Review of Demolition Man (1993) by Dan H — 09 Sep 2016

Silly, goofy, ultra-violent, over-the-top fun. The future "utopia" is one of the most terrifying things I've seen: It's an ultra-sanitized utopia where everyone is super happy, physical touch is a thing of the past (which leads to goofy handshakes and sex being outlawed), violence is almost nonexistent, swearing is outlawed (you can get fined just for saying Hell), and the most popular songs are old commercial jingles.

You can imagine what happens when a completely insane psychotic criminal from the past is de-thawed and escapes into the future world. The cops of the future are not equipped to properly deal with such violence, so they thaw out the criminal's past captor, a supercop who was known for destroying everything in sight while on the job (hence his nickname "Demolition Man").

Sandra Bullock is pretty awful, Rob Schneider makes a brief cameo appearance, and Glenn Shadix (the colorful psychic from Beetlejuice) plays a supporting role. Directed by a man who would only direct one other film, and written by a team of writers, the film is kind of surprisingly brilliant (and a bit painful at times, but that's kind of the point).

Demolition Man is a film that is trying to be as goofy and cheesy as possible (At least, I'm pretty sure it is) and it seems to want to bring the audience in on the joke. It's certainly not a great film, but it makes for a super entertaining watch.