Universal Soldier

Universal Soldier (1992)

Runtime: 102 minutes

Directed by: Rolland Emmerich

Starring: Jean-Claude Van Damme, Dolph Lundgren, Ally Walker, Ed O'Ross, Leon Rippy

From: Carolco

Seeing this in 4K certainly beats my last viewing-back in the VHS days. In another attempt to see something different from the norm, why not check out something I hadn't experienced since the 90's? For the record I bought the 4K stream awhile ago from Amazon instead of rented it as it was available for a song-now you can't even rent the movie in 4K over there.

As I've mentioned before, most Roland Emmerich movies I tend to avoid; his version of Godzilla is quite bad even if it's just a bad kaiju movie and you divorce it from the legendary franchise. Yet there is still work he's done which I've liked. That includes this motion picture-give me that over what sounds like brain-dead nonsense of Moonfall. Now, Universal Soldier itself is rather dopey, something you don't want to scrutinize too hard. As others have noted, in its tale of dead soldiers from the Vietnam War being reanimated to life, you'll be reminded of other, better motion pictures like The Terminator and RoboCop. After all, like RoboCop the memory wipes don't quite work so in this case the beef that Van Damme and Dolph had back in the late 60's has resurfaced.

It's dopey yet it is not so insultingly stupid that I become offended. Instead, it's enjoyable nonsense as JCVD's character (like in Hard Target a Cajun) starts to regain his memories and he wishes to return home. As Dolph becomes an unstoppable megalomaniac and (hard) targets Van Damme, a reporter befriends Jean-Claude and tries to return him home. There's enough explosions, carnage and brawls to satisfy me. Various familiar names like Ed O'Ross and Tiny Lister appear in smaller roles, while Jerry Orbach has a glorified cameo. While never seen by me, I know there's an alternate ending where Orbach has another scene and is more critical to the plot-who knows why they didn't go with what on paper sounds like a better conclusion. Speaking of conclusion, at least this does have a Body Count song that plays during the end credits-which greatly exemplifies the early 90's.

Anyhow, I have watched two of the sequels in the past which one day I'll revisit. Regeneration was an entertaining B-movie while Day of Reckoning is not only pretentious nonsense, it has bold strobe effects which will give seizures to those affected by such things and if you're like me, it'll just give you a splitting headache unless you look away.