When 20th century violent criminal Simon Phoenix (Wesley Snipes) breaks out of cryogenic prison in the year 2032 and wreaks havoc in a seemingly peaceful utopian society, wrongfully convicted cop John Spartan (AKA The Demolition Man) is thawed out to bring the maniac to justice.

I don't think I've seen Demolition Man since it came out in 1993; watching it today, I was amazed at how accurate some of its predictions of the future were (in essence, at least): in the film, digital transactions have replaced real money, there's a guy holding what could be considered a digital tablet (albeit a tad chunkier than an iPad),there are self-driving cars, non-contact social greetings (a must during these pandemic days),a board room where a virtual meeting takes place (although Zoom it ain't),and it's not hard to imagine how our current overly-PC/snowflake/cancel culture might eventually go so far as to make swearing illegal. Okay, we still wipe our butts with paper and have sex the old-fashioned way, and I don't see that changing in the next twelve years, but you can't get everything right.

Not only is Demolition Man's vision of 2032 eerily prophetic in many ways, but the film also features a witty script bristling with social satire, star Stallone in one of his best performances of the dumb '90s action flick era (happily mocking his tough guy persona),Wesley Snipes having a blast as the eccentric villain of the piece, and Sandra Bullock being super cute and looking mighty fine in skin-tight leggings (and I'm not even that much of a Bullock fan). Director Marco Brambilla balances the humour and the action superbly, opening and closing with guns a-blazing and huge explosions, but ensures that there is never a dull moment even when Stallone and Snipes aren't busting skulls and shooting up the place.

Hell, this film even features early roles for Rob Schneider and Jack Black that didn't irritate me - miracles do happen!

The futuristic society that is shown in Demolition Man reminds me so much of the classic Star Trek prime episode concerning the will of Landru. That one where the Enterprise away team finds a society that is forced to be nice and calm. The only problem these folks seem to have is that no one has provided for a Festival where people can give way to some of their baser impulses for a short while. At least that society recognized people have and they have to cut loose every so often.

So other than the underground people who literally live underground this is as orderly a society as you can imagine. But disorder and chaos are on the way in the person of Wesley Snipes who was a psychotic crime lord who was released from cryogenic freezing by Nigel Hawthorne who thinks that this society will be even more orderly under his personal control. Only there ain't no controlling Snipes once he's on the loose.

You got one psychotic on the loose get another to take care of him. So Sylvester Stallone is unfrozen and he also is a person difficult to control. He's a cop from the 20th century old school, but he's the only guy to deal with Snipes.

Demolition Man is one of my favorite Stallone films and he's fine, but Wesley Snipes really makes this film. He chewed a few sets up to get the desired effect of crazy in his performance. That blond dye job on his hair makes him look like Dennis Rodman or for old folks like me, the old wrestler Sweet Daddy Siki. He's having a ball in this part and he lets us in on the fun.

Sandra Bullock is the 21st century cop who learns all about 20th century culture from Stallone. The sex scene is taken from Woody Allen's Sleepers as they have their own version of the Orgasmatron. Benjamin Bratt is another 21st century cop who just can't get the hang of Stallone's old fashioned methods. More to the point people like him in that society just can't comprehend pure evil which is what Snipes represents.

Demolition Man has enough action for any Stallone/Snipes fan to handle. But there's also a lot of humor some of it nice and satirical. One of Sly's better films.

One of the dumbest action films of the 1990s, DEMOLITION MAN is a film that hasn't aged particularly well at all in the intervening years since its release. It's one of those futuristic movies that presents a pretty dated vision of the future, all plasticky looking and fake. The script is pretty weak, presenting a great number of plot holes and contrivances as it lurches from one over-wrought set-piece to the next, although such problems are offset by plenty of humour which makes this a lively watch.

On the plus side, Stallone is decent in the titular role, bringing at least some charisma to the part, and Snipes is typically effective as the villain. He's let down by the script's presentation of him as a noisy, overbearing character, irritating rather than menacing, close to Chris Tucker levels of annoyance in places. Even Snipes is better than an exceptionally weak Sandra Bullock and a badly miscast Nigel Hawthorne, who looks like he wants to be anywhere but this movie.

As for the action, well it's noisy and explosive and chock full of pyrotechnic effects, pretty much as you'd expect from a 1990s era action movie. Only the final showdown between Stallone and Snipes is worthwhile, and even that scene alone is packed full of cheesy little throwaway bits that date it firmly in the early '90s (including the mandatory John Woo-inspired jump-while-firing-two-pistols shot). It's a pity that the studio meddled with the movie and cut huge chunks of the violence out, as it would have been interesting to see what was left on the cutting room floor.