Universal Soldier

What's not to like? Van Damme and Dolph star as soldiers who kill each other in Vietnam and are than reanimated as Uni Sols but when Dolph remembers his sadistic ways the trouble starts.

Universal Soldier is Van Damme and Lundgren's best movie ever made.It has some strong action scenes and decent acting from the cast. The climax is one of the greatest in a long time. And if anybody tells you this movie sucked. Feel free to knock them upside their heads. (JK)

Overall Universal Soldier is a great movie that shouldn't be missed.

**** (Out of four)

Muscles from Brussels and the Swedish man-of-war Dolph Lundgren team up as superhuman soldiers brought back to life from Vietnam in this movie. I'm not sure what it is exactly that they do – I wasn't paying attention. But I'm pretty sure it's something about struggling with obeying the orders from their commanders and having flashbacks from their past lives. What I know is that they do fight a lot. They also fight civilians. They even fight each other, and that's when things start to get very entertaining.

It is only fair to watch this movie at least once since it has brought us not one, not two, but THREE sequels. What's even more awesome about these sequels is that they are all rated under 3.5 but not by enough votes to get them on the bottom 100 list on IMDb. If you fail in getting on a list like that, you even fail at failing and that is admirable. Universal Soldier is much more well-liked and higher-rated and rightly so.

I do not recall who, but another film critic put it best when he pointed to how different Universal Soldiers was from your average science-fiction movie. To summarize this, where most sci-fi movies get to the part where all the complex science needs to be explained by some brilliant professor, Universal Soldiers simply offers the explanation "we hypercharged their bodies to turn dead flesh into living tissue." And that's how dead soldiers were reanimated into superhuman killing machines. Brilliant. There's no pretension – just take it or leave it.

I can't find it in my heart to give this movie anything less than a 7 based on what it set out to do. Even though the acting is atrocious, the script is a joke and the dialogue is stupid, it's still a classic in my opinion. It had some intentionally funny moments like when Van Damme was in the diner and ate like ten meals of "today's special" and everyone was staring at him. If you don't find stuff like that funny, you have to watch it strictly tongue-in-cheek and just go for the brainless early-90s style action and cut-rate explosions. 7/10

Big, dumb, loud, and fun. Four words that could aptly summarise the appeal of this blockbuster movie which proved a hit with audiences back in '92 and spawned three inferior sequels. UNIVERSAL SOLDIER is probably Van Damme's most successful mainstream movie to date and his pairing with Lundgren as the enemy is a good one; Lundgren's height alone gives him the imposing edge over the smaller, tougher Van Damme and their final one-on-one battle is one to remember. Packed with lots of hard-edged violence and some unwanted comic relief from a highly annoying female support (Ally Walker), UNIVERSAL SOLDIER is a movie that gets better as it goes along.

At first, the sheer woodenness of Van Damme and Lundgren is inexcusable. I know that they're supposed to be playing emotionless dead robots, but even after they first rebel they seem wooden and unable to even say their lines convincingly. Thankfully this wears off as time goes on and the pair settle down into their roles. In fact Lundgren goes a 360-degree turnaround at the end and actually becomes quite good as the psychotic soldier who believes that he's surrounded by the enemy. Van Damme? Well, here he plays a more sympathetic character than usual which will no doubt endear him to female fans, while still providing the high-kicking action that the fans expect. Ally Walker is terrible, though, as the intensely annoying female lead, and although it's good to see Ed O'Ross make an appearance as a colonel, he's underused and killed off quickly.

The flimsy plot strings together a scene of big-budget action sequences (no surprise, as most of Roland Emmerich's films are thus styled, e.g. INDEPENDENCE DAY) which are pretty impressive. From the opening hostage stakeout at the Hoover Dam to the shoot-up at a motel, to the climatic truck chase and the final battle with Van Damme and Lundgren, things just keep getting better and better. The high body count sees lots of people getting shot or killed in nasty ways, and of course there's the usual quota of bullet-shedding and big explosions.

Lundgren's method of death at the end of the movie (like you couldn't guess) is highly graphic and unexpected. The loud score is sufficiently adrenaline-pumping to work and the film tries so hard to please that the feeling rubs off on the audience. Although it may be dumb entertainment, UNIVERSAL SOLDIER "delivers the groceries" so to speak and is quite watchable in a forgettable way, in that it passes the time and engages the attention but doesn't leave much impact afterwards. It may be a popcorn movie but it's undoubtedly a well-made one.

Universal Soldier might be dumb and derivative but I couldn't care less, it is also one of the most entertaining action films to be released in the 1990s and provided signature roles for two of my favourite trash icons, Jean-Claude Van Damme and Dolph Lundgren. The film also serves as a testament to the last good movie made by Roland Emmerich before selling his soul to the Hollywood machine.

This film has long been a favourite with genre fans. Universal Soldier was a theatrical box office hit but really developed its cult following on video. I watch this film every couple of years and I'm always struck by the quality of the writing, directing and yes, even the acting. This is simply a well crafted movie and an excellent example of a film that is so much more than the sum of its admittedly tawdry parts.

Universal Soldier owes a hell of a lot to "The Terminator". It lifts a whole raft of ideas from Cameron's action classic, including the basic concept of a good guy with superhuman strength protecting a woman from a bad guy with superhuman strength. Actually, it even borrows minor details like the eye-cam, the nude walk and an act of self-mutilation. Nevertheless, the film never feels like a blatant rip off. Roland Emmerich, while never a particularly original mind, injects sufficient change and innovation into the film to ensure it has a distinct energy of its own.

The film recycles old ideas with great skill due to the excellent screenplay. The action comes thick and fast, and the dialogue is first rate for an action film. Furthermore, it provides several memorable characters and successfully introduces an element of black humour without detracting from the action. No matter how well written it is, an action film is only as good its action sequences and Mr Emmerich does not disappoint. The film contains several fantastic set pieces, from the grandeur of the hostage rescue to the phenomenal truck chase through the desert, which even manages to find time for a mid-chase game of "catch" with live grenades and a string of memorably corny one-liners. Emmerich is in his element, filming explosions and stunts from every imaginable angle. Universal Soldier is also far gorier than his later films and is all the better for it.

The film would not be half as enjoyable without its leading men. Jean-Claude and Dolph both give great performances. And no, I'm not being sarcastic. Jean-Claude was at his physical peak and excels during the action scenes. He performs several signature flying kicks in a great fight with Dolph, which is mercifully filmed in a long shot - I wish the John Woo wannabes from the "cut and paste" school of directing who directed Jean-Claude's later films had taken note. Dolph is great fun as the villain, making crazy eyes for all he is worth and relishing every trashy one-liner. They both are more than adequate in their non-action scenes, which probably has a lot to do with the fact that they are essentially playing refined zombies who walk around naked a lot. The supporting cast is also great. Ally Walker showed a lot of promise as the female lead and has gone on to have a good career in television. Jerry Orbach and Tico Wells, also TV regulars, give memorable performances in minor roles.

Universal Soldier is relentless, the film starts with a bang and never lets up. It might be trashy, but it is never less than completely entertaining. In my opinion, this is one of the seminal action films of the 90s. The sequels, however, are only recommended for experienced crap connoisseurs.

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.