So I decided to rewatch this recently, having good memories of seeing it as a kid with my dad back in 1993. It was a bit scary, but I thought it was pretty cool, exciting and funny (I was about 8).
Seeing today in 2024, it holds up surprisingly well. My expectations weren't overly high, and it's certainly dated in many ways - it feels more like an 80s movie (although some of the SFX are a little more advanced), the action is a often silly and clunky, some of it feels cheap and more like a TV show, and the details of the plot are pretty thin. In particular, it's not clear exactly how society became like this or how the various groups and dynamics actually work.
But having said all that, it has a lot going for it. The comedy works really well, poking fun at an overly soft and uptight futuristic society. Bullock is cute and likeable (and pretty good looking), Stallone fits this role perfectly and comes across as tough but reasonable, Snipes is very edgy and energetic as the villain - his athleticism really stands out, as does his urge for chaos. Bratt is also pretty funny as an overly nice and naive detective and Schneider has some funny moments. I noticed Jack Black for a fraction of a second which I thought was pretty cool.
There's enough in the plot to keep it quite interesting - the concept itself is really cool. A society gone soft, a madman gets released and only a mad cop from the previous century has what it takes to bring him in. In today's age of artificially injecting certain values into movies, Demolition Man is a breath of fresh air, with a much more traditional hero, villain, love interest and other side characters. It never feels preachy but it has some interest points to make.
There are several running gags which I really enjoy - the fines for swearing, the way Stallone is constantly bamboozled by new technology, Bullock trying to make clever comments but always getting the wording wrong so it just sounds dumb or inappropriate, etc.
This is a big, dumb action movie except it's got a cool sci-fi twist, it's actually funny and ahead of its time and it's generally way more clever than it claims to be. It's not too far off in predicting the future in terms of technology, but even more so in terms of temperament, like the ineptness we often see in many fields and how naive some people can become when they're too insulated from reality.
This isn't exactly a high quality film, but it's a very entertaining movie and one of the better of its kind. And the ideas it touches on are ripe for deeper exploration.
Seeing today in 2024, it holds up surprisingly well. My expectations weren't overly high, and it's certainly dated in many ways - it feels more like an 80s movie (although some of the SFX are a little more advanced), the action is a often silly and clunky, some of it feels cheap and more like a TV show, and the details of the plot are pretty thin. In particular, it's not clear exactly how society became like this or how the various groups and dynamics actually work.
But having said all that, it has a lot going for it. The comedy works really well, poking fun at an overly soft and uptight futuristic society. Bullock is cute and likeable (and pretty good looking), Stallone fits this role perfectly and comes across as tough but reasonable, Snipes is very edgy and energetic as the villain - his athleticism really stands out, as does his urge for chaos. Bratt is also pretty funny as an overly nice and naive detective and Schneider has some funny moments. I noticed Jack Black for a fraction of a second which I thought was pretty cool.
There's enough in the plot to keep it quite interesting - the concept itself is really cool. A society gone soft, a madman gets released and only a mad cop from the previous century has what it takes to bring him in. In today's age of artificially injecting certain values into movies, Demolition Man is a breath of fresh air, with a much more traditional hero, villain, love interest and other side characters. It never feels preachy but it has some interest points to make.
There are several running gags which I really enjoy - the fines for swearing, the way Stallone is constantly bamboozled by new technology, Bullock trying to make clever comments but always getting the wording wrong so it just sounds dumb or inappropriate, etc.
This is a big, dumb action movie except it's got a cool sci-fi twist, it's actually funny and ahead of its time and it's generally way more clever than it claims to be. It's not too far off in predicting the future in terms of technology, but even more so in terms of temperament, like the ineptness we often see in many fields and how naive some people can become when they're too insulated from reality.
This isn't exactly a high quality film, but it's a very entertaining movie and one of the better of its kind. And the ideas it touches on are ripe for deeper exploration.