The Demolitionist

A tired, second-rate "Robocop" rehash. Deadly predictable, too. You know what will happen in almost every scene. Basically the whole plot is: woman gets murdered, woman gets "ressurrected", woman seeks vengeance on those who killed her. Nothing more than that. The movie is not exactly bad, it's just so.....forgettable (and, as others have mentioned, what's with that red powder that we see instead of blood when someone gets shot?). Nicole Eggert is the sole redeeming element. (*1/2)

An atrocious, total rip-off of ROBOCOP, from start to finish, mean-spirited and excessively violent. This film has a recycled plot, a lead actress from BAYWATCH, and not much else - just senseless action, shooting and a couple of linking plot scenes. The poor production values mean that it looks cheap throughout, and there isn't much in the way of good action choreography to recommend either.

All it does have going for it is some excess violence (just what I like to see) and a parade of cameo appearances from numerous '80s horror movie stars! These include Bruce Abbott (RE-ANIMATOR) as a stuffy doctor, Heather Langenkamp (A NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET), Dan Hicks (Joe from EVIL DEAD 2), Reggie Bannister (the PHANTASM series) Joseph Pilato (Rhodes from DAY OF THE DEAD), Tom Savini (FROM DUSK TILL DAWN) and finally everyone's favourite shemp, Bruce Campbell (THE EVIL DEAD). Phew! In this case, the film is worth watching just to see if you can spot all of them. If you're looking for solid entertainment, however, then I would advise you to look elsewhere...

I recently watched The Demolitionist (1995) on Tubi. The storyline follows a city overrun by crime and desperate for a solution. When another cop is killed, a mad scientist creates a killing machine to uphold the law. The mayor reluctantly approves the project to clean up the streets.

Directed by Robert Kurtzman (Buried Alive), the film stars Nicole Eggert (Charles in Charge), Bruce Abbott (Re-Animator), Susan Tyrrell (Cry-Baby), Peter Jason (48 Hrs.), Richard Grieco (If Looks Could Kill), Sarah Douglas (Superman), and Tom Savini (From Dusk till Dawn).

This is one of those fun '90s movies that feels like an '80s Troma/Full Moon Features film. It does a great job of not taking itself too seriously, with a fun premise and an entertaining cast that delivers their performances perfectly for the genre. The attire, makeup, and sets pull you into the universe. The villain is phenomenal, and there are some great kills that brought a smile to my face. The last scene is hilarious and makes the fun journey worthwhile.

In conclusion, is The Demolitionist a great movie? Absolutely not. Is it worth a watch with the appropriate expectations? Absolutely. I would score this a 5/10 and recommend seeing it once.

Recently I noticed that for some reason I seem to be really into mid-90's action B-movies, or maybe I just got lucky with the ones I saw. A few days ago I watched 'The Demolitionist' which can easily be written off as a Robocop rip-off and while the basic idea certainly is taken from Robocop it is very much its own film.

The psychological main conflict is that the resurrected female cop (who still has full control over herself) isn't comfortable with the fact that she is dead yet functioning better than ever thanks to her new high-tech blood. It's the kind of film in which every single character is morally degenerated and capable of anything, they all just have different motivations and enemies.

It's totally over the top, which goes for the performances as well as for the visual style. Half the movie is shot with tilted camera angles and other crazy perspectives, the light often is extremely artificial looking (usually blue).

It's mindless and the moment is more important than the whole but it does have a story and a sense of progress which keeps the ball rolling until the end (where it eventually falls apart, unfortunately). One interesting touch is how bullet impacts are visualized. Instead of blood spurting a fine red dust comes out of the guy who gets hit, so that he goes down in a red cloud. Cheap? Well, it's expressionistic.

Most interestingly I found out that all those mid-90's action B-movies I like have a common staff member - supervising sound editor Patrick M. Griffith. If you liked 'The Demolitionist' I guess I can recommend other films I enjoyed as much and in which making this man happens to have been involved: Mean Guns, Retroactive, Omega Doom, and Death Machine, which are all much better enjoyed in their original aspect ratio but can be difficult to find this way on purchasable data storage devices.

What does being alive really mean? If it means that the blood pumps around your veins, your lungs suck in air, and your eyes help you to aim your gun to blow away your enemies, then Alyssa Lloyd is certainly alive. But in dying and being brought back did she lose something important along the way? Alyssa Lloyd (played by Nicole Eggert) is the Demolishionist, a police officer brutally murdered, and brought back from the dead in true comic-book form. Every night she is forced to undergo horrific scientific procedures which keep her alive and deadly.

The scientist seems to forget that his prize specimen was (and still is?) a woman, with very human feelings.

This film has been likened to RoboCop, and there are some superficial similarities, but Demolishionist is a lot darker, the humour has more 'edge', and the final scenes bring the narrative to a brilliant conclusion!