It's a remake of Sleeper!
Both films share the same high-tech fascistic sterile future, where sex is best performed with the aid of electronic devices, where the heroes are fish out of water: men from an earlier, freer time, summoned into a future where they don't belong, cars are hydrogen or electric powered white bubbled domes, and Diane Keaton is played by Sandra Bullock. Where the police all wear black leather baseball caps, and black leather outfits with lots of shiny buttons borrowed from the set of Janet Jackson's "Rhythm Nation" video.
Speaking of videos, whereas Allen used his own ragtime band for Sleeper's soundtrack, Demolition Man's title comes from a tune Sting wrote 12 years earlier when he was with the Police. But having an established song for a film's title helps sell a movie that much easier. And having Sting do your video doesn't hurt, either.
The theme song and The Taco Bell placement shows just how far Hollywood has come, post-Star Wars and its merchandising. Where Woody throws in a McDonald's sign with endless rows of zeros and commas as a 15 second throwaway gag, Demolition Man bludgeons its audience with product placements.
Having been bludgeoned enough, I tuned out. If I want endless product placements, I'll watch the NFL, which I did: ESPN Classics reran the Browns/Broncos AFC Championship game from 1987. To paraphrase Bob Evans, had I seen it before? Of course, a few times. Did I know how it would end? You bet your *** I did. Did I care? Not in the least. I knew it had to be better than this.
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Article comments
1 - Temple A. Stark
Now if you'd put a link to Bladerunner I would have bought it from Blogcritics. That's a film.
Films are entertainment. Those that choose to have product placements out the *** - I mean ass - are likely to make money but not likely to have a shelf life longer than a ripe tomato.
2 - visualsimplicity
I know Taco Bell paid them for the product placement, but I always thought the movie sort of made the Taco Bell surviving the fast food chain wars into a joke. I thought it was funny.