MamaGravity good back-story, and good acting

Infamousta brilliant actors, brilliant editing

StyleSk8r At first rather annoying in its heavy emphasis on reenactments, this movie ultimately proves fascinating, simply because the complicated, highly dramatic tale it tells still almost defies belief.

Derry Herrera Not sure how, but this is easily one of the best movies all summer. Multiple levels of funny, never takes itself seriously, super colorful, and creative.

Aleksandar Sarkic Early 90's decade was most known for action and martial arts movies, they were very popular also here on the Balkans and i still remember how on television they just played movies with Schwarzenegger, Van Damme, Seagal, Chuck Norris and others, our television channels still time to time play this kind of movies. I am admitting when i was a kid i really enjoyed action movies, i am still enjoying them time to time, when i want to relax and not to think of hard themes i always find something in this sphere to watch or rewatch, so these days i started to rewatch early movies with Jean Claude Van Damme. Of this early Van Damme flicks, Universal Soldier is most known of them. But in my opinion the worst one. I really enjoy campy and cheesy movies but this one, has nothing of that, it is just totally brainless and even the action sequences are badly done. And you also have one of the most annoying companion i have ever seen on movie, actress Ally Walker, i hoped she will die in some part of the movie but no she is there till the end. But when you see that this one is directed by one of the worst directors in history of cinema Roland Emmerich than everything is clear. I only give this movie the rate 3/10 because of the scene with Van Damme eating a tons of food in the drive-in, i laughed so hard, so stupid but funny. Watch this movie if you are only die hard Van Damme fan and because of the scene i mentioned, on another hand skip it.

jimbo-53-186511 Private Luc Deveraux (Jean Claude-Van Damme) and Sergeant Scott (Dolph Lundgren) are killed during the war in Vietnam. