Universal Soldier II: Brothers in Arms

I refer of course to the bit part in two Sabrina the Teenage Witch episodes that constitute the peak of Matt Battaglia's career, prior to, and now that I think about it, even after this 'feature' film is taken into account.

Let's have no mistake here; it truly is appalling. Weapons' grade suckage. It's bad beyond even so-bad-it's-good, because it has absolutely no idea how bad it is. We're talking Nick Fury: Agent of Shield bad, but without the inherent absurdity of David Hasselhoff to raise it up to kitch bad. It just stinks, in every possible way. Let's count the ways, because it beats watching it.

A nominal leading man who has almost no lines in the film, and who spends most of it with his lips pursed like he's just pulled someone's finger and doesn't like the smell.

A bimbo who makes Erika Eleniak's performance in Under Siege look like it deserved an Oscar.

A score that could charitably be called eclectic, although "absolutely bonkers random" might be more appropriate.

A continuation of the random theme into the cinematography and editing. The shots and edits seem have been chosen by spinning the Wheel-O-Film-School-101, with a baffling mix of: slowmo; jump cuts; repeated cuts (showing Van Damme kicking a guy in the head 4 times is one thing; doing it for someone who's just standing up is... bizarre); and most peculiar of all, some PoV shots from unrelated mystery observers.

Gary Busey waddling around like a camp hippopotamus.

Dialog that's half exposition and half filler.

And worst of all, pacing that makes My Dinner With Andre look like Speed.

I could forgive almost everything else, but this movie is just such a pathetically dull, slogging exercise in mediocrity that commenting on it is far more fun than actually watching it. On a scale of American Ninja to American Ninja V, I give this film a rating of "American Ninja 4: The Abomination".

Matt Battaglia picks up the character of Luc Devereaux where JC Van Damme left off. This again sees him going AWOL but brings in other characters (including his reanimated brother Eric) and has yet more secret Government conspiracy in the shape of Gary Busey and Burt Reynolds.

This "made-for-TV" film is a poor distant relative of the first Universal Soldier. I'm not saying the first one is a great film (it's an OK action movie) but if the first one was the President of the USA then this film would be the equivalent of his white trash, wife-beating drunken brother living in a trailer in Louisiana - it's that embarrassing to compare them.

This fails in every aspect of what should be good in a film. The plot is lazy and relies on coincidence or unlikely events to move it on. A lot of things are either unbelievable or glossed over without explanation. However this is an action movie - so if the action is good then it matters less yeah? Unfortunately the action is poor, there's one explosion and all the fight scenes make WWF look fast and exciting, none of these guys have any moves or speed. The action only has one good touch - where an explosion is set to classical music - however even this is a rip off of John Woo (remember "over the rainbow" in Face/Off?).

The acting is lamentable. Battaglia's wooden performance will make even the hardest critic think that maybe Van Damme isn't that bad an actor after all. Jeff Wincott as brother Eric is not as wooden but still acts like he's being forced to do something he's not comfortable with. Chandra West as reporter Veronica should provide the human element to proceedings but all she is left with is rubbish one-liners and an unrealistic sense of calm. As for Burt Reynolds and Gary Busey.....I could fill a page with my comments on them.

Reynolds spends most of the film in the shadows (I understand why) and delivers a rubbish accent throughout - why does someone who just got a career boost with Boogie Nights (and to a lesser extent Bean) commit to appear in this type of rubbish. Not even once but again in Universal Soldier 3!! It also is sad to see Gary Busey do another low-rent villain in a rubbish film - it's hard to believe that he is very well known and once did some high-profile films. This is yet another flush on the toilet that is his recent career.

The direction is so-so, relying on editing that Homicide: Life on the Street did years ago. Slow-motion, "jumping" edits etc all make the film a little more interesting but really they're stolen from better directors and cannot achieve the impossible feat of saving this.

This is a boring, poorly acted, poorly plotted "action" movie. Please avoid this vacuous piece of twaddle. Oh and if you enjoy this or think that it's good then you deserve a slap.

I watched this last night on Sci-Fi, and i felt obligated to write a review of how terrible it was.

The first point i make is advice to all casting and idiots who get involved with TV movies like this, Don't change the original cast, Matt Battaglia is in no comparison to Jean-Claude Van Damme both in martial arts and acting performance, and it is the same circumstance with Andrew Jackson who replaces Dolph Lundgren. Chandra West as Reporter Veronica Roberts gives a bad performance and nothing in comparison to Ally Walker who actually had talent in playing the part. I'm slightly concerned and confused as to why Burt Reynolds and Gary Busey sink this low, having said that Busey has never been big time i just miss the decent movies like lethal Weapon and Under Siege, Reynolds however has no excuse to be in this movie having done several classics before he should be able to pick roles well.

Overall the acting, stunts and fights are terrible, don't waste you're time.

1 out of 10, Bull crap!

(1998) Universal Soldier II: Brothers In Arms SCIENCE-FICTION ACTION DRAMA/ COMEDY

Continued where the last "Universal Soldier" made for TV left off, with cyborg Luc Devereaux / GR44 (Matt Battaglia) where he's beating another cyborg to death, saving female reporter, Veronica (Chandra West). Meanwhile, discharged soldier, Otto Mazur (Gary Busey) double cross some North Korean officials, killing them off and collecting some diamonds after making them think they were going to be used to buy some 'Universal Soldiers'. We later find out that Luc has an older brother that's being held captive by the facility, to be turned into a Universal soldier, and will eventually going to reunite. Low budget and quite bad with terrible orchestrated action scenes.

Universal Soldier was a pretty good Van Damme.flick with Dolph Lundgren. That film would be one of Van Damme's biggest successes as far as vehicles he starred in. That they could not get him to be in this thing eight years after the original and where his star power was basically gone should have let the filmmakers know that this would be bad. It is also bad in the fact that the first film was an action movie, but the makers of this film did not get that memo. Virtually no action the entire first hour of the movie unless you call driving car and riding in train action sequences! Not sure how they roped Burt Reynolds into doing this, Busey though, yeah, he was made for movies like this!

The story, well it tries to pick up where the first movie left off; however, the fact that they show the fight from that one with two new guys takes you right out of the movie. Probably best just to omit that part...well, new soldiers are made, Gary Busey is crazed with power and the reporter is going to save her man and not clear her name! I am guessing that will occur in the sequel to this. Meanwhile, Burt Reynolds does a horrible Irish accent. This all leads up to a mediocre duel in a bar where the hero has no real trouble taking out the bad guys...

The lead here is quite bland and speaks in such a boring tone. I mean Van Damme did too, but it sounded less disinterested than this guy does! Gary Busey is just insane and adds a really nice scarf while Burt remains hidden through much of the film. Seriously, this film looks worse than some of the SyFy shark films made by Asylum!

So if you have come to see your favorite undead soldier return...look for the movie with Van Damme as there was another sequel starring him out the following year. If you wanna see action, probably best if you watched the original. If you wanna see a bizarre looking dude play guitar and our hero sing along...this is the film for you!!!