of an
outsider usually found in museums or art galleries.
Which makes his debut feature film in the director’s chair, 1993’s
Sylvester Stallone’s post-Total Recall by way of Forever Young sci-fi
actioner Demolition Man, all the more profoundly baffling. With exception of some key rapid-fire montage
sequences mid-movie, this is the absolute last movie you’d ever expect from a
guy who otherwise works in kinetics. A
big, bloated, goofy precursor to what would or wouldn’t continue with Judge
Dredd also featuring Stallone, Demolition Man deriving its name from
The Police track of the same name comes to Arrow Video in a new limited
edition 4K UHD set giving fans a distinctly 90s action adventure replete with Taco
Bell product placement and Blade Runner inspired dichotomies between
dystopia and utopia.
Roughneck cop Sgt. John Spartan (Sylvester Stallone) will
stop at nothing to capture and incarcerate violent criminal Simon Phoenix
(Wesley Snipes) until a group of hostages are inadvertently killed in the
process. Both cop and criminal are
literally placed on ice, cryogenically frozen until 2032 when Phoenix reawakens
35 years later and wreaks violent havoc on a now nonviolent society
unaccustomed to this kind of criminality.
Rather hastily, John Spartan is reawakened too and turned loose on a
world that penalizes profanity, lacks firearms and also lacks the physical act
of sex in one of the film’s funnier (and the director’s few flashy)
exchanges. Oh and toilet paper has been outlawed with only three seashells now as the butt wiping option. Meanwhile it becomes apparent
this carefully constructed utopia where hamburgers are outlawed is a
dictatorship with an underground rebellion forming underneath its steps.
Plainly silly, garish and gaudy, clearly riffing on the Paul
Verhoeven/Arnold Schwarzenegger collaboration from 1990, Demolition Man penned
by Robert Reneau and Peter M. Lenkov is a 90s-action reworking of dystopian
sci-fi works such as Brave New World and The Sleeper Awakens
replete with a ridiculously over the top villain, futuristic weaponry and a
snarky sense of humor. A big budget
flick around $80 million with remarkable set and production design, shot
handsomely in widescreen by Leviathan and Alien 3 cinematographer
Alex Thomson and a rousing score by Alien 3 composer Elliot Goldenthal,
every dollar is on the screen in this star-studded piece. Featuring a typically solid Stallone up
against a gleefully over-the-top Snipes with sexy Sandra Bullock in tow while
distinguished British actor Nigel Hawthorne plays the leader of this modern-day
Shangri-La, the film also works in a Rob Schneider cameo for those who
just can’t get enough of that Adam Sandler guy.
Opening to mixed reviews but going on to gross close to $160
million, Demolition Man good or bad was a money printer for both Warner
Brothers and the film’s star Sylvester Stallone. Part of a big toy line including Hot Wheels
toy cars from the film, action figures, a video game from Acclaim Entertainment
and Virgin Interactive, a Pinball arcade and eventually comics and a novelization,
Demolition Man was being franchised all over. The aforementioned Taco Bell got into it and
even Sting re-recorded a new cover of the famous Ghost in the Machine track
to scroll over the end credits. At the
end of the day, is the film outside all of the brouhaha actually any good? Well it is the furthest film I’d expect from
an otherwise atonal avant-garde visual artist but as a slice of 90s sci-fi
action trash, it is indeed hard not to have check-your-brain-at-the-door fun
with this post-Total Recall romp.
--Andrew Kotwicki
