Universal Soldier

I remember first watching 'Universal Soldier' on TV when I was about 8 or 9 years old. After that, whenever I saw it it didn't have sound, or I was rather inebriated, or both, or had other circumstances prevent me from appreciating the awesomeness of Van Damme v. Lundgren, until it was on TV again recently, and I got to revel in the glory of 'Universal Soldier'.

Van Damme plays Luc Deveraux, a soldier serving in Vietnam, under the command of Sergeant Andrew Scott (Dolph Lundgren). Deveraux has an attack of conscience when Scott seems to lose his altogether. In fact, Scott seems to be somewhere between insane and plain evil. After Deveraux refuses - on Scott's orders - to kill innocent villagers, the two soldiers kill each other. Listed as Missing-in-Action, the bodies of the two soldiers are used in the Universal Soldier program, and the two are re-activated some time later as GR-44 (Van Damme) and GR-13 (Lundgren), supposedly with no memories of their past.

When reporter Veronica Roberts (Ally Walker) stumbles onto some things she shouldn't have seen (seriously, if you want to keep your project secret, you don't drive around in an armoured bus, leaving unlocked crates lying around outside), her cameraman is murdered by one of the UniSols. GR-44 has flashes of his past, and takes Veronica on the run, with the slightly (very?) unstable GR-13 in hot-pursuit.

Action abounds for the rest of the movie, and while there isn't anything truly special, it is way cool, or even Awesome. We have car chases, heavy vehicle chases, Van Damme beating people up, and Lundgren being one of the awesomest bad guys ever. What is there to complain about? Nothing, that's what. I must say that Dolph Lundgren is at his best playing villains, and I'd even argue that his role in 'Universal Soldier' has been some of his best work to date. Van Damme also gets to credit 'Univeral Soldier' as being one his best movies.

Plot-wise? Again, little - if no - originality, and a pretty thin plot. However, as I always say "Less plot = More action = Awesome", and everyone is happy, and if you don't agree, then you really should not be watching 'Universal Soldier'.

I love 'Universal Soldier'. It stands close to the pinnacle of action B-movies, a genre everybody loves! It is a shame that I can the official and un-official sequels on DVD, but I can't get the original in all its awesome glory on DVD here in Australia. 'Universal Soldier' is a must-see for action fans everywhere - 8/10

I just wanna say that I have a real soft spot for the 80's action heroes that I watched relentlessly when I was growing up. Stallone, Schwarzenegger, Seagal and yes, to some extent, Van Damme. The Muscles from Brussels was always my least favourite but I usually checked out his films. I don't think any of them are REALLY good but I've always liked this one very much. Sure, it's pretty dumb for the most part but it has a distinct advantage over most of his films; IT'S ALSO GOT DOLPH LUNDGREN. Now, I just remember him so vividly in Rocky 4, and being as young as I was when I first saw it; I remember cheering him on, and being immensely sad when he lost.

Universal Soldier has a good opener, introducing Van Damme and Lundgren as Vietnam soldiers (Lundgren a total nut and Van Damme a good soldier) who wind up killing each other. Decades later, they end up becoming part of a zombie ultra military squad who are controlled by the government. But they snap out of it, come to life and go head to head once more, since they have some unfinished business.

Now, the story is no Oscar winner, but it's fairly original and sets the motion for some great action sequences and a very entertaining good vs. evil battle between Lundgren and Van Damme. If only the Ally Walker character could have been made a bit more tolerable (and less a cliché) we'd nearly have a total winner.

All in all, the action scenes are great, Lundgren is terrific, obviously having a field day playing his role and Van Damme is alright, but then again, he's never been great.

Universal Soldier is Van Damme's best film and quite easily recommended for action fans.

Two dead American soldiers from Vietnam resurface years later as nuclear machines that help take down terrorists. However when a nosy reporter starts snooping around she rekindles the memories of the soldiers, one wants to go home and the other wants to kill the other. Jean-Claude Van Damme and Dolph Lundgren together in one film doesn't exactly bring up expectations of quality. However Universal Soldier manages to be far more entertaining than one would've guessed and not even in guilty pleasure way. The action is rather spectacular and while Van Damme and Lundgren are rather well suited to their parts. The secondary characters such as Jerry Orbach,Ed O'Ross and Ally Walker only provide our hero and villain with targets to shoot at but for mindless enjoyment, you can certainly do worse.

