By Robert Scucci
| Published
Not all RoboCop imitations are created equal, but I keep watching them whenever I get the chance because some are a whole lot of fun. Upgrade (2018) takes a classic revenge-thriller approach not unlike the John Wick movies, while films like Nemesis (1992) lean hard into shadow government conspiracies and all-out cybernetic warfare. 1995’s The Demolitionist does some heavy lifting of its own by asking the question we’re all dying to have answered: what if RoboCop was a smoking hot blonde, and every villain was so comically evil that you could fully switch your brain to the off position?
I recently reviewed Future Force (1989), and the biggest problem I had with that film was how unlikeable its protagonist (portrayed by David Carradine) is. He’s a fascist police officer who carries out the “law” as oppressively and aggressively as possible without ever considering the consequences of his actions. The Demolitionist is the exact opposite, which allows it to go as ultra-violent as its $1 million budget can afford, and you never once have to question who you’re rooting for.
It’s a simple good gal versus very bad guy story, and it’s such an enjoyable watch because of how simple it is.
Girl Gets Dead, Pumps Bad Guys With Lead
The Demolitionist kicks off by introducing us to “Mad Dog” Burne (Richard Grieco) and his little brother and right-hand man, “Little Henry” (Randy Vasquez), two street criminals who are comically evil. They escape from death row and kill everybody in their sight on the night of their well-deserved execution and immediately go back to their old tricks, which mostly involve assaulting women and shooting their guns in the air. Working undercover, Alyssa Lloyd (Nicole Eggert), along with her partner Daniel Dupre (Andras Jones), has been trying to take down their gang. When her cover is blown, Mad Dog kills her, and that’s the end of that. Or so he thinks.
What Mad Dog isn’t prepared for, however, is Doctor Jack Crowley’s (Bruce Abbott) Lazarus-style project, which allows Alyssa to come back from the dead with advanced healing powers, superhuman strength, and enhanced reflexes. The project is funded by Mayor Eleanor Grimbaum (Susan Tyrell), who’s also comically evil, though mostly for political reasons. She knows Mad Dog’s antics are tanking her approval ratings, and all she cares about is the upcoming election.
With all of that setup out of the way, The Demolitionist becomes a supremely fun action thriller because the formula is completely locked in. We’ve got the well-meaning but God-playing scientist, the corrupt politician bankrolling his crime-stopping project, the criminal ringleader who’s so blatantly horrible, and finally Alyssa Lloyd, who’s hellbent on revenge and equipped with a brand-new, perfectly form-fitting tactical suit that highlights all of her best physical attributes, along with a bunch of cool future tech to help her along the way.
As Alyssa takes on her new alter ego, The Demolitionist, she actually feels morally conflicted in a way similar hero archetypes in lesser films rarely do. Her arc plays out firmly on the right side of history because the villains she’s fighting are so over-the-top that you never once question her moral compass. When she’s put in compromising positions, though, like having to choose between saving a girl who accidentally picked up a grenade or continuing to chase the bad guy, she chooses the latter, forcing her to wonder if she sold her soul just to help Jack fulfill his primary objective: shoot bad guys.
Low-Budget, Scenery-Chewing, B-Movie Fun
The Demolitionist is not a satire like RoboCop, and it’s not preachy with its messaging. It’s a simple story about a woman who’s killed, turned into a soulless killing machine, and driven by revenge, only for her conscience to occasionally remind her that she’s no longer the person she used to be. That’s all you need to know to enjoy this movie, and that’s all this movie aspires to be.
There are plenty of practical effects holding the action sequences together, and nearly every bad guy you see on screen is somehow cheesier than the one before him. When every villain has names like Boxer, Hammerhead, Skin, Ram, Wolf, or Lipps, you know exactly what kind of leather-jacket-wearing, bandana-sporting, switchblade-wielding, gun-toting maniacs you’re about to deal with.
My favorite bad guy, however, has to be “One Eye” (David Anthony Marshall), yet another Snake Plissken wannabe floating around this subgenre. His finest moment comes after he gets shot in the butt by our hero and dragged back to Mad Dog’s home base, only to learn the bullet contains a tracking device while everybody, including a smiling, uncredited Bruce Campbell, giggles with delight.
If you like your action thrillers hot, violent, and packed with walking, talking stereotypes who shamelessly lean into every single genre trope imaginable, The Demolitionist should be the next thing you watch on Tubi, where it’s currently streaming for free.
