No joke here JPFmovie fans we are slumming again. Either the JPFmovie machine is craving punishment or the inmates have taken over the asylum. We’ve previously seen Sly in Tango and Cash (arguably one of the ten worst Hollywood films made) and in this 1993 relic he teams up with convicted tax cheat Wesley Snipes and a very young Sandra Bullock to make this thing.
In the effort for full disclosure and transparency, the JPFmovies editorial staff must inform you that they are big fans of Aldous Huxley’s dystopian novel Brave New World which this film attempts to take elements from the novel i.e. Sandra Bullock’s character, Lieutenant Lenina Huxley was named after Aldous Huxley, the author of Brave New World, and Lenina Crowne, another character in Brave New World also appears in the film. Huxley was either laughing his ass off or spinning in his grave.
In 1996, we have apparently developed the technology to incarcerated criminals in a “Cryo-Penitentiary”, where they are cryogenically frozen and exposed to subliminal rehabilitation techniques. Yeah that’s right three years after the film was released. That said, super-villian Simon Phoenix (Snipes) is thawed in 2032 for a parole hearing and he escapes. Huxley has John Spartan (Stallone) thawed to help stop Phoenix–both characters were frozen as a result of their initial duel having leveled about 2/3rds of LA. She explains to Spartan that San Angeles—a metropolis that combines the former Los Angeles, San Diego, and Santa Barbara—is a peaceful utopia, and the police are no longer equipped to deal with the likes of Phoenix. Naturally the barbaric Spartan finds the new future depressing and oppressive: human behavior is tightly controlled, physical contact and swearing are illegal, and anything else deemed “bad” is also banned. Likewise, others on the police force find Spartan’s behavior brutish and uncivilized.
And the hits keep on coming. Apparently toilet paper has been replaced by clam shells and Taco-Bell is the only restaurant to survive the “franchise wars.” However, there is a glimmer of hope as an underground movement exists (headed by Dennis Leary) trying to restore freedom to the highly regulated humans. Lot’s of explosions, bad jokes and both Snipes and Stallone flexing their muscles easily summarizes the rest of the film. Naturally Stallone wins in some ultra pyrotechnic scene and for the cherry on top Spartan suggests that both sides work together to combine the best aspects of order and personal freedom. Then he kisses Huxley and the two go off together.
Now this movie made almost Sixty Million Dollars. Moreover it was largely plagiarized from the novel Holtak Harca (Fight of the Dead), published in 1986. In the novel, a terrorist and his enemy, a counter-terrorism soldier, are cryogenically frozen and awakened in the 22nd century to find violence has been purged from society. Nemere (the author) claimed that a committee proved that 75% of the film is identical to the book. He chose not to initiate a lawsuit, as it would have been too expensive for him to hire a lawyer and fight against major Hollywood forces in the United States. So not only did the viewer get screwed watching this movie but so did the original author.
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