I've always liked Demolition Man in one of those guilty-pleasure, "this movie thinks it's a lot smarter than it really is" kind of ways.
I like the way they play with names and ideas (to some extent) from Brave New World (The main character in the book is John the Savage, here it's John Spartan, who's often referred to as "Savage"; and Lenina Huxley who's name merges a character from the book with the Author's name). It's been a LONG time since I've actually read BNW, so I'm not sure how much deeper the movie's homage really runs, but it's still fun.
I also like Stallone, who's pretty charming and amusing when he doesn't take himself too seriously. (Note that this is not the same as thinking he can do comedy. He's shown just how adept he isn't at that often enough). And, let's face it, Sandra Bullock is always fun to watch—even in some of the turkey's she's been doing lately.
The most fun in the movie, of course, is in the broad satirical strokes it paints—every restaurant is called Taco Bell because they're the one's that won the franchise wars… fines for bad language (hmmm, that's not so funny anymore, is it?)… outlawing smoking, meat-eating, salt and anything else ever construed as harmful to anyone ever… it does a good job of making fun of our oh-so-politically correct contemporary lifestyle.
So it's on one of the pay channels tonight and I switch it on for background noise while I'm doing taxes (anything to distract from THAT chore!). And they come to the scene where Lenina tosses away a line about the "Schwarzenegger Library." To Savage's surprise, it turns out that, thanks to Schwarzenegger's popularity, the 61st amendment to the Constitution was passed removing the requirement that the President be born in the US so that he could run for President. (BTW, it turns out that we're currently up to the 27th Amendment to the Constitution. And it was proposed in 1789. We've got a ways to go to the 61st.)
I sat there thinking about how utterly bizarre it still strikes me to hear the news refer to Governor Schwarzenegger and it NOT be the punchline to a joke, and I remember that there is talk about a measure before Congress to amend the Constitution to allow individuals that weren't born US Citizens to run for President (rumored to be supported by Ted Kennedy) and I thought "how is it possible that THIS silly-ass movie could end up sounding prophetic?!?
Yeah, I know it's a joke. But STILL… it's kinda funny, in a "not the way it was meant to be funny" kind of way. You've got to admit that.
I like the way they play with names and ideas (to some extent) from Brave New World (The main character in the book is John the Savage, here it's John Spartan, who's often referred to as "Savage"; and Lenina Huxley who's name merges a character from the book with the Author's name). It's been a LONG time since I've actually read BNW, so I'm not sure how much deeper the movie's homage really runs, but it's still fun.
I also like Stallone, who's pretty charming and amusing when he doesn't take himself too seriously. (Note that this is not the same as thinking he can do comedy. He's shown just how adept he isn't at that often enough). And, let's face it, Sandra Bullock is always fun to watch—even in some of the turkey's she's been doing lately.
The most fun in the movie, of course, is in the broad satirical strokes it paints—every restaurant is called Taco Bell because they're the one's that won the franchise wars… fines for bad language (hmmm, that's not so funny anymore, is it?)… outlawing smoking, meat-eating, salt and anything else ever construed as harmful to anyone ever… it does a good job of making fun of our oh-so-politically correct contemporary lifestyle.
So it's on one of the pay channels tonight and I switch it on for background noise while I'm doing taxes (anything to distract from THAT chore!). And they come to the scene where Lenina tosses away a line about the "Schwarzenegger Library." To Savage's surprise, it turns out that, thanks to Schwarzenegger's popularity, the 61st amendment to the Constitution was passed removing the requirement that the President be born in the US so that he could run for President. (BTW, it turns out that we're currently up to the 27th Amendment to the Constitution. And it was proposed in 1789. We've got a ways to go to the 61st.)
I sat there thinking about how utterly bizarre it still strikes me to hear the news refer to Governor Schwarzenegger and it NOT be the punchline to a joke, and I remember that there is talk about a measure before Congress to amend the Constitution to allow individuals that weren't born US Citizens to run for President (rumored to be supported by Ted Kennedy) and I thought "how is it possible that THIS silly-ass movie could end up sounding prophetic?!?
Yeah, I know it's a joke. But STILL… it's kinda funny, in a "not the way it was meant to be funny" kind of way. You've got to admit that.