Flashback & Film Friday: "Demolition Man," at 30

I adore the movie, "Demolition Man." It is a bit of a sci-fi flick, has a lot of social satire, features plenty of action, and is good fun. It actually turns 30 this year. The movie's focus is how Officer John Spartan (Sylvester Stallone) is framed by his archenemy, Simon Phoneix (Wesley Snipes), for a bunch of civilians dying in an explosion. They both find themselves frozen as punishment. Then we arrive at 2032 and Phoneix breaks out and starts a crime spree--something no one can handle as society has become watered-down, dull, and boring. Hence, Stallone's Spartan is thawed out and sent to capture Phoneix.

Some people argue the movie leans right and is a Libertarian's example of what they fear society becoming. There are tons of rules, people can't eat anything unhealthy because it is against the law, and swearing gets you a fine. Other people have claimed this movie is clearly Liberal in its focus, with the rebels who live underground and who claim to be, "Free," actually miserable and starving to death. In the end, the writers have said they weren't trying to be especially political with the true villain being a corrupt politician who doesn't represent any specific party and just wants power no matter what kind of dystopia he has to oversee for it. The real, "Evil," isn't left-wing or right-wing, it is any kind of extreme.

Besides Stallone and Snipes doing a great job in, "Demolition Man," it also was the breakout role for Sandra Bullock, and has Dennis Leary as the leader of the underground-dwelling rebels. Between a great cast, plenty of fun fights/explosions, and lots of humor, "Demolition Man," remains an underrated classic. You can buy/rent a copy on DVD or I believe it can be streamed on Amazon Prime. I'd highly recommend checking it out.

5 out of 5 Stars.

Film Friday--The Amazing Spider Man

That Was Decently Fun
The Amazing Spider-Man was a good movie. Not utterly excellent, but pretty enjoyable. I was somewhat of the mind that considering not too long ago we had a trilogy of Spidey flicks that maybe rebooting the character was a bit... unnecessary. Having seen the movie and its somewhat new spin on things I am more confident that perhaps starting fresh with Spider-Man was a pretty solid idea, despite the problems I have with the film.

You would think the thing that bugs me the most is going-over Spider-Man's origin again on film. That would make you wrong though, because I found the earlier parts of the movie where the titular Peter Parker is thinking about a mystery with his parents (that somewhat disappears from the film clearly to be continued in future installments) getting used to his crazy new powers, and of course having the requisite guilt about Uncle Ben to be some ofgreat the more enjoyable parts of the movie. Andrew Garfield does a great job even if he looks a little too handsome and fit to truly "feel" like geeky Peter Parker. Emma Stone is quite good as Gwen Stacy too and Dennis Leary is fun as her police-chief father. The problems start to set in a bit later once The Lizard shows up.

Garfield and Stone show a chemistry between them.

I don't want to spoil what evil plan is that Rhys Ifans' character has, but its pretty darn silly. Once we hit the middle of the movie and the focus goes onto our villain's plan the movie just sort of drags. No matter how much cool action we get between Spider-Man and The Lizard fighting that overall goal he has is still pretty absurd. That's a shame as the actors do a great job making the silly threat seem credible even if by the end of the movie I'm pretty much just going, "So that green liquid is bad and the blue one is good...or something?"

"I've got a pretty stupid plan."

Also, even though I tend to prefer the first movie in a trilogy stand somewhat alone and not try to set up future installments, the mid end-credit's teaser with what seems to be the first appearance of Norman Osborn in this universe does make me excited at the idea of Peter learning more about the mystery with his parents, and the Green Goblin showing up in the next movie (I'm pretty sure Gwen is gonna die like in the comics come the sequel and the third movie will be about Spider-Man getting revenge for it, I'm just gonna call that one now).

Overall this is a well-done film with a great start and intriguing finishing tease, but a draggy middle and quite dumb end. If you don't think too much about it though, and just enjoy the action and the hints of good things to come, it's still a solid piece of 2 hours and change. Just be ready for the flaws too. Oh, and no, Nick Fury does not show up to tie this in with Avengers as some rumor-mongers have said, Spider-Man seems to be staying in his own super-hero world for now.
3 out of 5 stars.