I knew this was a film that involved Sylvester Stallone and a lot of explosions, but I had no idea of the plot, and I'm glad I gave into it. Basically it is 1996 (three years ahead of the release of this film) and one of the worst criminals of the city of Los Angeles is Simon Phoenix (Wesley Snipes), and the man who apprehended him L.A.P.D. officer John Spartan, aka 'The Demolition Man' (Stallone) is taken with him for being an accessory in his crime, and both are put in a new prison system called Cryo Prison, yep, they're cryogenically frozen. Years later, 2035, the city changed to San Angeles, and society became peaceful, nice, kind and understanding, like the people of Pleasantville! In this world all things that can ruin this peace (with argument), e.g. meat, sex, swearing (which becomes a common joke, they hear a buzz and get a fine ticket) violence, and of course weapons are banned and unseen. When Phoenix manages to escape from his Cryo chamber, the cops decide that Spartan as the only other person with knowledge of the early 21st Century and Phoenix should be thawed out as well. So begins a chase of the bad guy with Lt. Lenina Huxley (Sandra Bullock) by Spartan's side, education of this new (and pretty absurd) world, and many explosions and gun play. Also starring The Madness of King Geroge's Nigel Hawthorne as Dr. Raymond Cocteau (the man mainly responsible for this peaceful world), Catwoman's Benjamin Bratt as Alfredo Garcia, The Shawshank Redemption's Bob Gunton as Chief George Earle, Beetle Juice's Glenn Shadix as Associate Bob, Small Soldiers' Denis Leary as Edgar Friendly, Die Hard and Licence to Kill's Grand L. Bush as Young Zachary Lamb, Steve Kahan as Captain Healy, I Still Know What You Did Last Summer's Bill Cobbs as Aged Zachary Lamb, Rob Schneider as Erwin, look out for Jack Black as Wasteland Scrap and Predator's Jesse Ventura as CryoCon. Snipes is a great mad villain (Stallone wanted Jackie Chan, who refused to become a bad guy), the humour of this future is not only amusing, but slightly hard to deal with, just a fun film. Wesley Snipes was number 96 on The 100 Greatest Movie Stars. Very good!
Review of Demolition Man
