Universal soldier 3: Ultime vengeance

With this third installment in the "Universal Soldier" franchise, the series just plummets even deeper into a dark place. But I am getting ahead of myself here.

First of all, let me just say that now in 2021 it is actually the first time that I sit down to watch the 1998 direct to video third movie in the "Universal Soldier" series. And I watched it right after having watched part 2, also for the first time. So I can't really say that I was having much hopes for this particular movie. But still, I hadn't seen it before, so I watched it.

And while "Universal Soldier III: Unfinished Business" is a continuation of where part II left off, then the storyline told in this third movie was just a step back; a step in the wrong direction. The storyline didn't have the same appeal or impact as the storyline had in part II, needless to say that both these sequels are not up to par with the original Van Damme and Lundgren movie. Writer Peter M. Lenkov just didn't manage to come up with something that even could match the less than mediocre foray that was part II.

"Universal Soldier III: Unfinished Business" continues in the spirit of part II, for sure. But take Gary Busey out of the equation and you're stuck with an even smaller cast of actors and actresses that had a chance to pull on the reigns of this horse. While Burt Reynolds is an adequate actor, he just was wrongly cast for a movie such as this.

The action sequences in "Universal Soldier III: Unfinished Business" feel somewhat awkward and staged, often coming off as being randomly placed into the movie.

This was not the brightest of moments in the franchise's run, not even by a long shot. And while I did manage to sit through the entire movie, I can in all honesty say that this is not a movie that I will ever return to watch a second time.

I am rating director Jeff Woolnough's "Universal Soldier III: Unfinished Business" a three out of ten stars.

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.

(1998) Universal Soldier III: Unfinished Business SCIENCE-FICTION ACTION DRAMA

Slightly better than the previous one called "Universal Soldier II: Brothers in Arms", but still quite awful, overall, because of the production budget and the fake looking action scenes. Matt Battaglia returns to the title role of "Universal Soldier" Luc Devereaux or GR44, and viewers get to find out what 'G. R.' stands for which are the initials of every 'Universal Soldier' cyborg ever created. They are really the initials of someone's name, who is the person who funded the cyborg program played by Burt Reynolds. And at the same time, both Luc and reporter Veronica Roberts (Chandra West) must find a way to expose this to the media. They are confronted by radical terrorists attempting to hijack a building, but after shot dead, they are later turned into Universal Soldier cyborgs as well. One of the major fights, which is kind of lame, consist of a major fight between brother to brother.

Having escaped from the Universal Soldier HQ (see Universal Soldier 2: Brothers in Arms), Luc Devreaux (Battaglia) and Veronica (Chandra West) set out to expose the sinister plot whilst evading capture by fleeing to Canada. Meanwhile the Mentor (Reynolds) has plans to use the unit to steal US gold and a new stage in the units evolution begins as a foetus in a test tube has it's growth accelerated to produce the first organic soldier.

"It can't happen again" exclaims one of the characters during the film, "It's only temporary" says Burt Reynolds at another stage. Unfortunately it is happening again and believe me it doesn't feel like it's temporary at all. This follows on from the "success" of the first sequel and makes all the same mistakes as the first.

The plot is convoluted but still manages to be lame. The essence is the same as US:2 in that the two heroes follow clues whilst avoiding shootouts etc. The bit about stealing gold is just an excuse for more shooting while the whole breeding a soldier thing doesn't make sense - the fully grown man is Eric (Jeff Wincott), Luc's brother who died in US2. If he was grown from a test-tube, how does he have memories? If it really is Eric then how is he brought back as a foetus? Again it's only an excuse to have a brother:brother stand off at some point. Given that the whole thing is a CIA conspiracy then this should have a more shadowy feel to like - a touch of the X-files perhaps? But it doesn't go down that road at all. Some bits are just plain insulting - Luc and Veronica go to Canada to escape and to get Veronica's ex to help them. They meet up at a party which immediately gets taken over by terrorists, who force Veronica to read their demands live on TV to hide their identity. Once Luc kills the terrorists on TV, everyone knows where they are and the chase is on again. Oh and the three terrorists are brought back as soldiers. No reason why or how. This and other things are so badly thought out that it's just stupid. Which just leaves the action...which is dull.

All shoot outs are the same, with no real action or tension. Witness Luc and Veronica escaping down a corridor 'pursued' by 2 soldiers firing automatic weapons - yet both parties are walking slowly rather than running. This is the same all the way through. To make it worse all the shoot outs are unnecessarily brutal - a stealth robbery begins by blasting anyone in sight and a convert operation on a hospital by the soldiers begins by....you guessed it... by blasting nurses etc. Excitement is not measured in body-count, yet unfortunately the director uses this violence to stand in for decent action scenes and drama. In US2 the action was boring and here they haven't made any improvements at all - it's a wasted action movie.

The performances are really the final nail in the coffin. The only good performance is Claudette Roche as the terrorist leader Grace - she's dangerous in a foxy way and she quite sexy! She is good until she's brought back as GR83 with a terrible haircut replacing her once beautiful locks and then gives a very robotic performance. Battaglia is even more wooden here than in the last movie - it's like he trying hard and you can 'see' him act, making him very unconvincing and very, very wooden. He has to deliver several Bruce Willis style one-liners and they are terrible, he has all the charisma of a bookcase and you do wish Jean Claude Van Damme could have been booked. West is so-so but doesn't really bring anything to the role again. The standout performance is Burt Reynolds! Why does a man make Boogie Nights and this rubbish at around the same time? Here he gives the worst Irish accent I've ever heard - I know lots of actors get accused of this (Pitt in The Devil's Own, Gere in The Jackal) but trust me those sound like Bob Geldoff himself compared to this. It's almost worth watching 10 minutes of the film just to hear it. I thought he should have gotten more awards for his role in Boogie Nights, after US2&3 I realise that that was just an one-off from a has-been rather than a slightly better than usual performance. Sad to see how low he's gone.

The same visual tricks are used here as in US2 - slow-mo, jump-cuts etc and again they fail to add any interest in this junk. In fact the only bit in the film that made me sit up, my palms sweat and my heart beat increase was the ending that left it open for another TV sequel. NOOOOOOOOO!

If you can't find something better to do with 90 minutes of your life than this then perhaps you need to sit down and work out where you're going wrong.