Universal Soldier: Le Jour du jugement

I'm just going to say that this movie seriously should come with a seizure warning because I almost passed out from the flashing at certain scenes.

DO NOT WATCH THIS MOVIE IF YOU ARE PRONE TO EPILEPTIC SEIZURES!!!!!! No joke.

Otherwise it's good to see these guys on the same screen again. The movie is a little slow in parts but picks up quickly. Story develops quickly then plateaus a bit then picks up again.

Nothing that's going to curl your toes.. but a good flick.

Cheers!

This one is a very good trash movie. And I'm serious.

It has story, a good one if you come to think about it seriously. It even has nice twist in the end. But it also has so many obviously stupid things that we heartily laughed about. It is just impossible to take it seriously.

It has very good combat scenes. Enough of blood and gore for my liking. But every single thing contradicts laws of nature so bluntly that it is just impossible to take it seriously.

The struggle between characters portrayed by Van Damme and Adkins is well shown. And you can even sympathize both to great extent. But every single bit of lighting and makeup will turn it to comics. And already sitting with a silly grin at your face you just can not take it seriously.

This is very good trash movie! And I really mean it! If you like to watch one do go for this. I haven't seen like this for several years now.

The new Unisol film is a surprisingly fresh take on an old franchise. The tone of the movie is completely different from the previous entries that it's hard to compare to its predecessors.

Our hero, john (Scott Adkins), awakes to find intruders in his home who kill his wife and daughter. After spending several months in a coma John awakes with a memory loss, only remembering the man who murdered his family, Luc Devreux (Van Damme). The storyline then becomes less comprehensive as we tag along John as he tries to piece everything. The main problem is that nothing is answered, the back story remains hidden and the characters motivations are left unexplained. The movie also suffers from bad pacing, the first half being painstakingly slow with no action happening for the first half of the movie.

The good news are that the second half features some badass action sequences and the R rating is used fully, it's a gory movie as it should be. Even though the frequent use of slo-mo is tiring, it doesn't ruin the experience. Too bad all of it is packed in the final scenes of the movie.

The movie draws inspiration from different places, from video games to horror movies to Apocalypse Now (you won't miss it), the unique style sets this movie apart from the others but it doesn't help the thin plot or anemic characters.

Universal Soldier 4: Day of Reckoning is unique and fresh and I applaud the director for taking a different approach. Adkins does a great job and proves his more than a stuntman. JVCD and Lundgren's roles are smaller than you would expect, but it's a treat to see them on screen again. The lack of a comprehensive plot and or continuity to other films of the series is what hinders this movie from getting a higher rating.

Final score: 6 out of 10

Led by Luc Devereaux (Jean-Claude Van Damme) a cloned UniSol Andrew Scott (Dolph Lundgren) are now wanted by the government who will do anything to find them a wipe out their UniSol army for good.

Universal Soldier fans maybe left scratching their heads, however, sci- fi action fans looking for slick, stylish direction with hard hitting violence and a Philip K. Dick tone - in the vain of Impostor (2001) maybe impressed by director John Hyams offering.

While not a fun hammy 90s hit like it's original this is smaller personal story adds another angle on UniSol. Reckoning may have benefited from being a stand alone low budget Dredd/Memento/Bourne-like film as it's so far removed to the original's feel.

This is actor/stuntman Scott Adkins film with very limited screen-time for Van Damme or Lundgren which isn't such a bad thing as their characters have become dismembered to those in the first outing. Nevertheless, Adkins as John carries it under Hyams games console shoot 'em up direction. While this film may not be Adkins Jason Statham 'star vehicle' it shows he's a convincing action man with some range of emotion to match as John goes on his hunt for Devereaux in some Apocalypse Now (1979) homage of sorts.

With excellent camera-work, lighting, stunts, ambiguous script, perfect moody atmosphere it's not a normal action film - and with nudity, blood and horror like gore it's not for the faint hearted either.

Don't expect a rehash or even the Universal Soldier you fell in love with and you may be surprised by this basic, dark, testosterone injected ride.

Now somebody needs to remake 1987's cheese-fest Dead Prey with Adkins as the lead.

Certainly, this "Universal Soldier: Day of Reckoning" is no match for the first movie in the series, but it is at least better than the last couple of movie that have managed to be spawned off this franchise.

However, this movie is all testosterone and action, and there is surprisingly little storyline to it. So I am guessing you'd think that it would make it a man's movie? Well, hardly... I would say that this movie is sort of falling into the category of something to watch when you have a really, really bad hangover the next day and just want to relax on the couch without having to put your mind to work. This movie is mindnumbingly devoid of any inspiring storyline or anything that even remotely starts to would appeal to anyone looking for a movie with some depth.

This is simply put, action, fighting and car chases, nothing more.

"Universal Soldier: Day of Reckoning" is a little bit too experimental for my liking as well, bordering on being too avantgarde and artsy at times. Especially the scenes with the mind-control stuff. If you are prone to epileptic seizures from flashing lights, stay well clear of this movie.

The upsides to "Universal Soldier: Day of Reckoning" is the amount of fighting, action and raw violence that it has. Basically, it is all that is has.

However, if you get suckered in by Jean Claude Van Damme and Dolph Lundgren on the cover, as I did, you are in for a rude awakening. Sure they are in the movie, but only have small roles and do not actually have that much screen time. So it is sort of a lame attempt of luring in people to the movie by using their names on the cover.

"Universal Soldier: Day of Reckoning" is not the choice of movie to watch if you want something to stimulate your mind or at the very least have you using your mind to follow a storyline. This is just action, pure and simple.