7.1 | / 10 |
Users | 3.8 | |
Reviewer | 4.0 | |
Overall | 4.0 |
A cop is brought out of suspended animation in prison to pursue an old ultra-violent enemy who is loose in a nonviolent future society.
Starring: Sylvester Stallone, Wesley Snipes, Sandra Bullock, Nigel Hawthorne, Benjamin BrattAction | 100% |
Thriller | 62% |
Crime | 27% |
Sci-Fi | 27% |
Comedy | Insignificant |
Video codec: MPEG-4 AVC
Video resolution: 1080p
Aspect ratio: 2.40:1
Original aspect ratio: 2.39:1
English: DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 (48kHz, 24-bit)
French: Dolby Digital 5.1 (640 kbps)
Spanish: Dolby Digital Mono
Portuguese: Dolby Digital Mono
It of course has a bass channel.
English SDH, French, Portuguese, Spanish
25GB Blu-ray Disc
Single disc (1 BD)
Region free
Movie | 4.5 | |
Video | 4.5 | |
Audio | 4.0 | |
Extras | 3.5 | |
Overall | 4.0 |
It wasn't until the Nineties that I really began to enjoy Stallone's films. After finishing with the Rocky's and Rambo's (and yes, I know he eventually cranked out another one of each, but let's table those for now), and after painful stabs at light comedy with Oscar and Stop! Or My Mom Will Shoot, Stallone seemed finally to relax and accept the limitations of his star persona -- and that's when he finally made a truly funny film. The story for Demolition Man started with writers Peter Lenkov and Robert Renau, but the initial script flowed from the acid pen of Dan Waters, the darkly satirical mind behind Heathers. Waters' script turned the action genre inside out by marrying it to a wicked satire of political correctness in all shapes and sizes -- and, amazingly, much of Waters' signature wit survived the script's acquisition by producer Joel "Blow Stuff Up" Silver. Stallone was perfect for the material. All he had to do was be his classic screen self and demolish everything in sight, just as the title suggested. Waters had crafted a unique twist on the "fish out of water" story (more accurately, "fish out of cryo-freeze"), where the humor arose from constant clashes between Stallone's beefcake bull in a china shop and the delicate figurines he kept knocking over. The more Stallone behaved just as the audience expected, the better the scenes played. But casting the other parts was crucial, and thereby hangs a career tale. The main comic foil to Stallone's one-man wrecking crew was a female cop from the future named Lenina Huxley (the very name is an obscure literary joke), and after a single day’s shooting, the actress initially cast to play her, Lori Petty, wasn't working out. With production already underway, the part was recast with a then-little-known actress named Sandra Bullock, who proceeded to steal the picture. Not only did she steal it from Stallone, but she was even more memorable than a hyperkinetic Wesley Snipes, playing the cheerfully psychotic bad guy, Simon Phoenix, with a peroxide 'do that was memorable enough to inspire basketball star Dennis Rodman to copy it. Snipes's wild hair and wilder behavior were all in vain. You walked out of the theater remembering Bullock and wondering, "Who was that?" Eighteen years later, it's still one of her funniest roles.
Director Brambilla and his DP, Alex Thomson, designed a distinctive look for the bulk of Demolition Man (the chief exceptions being the pre-credit sequence in 1996 and the underground sequence in 2032). Brambilla wanted the pseudo-utopian future society into which John Spartan awakes to look "cosmetic" and interiors like the SAPD station to resemble a Neiman Marcus store. Thomson used slow film stock to minimize grain and shot through special filters that softened the image without losing shadow detail. For exterior scenes, smoke was used both to conceal contemporary scenery in portions of the frame and to change the density and texture of the image. (Brambilla refers to the desired look as "liquid lighting".) As it happens, this look is a good friend to home video. The laserdisc and DVD versions of Demolition Man were among the better-looking examples of each format, in terms of color values, and the DVD was all the more impressive for being an early release. However, the 1080p, AVC-encoded Blu-ray offers major improvements in detail, depth and color differentiation. One is much more aware of the details of Bob Ringwood's futuristic costumes (many of which are mini-jokes unto themselves), or the 20th Century bric-a-brac in Huxley's office and apartment, or just the individual facial expressions in long shots crowded with people at the SAPD or Taco Bell. The improvements are most dramatic in the sequence where Spartan, Huxley and Garcia venture underground, and the color pallette changes from the prevailing blues and greens to earth tones. Here, the improvement in shadow detail is even more notable. When Phoenix and his gang attack, I've always found it difficult on prior versions to follow the logistics of who's doing what, but on the Blu-ray the action is easy to follow, because the image remains finely detailed throughout, even though it doesn't have the hard-edged "Discovery Channel" look that viewers sometimes mistakenly equate with sharpness. Black levels are excellent, which is essential for the various night, underground and darkened indoor scenes. There has been no DNR or filtering applied, other than what was used in the original photography. The alert viewer may notice that the complexions of most people in the future are exceptionally smooth, but that's part of the make-up design, and it's meant to indicate what happens when one leads a stress-free life full of "joy-joy" feelings and without exposure to all the damaging substances that Dr. Cocteau has forbidden. Look closely at Spartan or Phoenix, and you'll see that their faces still have texture, as befits their status as barbarians of the 20th Century.
From the moment that Spartan's helicopter flies over the burning Hollywood sign and you hear tracer bullets coming at you from the sides, you know you'll get an action mix that uses the entire surround system. Demolition Man was released in 1993, when discrete 5.1 systems were just becoming established in movie theaters. But those theaters that were equipped for Dolby Digital received a 5.1 mix that first appeared for home video four years later on DVD. Gunfire, explosions, shattering glass, collapsing buldings, the high-tech clang of Phoenix's futuristic rifle and other sounds of mayhem fill the surround field and should generally satisfy one's appetite for cinematic destruction. The subwoofer gets reasonable use, though nothing to compare with, e.g., a Transformers movie. The dialogue, which, unlike in most action films, is important and worthwhile, is clear and intelligible. Eliot Goldenthal wrote the score, and it's one of his wittiest. Goldenthal clearly got the joke, and he knew when to write something grandiose (like the theme that accompanies Spartan's two narrow escapes from exploding buildings) and when to supply something ridiculous (like the cartoonish tomfoolery heard when Spartan is trying to gain control of a runaway police car). The film's title, of course, comes from a Police song on the 1981 album Ghost in the Machine, and a newly recorded version by Sting is heard over the closing titles. I prefer the original, but that's not the fault of the soundtrack.
The special features have been ported over from the 1997 DVD release.
With due regard for the cultural significance of Rocky and Rambo, I regard Demolition Man as one of Stallone's best films and certainly one of his most enjoyable. It's also one of Bullock's best. How often does one get to watch a career being born? Because the film's effects were largely practical and mostly full-scale, they've held up well, and the script's wit is just as sharp today as when the film was new, even though the future unfolded differently than the screenwriters imagined. The Blu-ray's technical quality is solid, and while one might wish for additional extras, those that are included are first-rate. Highly recommended.
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Collector's Edition
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