science fiction
Science fiction (often shortened to sci-fi or abbreviated SF) is a genre of speculative fiction that deals with imaginative and futuristic concepts. These concepts may include information technology and robotics, biological manipulations, space ...
action horror film
The action film is a film genre that predominantly features chase sequences, fights, shootouts, explosions, and stunt work. The specifics of what constitutes an action film has been in scholarly debate since the 1980s. While some scholars such as ...
directed by
Robert Kurtzman
Robert Kurtzman (born November 25, 1964) is an American film director, producer, screenwriter, and special effects makeup artist. During his time at KNB EFX Group, which he co-founded, it would win a 2001 Emmy Award. He would then start his o ...
. The film stars
Nicole Eggert
Nicole Elizabeth Eggert (born January 13, 1972) is an American actress. Her notable roles include Jamie Powell on the situation comedy ''Charles in Charge'' and Summer Quinn on the television series ''Baywatch''. She guest-starred in ''The Super ...
,
Richard Grieco
Richard John Grieco Jr. (born March 23, 1965) is an American actor, artist, and former fashion model. He played Detective Dennis Booker in the popular Fox series ''21 Jump Street'' (1988–89) and its spin-off ''Booker'' (1989–90). He has a ...
Heather Langenkamp
Heather Elizabeth Langenkamp (born July 17, 1964) is an American actress, director, writer, producer, and disc jockey. Langenkamp is best known for her acting work within the horror genre, as well as television sitcoms. Langenkamp was inducted ...
Tom Savini
Thomas Vincent Savini (born November 3, 1946) is an American prosthetic makeup artist, actor, stunt performer and film director. He is known for his makeup and special effects work on many films directed by George A. Romero, including ''Martin ( ...
.
Plot
A murdered female police officer is brought back to life by a cold-hearted scientist to serve as "The Demolitionist", the ultimate crime-fighting weapon in a city overrun by criminals and internal corruption.
Cast
Production
Special effects artist
Robert Kurtzman
Robert Kurtzman (born November 25, 1964) is an American film director, producer, screenwriter, and special effects makeup artist. During his time at KNB EFX Group, which he co-founded, it would win a 2001 Emmy Award. He would then start his o ...
made his directorial debut with ''The Demolitionist'' and co-wrote the original screenplay with his wife Anne. The Kurtzman's had wanted to work on a low-budget film together with the plan being for Anne to produce the film while Robert would direct it. After producer Donald P. Borchers learned of their planned film, he came aboard and helped set up the film at Border Planet Productions and A-Pix Entertainment which gave the film a bigger albeit still low budget. In order to stretch their low budget, the producers made a deal with
Coca-Cola
Coca-Cola, or Coke, is a cola soft drink manufactured by the Coca-Cola Company. In 2013, Coke products were sold in over 200 countries and territories worldwide, with consumers drinking more than 1.8 billion company beverage servings ...
who in exchange for prominent
product placement
Product placement, also known as embedded marketing, is a marketing technique where references to specific brands or products are incorporated into another work, such as a film or television program, with specific promotional intent. Much of t ...
provided funds for the production as well as unlimited drinks for the cast and crew during production.
Release
The film premiered in Los Angeles on March 10, 1995. It later received a limited theatrical release in May 1996 before debuting on video in July 1996.
Reception
The film has a 17% approval rating based on 6 reviews on
Rotten Tomatoes
Rotten Tomatoes is an American review aggregator, review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee ...
. Ray Mark Rinaldi of ''
St. Louis Post-Dispatch
The ''St. Louis Post-Dispatch'' is a regional newspaper based in St. Louis, Missouri, serving the St. Louis metropolitan area. It is the largest daily newspaper in the metropolitan area by circulation, surpassing the '' Belleville News-Democra ...
'' highlighted the films camp aesthetics, and described the performances as a "cartoon brought to life."
Glenn Kenny
Glenn Kenny (born August 8, 1959) is an American film critic and journalist. He writes for ''The New York Times'' and '' RogerEbert.com''.
Biography
Kenny attended William Paterson University, where he majored in English literature.EW praised the film for its "low budget charm". Lorry Kikta of ''
Film Threat
''Film Threat'' is an American online film review publication, and earlier, a national magazine that focused primarily on independent film, although it also reviewed videos and DVDs of mainstream films, as well as Hollywood movies in theaters. ...
'' praised the action sequences, costume design, and dialogue. She also highlighted the performances of Susan Tyrell and
Richard Grieco
Richard John Grieco Jr. (born March 23, 1965) is an American actor, artist, and former fashion model. He played Detective Dennis Booker in the popular Fox series ''21 Jump Street'' (1988–89) and its spin-off ''Booker'' (1989–90). He has a ...
. In contrast, ''
TV Guide
TV Guide is an American digital media
In mass communication, digital media is any media (communication), communication media that operates in conjunction with various encoded machine-readable data formats. Digital content can be created, vi ...
'' panned the movie, commenting that it was obviously inspired by ''
RoboCop
''RoboCop'' is a 1987 American Science fiction film, science fiction action film directed by Paul Verhoeven and written by Edward Neumeier and Michael Miner. The film stars Peter Weller, Nancy Allen (actress), Nancy Allen, Dan O'Herlihy, Dani ...
'', but lacked the "inspiration's satiric viewpoint, or enough of a budget to create any memorable action scenes."