Universal Soldier: Le combat absolu

Jean-Claude Van Damme has been in about a film a year for 15 years now, and has been the star performer in those films since 1985's No Retreat, No Surrender.

That's no mean achievement and shows that this action movie star has a market for his skills, as limited as they might be. The formula isn't Van Damme's alone but he's certainly the most prolific of the action movie stars.

Silvester Stallone, Arnold Schwarzennegger, Steven Segal, Bruce Lee and Jackie Chan are the best known of the action stars but with the exception of Chan, Van Damme is the one who seems to be still most actively in the business. And these sorts of films are much less popular than they used to be.

Jean-Claude is a terrible actor and his film world is simplistic. One can only assume that his fans wish that the real world was like his.

The scenario almost invariably includes lots of hand to hand fighting, silly women and often children who need defending. The plots are stupid and concocted only to allow Jean-Claude to fight a lot and to show his sensitive side as he protects the women and/or children.

The mushy bits, accompanied by appropriate music, aren't ever romantic, Jean Claude could never manage that, but they serve to depict this action man as being a reluctant hero. He only beats people up, firstly because he can, but secondly because he has to.

His best film so far, of the ones I've seen, was the John Woo directed Hard Target (1993) which had many stylish touches, often in slow motion, which accentuated the admirable Van Damme gracefulness.

I think the worst was Double Impact which unfortunately doubled the torture - there were two characters in the film played by the Muscles From Brussels.

And the famous, universal, Van Damme bum shot, the scene where we get to see Jean-Claude's tastefully lit posterior, happens early on in Universal Soldier 2. So if you like you can leave early.

Universal Soldier follows the formula. Actually I think that his fans will like this one. There's plenty of kick boxing.

This is a shocking 'B' grade action movie with lots of bad acting and dialogue. Van Damme does his usual best which aint much, Jai White is good as Seth but the scene stealer is the cheesy but lovable Bill Goldberg. This film is so ridiculously bad that it ends up being funny and quite enjoyable.

If you like cheesy low budget action flicks that doesn't take itself too seriously then this is worth a laugh or two! As a fan of the genre and the fact that i realise this isn't meant to be taken seriously, *** out of *****!

i anticipated this movie like i wait for any new JCVD film. i love van damme and i think he has a lot of potential, give him a 100 million dollars film and a director like michael bay, and watch how he captures the screen and the whole holywood. Universal soldier II is a nice action film, but lacks a lot of basic A film characteristics. van damme shows some good fighting, but mic rodgers didnt shoot'em right. he needs to learn some stuff from john woo's & van damme's HARD TARGET, except of the scene when van damme fights S.E.T.H. this scene is the greatest scene in the film. it was also nice to see bil goldberg's humor as a big hard-ass unisol being kick-assed by van damme in various parts of the movie. i was sad as the plot took a turn when the main computer S.E.T.H took control over the facility and sent over the unisols to take over the world or whatever. i think it could have been better, if the scripters would have think twice. in conclusion, wait for video, but don't miss this film at all, after all, van damme is van damme.

This movie is just so bad it's good! The acting may look a bit "forced" at times (ok, perhaps "painfully horrible" would be a better expression) but really folks... did you honestly expect an award winning performance from Van Damme or Goldberg? I don't know about you all, but I rented this movie to see Van Damme trade punches with the 290 pound Goldberg and Michael Jai White while uttering dozens of slightly pathetic/slightly amusing one liners at every conceivable opportunity, and I got just what I asked for =)

If you don't like it... tough.

Go rent "The Piano" or "Lawn Dogs" if you want real movies, but if you just want Van Damme brawling with big guys plus some shots of pretty girls, this is just what the doctor ordered.

One of my favourites.

I like Van Dammes movies and Universal soldier was one of my favorites(along with Blood sport and Hard target). I looked forward to a sequel, but when I saw the reviews, "The worst film I've seen" it also earned it self a average of 3.0(29th of Feb 2000) on this sight. But I had to hire it out, and I was honestly surprised. DON'T watch it unless youv'e seen the first or it will make no sense. It doesn't explain the first story, it only says that Luc(Van Damme) was one of the first uni sols. It then doesn't tell you about the new project, and how Luc became involved, also it says about the main female characture in the first, who is now his wife and is dead, how did she die?

Although it doesn't make much sense it is a good action film with some great fight scenes especially ones with Goldburg, and the final showdown. So make your own decision and watch. entertaining 4/10