Universal Soldier III: Unfinished Business

Okay bear with me as this gets a bit confusing.

Universal Soldier (1992) was a mediocre action film at best but it was considered a AAA Hollywood movie. Then Universal Soldier II (1998) came out and it was a made for television movie with Van Dammes character recast to someone more affordable, the same year they carried on the story with this third part. Now there were a few more Universal Soldier movies that came after this with bigger budgets and Van Damme returning but they only follow the first film and not the television universe. Confused yet?

With the same poor cast this is the absolute pits, just another generic action flick that doesn't utilize the Universal Soldier concept very well at all.

Somehow, someway industry legend Burt Reynolds got roped into being part of this. Sporting an accent he can't maintain he looks very out of place in this embarassment.

Messy action nonsense with no redeeming features.

The Good:

Passable soundtrack in places

The Bad:

Offensively generic action flick

Some awful performances

Burt Reynolds accent, really?!

Things I Learnt From This Movie:

Burt Reynolds must have lost a bet

Quite perturbed by the damage done to his clandestine operation in the previous film, a high-ranking government official by the name of "Director Mentor" (Burt Reynolds) decides to use some of his reanimated soldiers to rid of both "Luc Devreaux" (Matt Battaglia) and the news reporter "Veronica" (Chandra West) once and for all. For his part, Luc wants revenge on those responsible for the killing of his brother "Eric Deveraux" (Jeff Wincott) and intends to see it through to the bitter end. Now, rather than reveal any more, I will just say that this made-for-television movie was initially filmed at the same time as its predecessor which saved both time and money in the process. Not a bad idea, really. Unfortunately, the writing clearly suffered as the script contained some rather basic dialogue which became quite obvious early on. Likewise, the overall plot was rather simple and generic as well. So much so, that not even someone as accomplished as Burt Reynolds could save it from its low-budget limitations. At least, that's how it seemed to me. Be that as it may, I don't consider this to be a good movie and I have rated it accordingly. Below average.

Unfinished Business indeed. As if you hadn't been bored to death already, here's another hour and a half to really knock you out.

In case there's anyone out there at all interested, this follows straight on from the 'cliffhanger' of no.2 "Brothers in Arms" (NOT "The Return"), following the exploits of poor old Luc what's-his-name and some woman as they get ever closer to uncovering the truth behind an illegal government conspiracy to sell undead soldiers to......snore.....snore.....snore.

I can't quite remember, but I think there might actually be an explosion in this film somewhere - just for all you high-octane action junkies out there. Oh and occasionally people fire big guns. Other highlights? The trailers and the end credits.

Yes, it's really THAT good.

Where to begin. The story is fine, the acting is pure, even when Luc is supposed to be human he is worse than Star Trek DATA, and it this really Universal Soler III or IIb? As you can tell, this spinoff of the series is messed up. The acting would be solved if they had meant money on Van Damme (to go with Gary Busey, Burt Renolds, and a Bill clinton voice impersonator). Unfortunately they dont, and this "high tech" looking TV-seried (parts one and two) finds the need to recreate the end of Universal Solder I and then erroniously place the date as 1998 not 1992. Berronlia and West are merely Canadian versions of the Universal Soldier I characters and it shows. Like other movies (aka The Jessee Ventura story) the Canadians come off as fake and crude (especially in the Canadian business scene). Anyway not to bash on Canadians as the movie does have one of the funniest lines I can remember.

Burt Reynolds: "General Clancy, I need a favor."

Clancy: "Whats that sir?"

Reynolds: "I need you to die. Don't Worry its only temporary."

Hopefully this teo part blip and Burt Reynolds fakish Scotch Irish accent are only temporary.

I will say this film was a bit better than Brothers In Arms, but not much better. I mean, there is a bit more action in this one and there are a couple of interesting plot points, but overall, still not very good and still very generic feeling. Which of course makes sense, you take away the star from the first film and replace them with a guy that looks nothing like the original guy, sounds nothing like him and acts nothing like him of course it is going to come off as a cheap knockoff.

The story to its credit picks up where the second left off. I mean, I have seen sequels that seem to completely ignore its predecessor before. Big budget films like Ghost Rider and smaller films like Max Havoc have done this. Well, GR 44 and reporter go to a building that is hijacked by a group having nothing to do with the Unisol program. GR 44 takes care of this and then finds out his parents are dead while the one scientist from the previous film raises a clone and Burt Reynolds still uses a horrible Irish accent. All this leads to a pointless reunion and a very inconclusive and tepid resolution that leaves things even more unfinished!

The star from the last movie is back and he is totally bland yet again. Being around people has not helped at all! The reporter girl is not much better and Burt is bad too. Makes me wish they had brought Busey back as he may be crazy, but he adds some flair and emotion!

So, if you wish to see how this thing progresses and hope for a resolution, I would warn you that there is no resolution. I am pretty sure this is the last one of these and yet they left things wide open for another sequel. Never assume you are going to have a sequel unless you are already filming the thing, nothing worse than an open ended movie.