Good unintelligent action is harder to put to film than one would think, it takes the exact right amount of charisma, heart, and destruction to make a film that’s over-the-top, but not so mind-numbing as to be insulting the audience’s intelligence. 

What’s even harder is making a film that’s disguised as an outlandish action flick but is actually really intelligent, funny, and full of cutting social commentary or philosophical quandaries, because then you risk having the smart ideas going over your audience’s heads. 

Just such a situation happened in “Demolition Man” (1993, directed by Marco Brambilla). When originally released it was written off as another ridiculous action movie starring Sylvester Stallone. But since then it’s grown a bit of a cult following claiming there’s something more to this film than banal action.

The film is about John Spartan (played by Stallone), a renegade cop who was cryogenically frozen in 1996 due to being charged with involuntary manslaughter after an attempt to rescue hostages goes particularly bad. 

However, his sentence as a human popsicle is put on hold, and he is woken up in the year 2032 to catch his arch nemesis, a dangerous criminal and psychopath named Simon Phoenix (Wesley Snipes), who had been woken up from stasis for his parole hearing only to escape. 

So, it’s up to Spartan to navigate this world that’s completely different from when he left it and with the help of his 20th century obsessed partner, Lenina Huxley (Sandra Bullock), hopefully catch Phoenix before he causes any more mayhem (like not paying his taxes).

First off, the world created in the film is equally funny and interesting. The best way to describe it is that it’s a world born from a conservative’s worst nightmare. Everyone is overly nice, no one can take a joke, physical contact is frowned upon, you’ll be fined for swearing, and anything considered bad for you is illegal (this includes, but not limited to, smoking, alcohol, meat, high cholesterol, non-educational toys, and anything spicy). It’s basically a society run by Tumblr.

However what makes this concept interesting is that, besides the lack of free speech and everyone being a pushover, the world is shown to be near perfect, it’s even mentioned that there hasn’t been a murder in 16 years. 

To contrast this seeming ideal world state there’s an entire civilization of people who live in the sewers. 

And if the world up top is hardcore politically correct, the world in the sewer is the antithesis of that. People dress in filthy rags, drink mass quantities of alcohol, eat rats, and swear up a storm, and they like it that way. So while the people in the sewers do live squalor and deal with more serious crimes, they have more freedom to say and do what they please.

What’s interesting is that at no point does the film say either worldview is 100% good or bad. Even John Spartan admits that the time he was from had its fair share of problems.

What’s clever is that the villains are those who either want extreme chaos or extreme order with no room for the other in society. By contrast, the heroes in the film are those who are willing to make a compromise.

This concept of both sides being so isolationist and unwilling to even listen to the other side is sadly really relatable and holds up shockingly well. Just as in our current government where it seems like people on both sides of the aisle would rather die than work together, the film shows a world where one side would rather live completely separate from the other rather than compromise.

What also helps is that the film’s world also has some pretty funny and out-there concepts. Examples include Taco Bell being the only restaurant left after something called “Franchise Wars” and toilet paper being replaced with three seashells. 

And the film also uses the less inherently comedic concepts in funny or clever ways. A great example is that whenever you hear John Spartan curse in-doors the audience can hear a buzzer from a machine in the room go off explaining he’s been fined, which unsurprisingly happens a lot. 

This leads to him using the fines as toilet paper when he can’t figure out how to use the three seashells and even shooting one when he gets annoyed at one point. But smartly whenever he’s outside or in a building that doesn’t have such a machine you never hear it.

But when the film isn’t making the audience laugh or making them think about the philosophical quandaries, it’s entertaining them with blood pumping action.

The violence is everything expected from a Sylvester Stalone action film of this time, it’s a spectacle with explosions, blood squibs, and one liners everywhere. And just like the bizarro world built in the film, the violence holds up pretty well (admittedly though, the villains must have gone to the stormtrooper school of aiming, because they can’t hit anyone who isn’t right in front of them).

Most of the cast in the film do really well in their roles.

Stallone is great at giving John Spartan this aura of always being on top, while being confused and totally lost in this new world he’s found himself. And even does a good job of some of the emotional moments, like when he explains his apprehension of meeting his now adult daughter.

Sandra Bullock as Stallone’s inexperienced but well meaning and always willing to help partner is a fun dynamic for the characters to work off of. Bullock’s character even gets some scenes to show she’s not some slouch in a fight herself.

Wesley Snipes as the dangerous crime lord, Phoenix, is a million flavors of fun in the film. He acts crazy and over-the-top in every scene he’s in. .

Though despite being equally fun and smart there are some problems.

A good example is that some of the character drama falls flat, for instance that whole subplot of Spartan being afraid to meet his now adult daughter goes nowhere and is never resolved. 

And while the partnership between Bullock and Stalone’s works really well, the romance doesn’t come off just as gracefully, especially since he does something really douchey to her near the end and she seemingly forgives him for no reason.

Overall, “Demolition Man” is a very funny and smart sci-fi action flick that’s aged better than it was expected to (which is equally funny and sad).