In this goofy satire, Arnold Schwarzenegger plays a parody of his famous movie persona alongside a preteen fanboy (Austin O’Brien) who has been magically transported into an action blockbuster. But, in a world before Wikipedia and TV Tropes, few audiences knew what to make of Last Action Hero. Nowadays, audiences are all about metatext, fascinated by genre, structure, and behind-the-scenes drama. You can rent or purchase Demolition Man at major digital vendors like Prime Video. From the kooky fish-out-of-water comedy between Stallone and Bullock to the unhinged, Joker-like performance of Snipes, Demolition Man is tremendous fun, and its projections about the rise of hyper-corporatization and class stratification have proven to be surprisingly prescient. It’s up to Spartan and his bright-eyed rookie partner ( Bullet Train‘s Sandra Bullock) to take him down. Nobody in 2032’s gleaming city of San Angeles is equipped to do battle with Spartan’s nemesis, Simon Phoenix (Wesley Snipes), who’s on a rampage after being freed from cryostasis. This was the environment from which sprung director Marco Brambilla’s Demolition Man, a bizarre action-comedy starring Rocky and Creed actor Sylvester Stallone as John Spartan, a hyper-violent cop who wakes up in a squeaky-clean future. The Cold War was over, the US economy was strong, and the world was on the precipice of rapid, unprecedented change. The ‘90s were a terrific period for sci-fi action films, as the addition of high technology or speculative futures offered a level-up from the explosive police thrillers of the previous decade. Fans of The First Avenger owe it to themselves to fire up Disney+ and revisit Joe Johnston’s previous (and arguably, superior) triumph. It’s no surprise that when Marvel was preparing to make their own World War II-period superhero film, Captain America: The First Avenger, they enlisted the very same director. Starring the classically handsome Billy Campbell, a devilishly villainous Timothy Dalton, and Jennifer Connelly at her most devastating, The Rocketeer is an absolute delight. Set in Los Angeles in 1938, The Rocketeer is a rare example of a film successfully recapturing the tone, atmosphere, and fun of the Indiana Jones films, pitting a charismatic but kinda goofy leading man against the Nazis in a stylish, high-concept adventure. The Rocketeer (1991)ĭecades before Disney was pumping out three Marvel movies a year, the studio hired director Joe Johnston to adapt Dave Stevens’ indie comics series The Rocketeer into one of the best superhero films of the 1990s. La Femme Nikita can be rented or purchased on Prime Video. In spite of this marketing fiasco, it has become recognized as a genre classic and inspired two North American television adaptations. as an arthouse picture and struggled to find an audience. Like Leon, La Femme Nikita features plenty of terrific action, but as it’s a French import, it was promoted in the U.S. Nikita stars Anne Parillaud as a killer and recovering addict who is offered a pardon for her crimes so long as she works as a secret assassin for the French government. Of course, neither utopian socialism (which this film accurately exposes), nor anarchy are the answer–rather, a free and responsible society governed by biblical principles, like the United States once was.Before he released his masterpiece, Leon, in 1994, director Luc Besson made a splash in his native France with La Femme Nikita, another tale of murder and intrigue. In all, DEMOLITION MAN is a violent, anarchistic diatribe packaged in humor which will teach children that cursing, rebellion and violence are the marks of a real man–a DEMOLITION MAN, who will destroy to get want he wants. However, the writing and directing are very good, the supporting cast is great, the action is fast and furious, and Stallone and Snipes are hot. The rest of the film is action-packed and bloody, following Stallone in his relentless pursuit of Wesley Snipes.Īside from the physical violence and the bad language, the most disturbing aspect of this film is the libertarian worldview that promotes anarchy and mocks morality and authority. Cryo Prison: Phoenix for taking 30 hostages Spartan for blowing up the building (and, allegedly, the hostages held therein) during his apprehension of Phoenix. Spartan is sentenced, along with deranged killer Simon Phoenix (Wesley Snipes), to frozen jail time in the L.A. DEMOLITION MAN opens in the year 1996 with Sylvester Stallone as John Spartan, a Los Angeles cop who always gets his man, but usually at the expense of the surrounding terrain, thereby garnering his nickname–DEMOLITION MAN.
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