* *1/2 out 4-(Pretty good)

Before films like Sylvester Stallone's The Expendables (2010) were released, most action stars performed solo. Arnold Schwarzenegger, Sylvester Stallone, Bruce Willis, Dolph Lundgren, and Jean-Claude Van Damme all made their own separate movies. Combining star power wasn't usually thought of because of how different the fan bases were. However, this movie is one those exceptions. Today it could be considered a movie where they collaborated before they were extremely well known (although at the time they were anyway). It was rare at that time to see two big names on the same screen - which probably pumped up a lot of people.

Here, Jean-Claude Van Damme and Dolph Lundgren play Luc Deveraux and Andrew Scott, two Vietnam veteran soldiers killed in the line of duty, who end up being regenerated to serve as a UniSol (short for Universal Soldier). As a UniSol, their purpose is to carry out impossible tasks that no other ordinary soldier could do. To carry out these missions, the UniSols are monitored and commanded by remote audio instructions. One day on the latest mission, Luc begins to have a relapse of old memories and begins to bug out. After disobeying an order, he runs off with reporter Veronica Roberts (Ally Walker) to find out what he missed. Close behind them is Luc's colonel with Andrew Scott 2nd in command looking to rid them of their existence.

For the majority of the running time, the plot is a big chase. Yet, in only some instances does it actually feel like a chase. Writer Dean Devlin managed to include some unique scenes but his pacing on how the story moves, plods from time to time. That's not to say the material he includes in the story isn't noteworthy. Again, this goes back to some unique scenes that Devlin included - most of which involve Andrew Scott (Lundgren). This movie is also one of the few that director Roland Emmerich did not include a political commentary on since this idea is so far fetched. However, he does mingle some themes that are still important to recognize - for example, playing the role of God. If there was the technology to actually re-animate dead tissue, would it be possible to have complete control over the body? Hard to say, the mind is a tricky thing.

However, the movie cannot be analyzed too much because throughout the story there are a lot of loopholes and questions that aren't answered - like how can someone survive a fall from an enormous height and not come back mangled or even bruised? This is one those films where it's fun to watch but cannot be taken literal because of how absurd the idea really is. The acting can be moderately dealt with. Ally Walker plays her role like any other person would. She has a few lines that'll make people chuckle but not much else. Jean-Claude Van Damme's acting is stone faced for most of the time because of how he's not familiar with the world. However, Dolph Lundgren looked like he had a great time playing his role because of how deranged his character is. It was also wise of the casting department to at least make Lundgren the antagonist because of his height. If it were the other way around, I'm not sure if the entertainment level would be as high.

What is fun to watch here, is when Lundgren and Van Damme finally clash. Since they both have martial arts training, there's no question that the kicks and fists will fly between them. Lundgren's got the bulk and Van Damme's got the agility. They both are good in contrast to each other, the only thing that was needed was Van Damme putting just a little more emotion into his role. Other than that, the cinematography and editing works well too. Finally, composing the musical score belongs to Christopher Franke who now produces music for The Amazing Race (2002) series. Franke's score does contain tunes that can be heard with light emotional tones but it's nothing too deep; which is pretty much how the film should be taken. Fun but not deep.

The action on screen between Dolph Lundgren and Jean-Claude Van Damme is fun even though it is sporadic. The story elements are interesting considering it also makes the plot drag. Look for nothing too deep here.

In a war zone Luc Deveraux stops his officer Andrew Scott, killing innocent civilians. However both die in the struggle. Years later they are part of a reanimation programme all Universal Soldiers – perfect fighting machines controlled like robots. However Deveraux has memory flashbacks causing him to flee with a reporter, his commander also experiences memory residues and takes the remaining soldiers to go after Deveraux.

One of Van Damme's and Lundgren's best films – although that's not saying much. The plot is pretty basic although there is some reasonable moralising about the soldiers. The action isn't fancy but it's solid and, unlike it's sequel, it's not afraid to be violent. While it's not a classic it does allow some good scenes and is a bit better than the usual Van Damme fare.

The cast are mixed. Van Damme is a perfect cardboard robot but doesn't convince when he has become human. He is the brunt of some good jokes too (`what accent?') and gets to bare his ass in customary style. Lundgren is actually quite good and his character develops from robot into war-weary soldier quite well. Ally Walker is so-so but she doesn't convince.

Overall this is enjoyable but it isn't perfect. For action fans it's solid enough to satisfy.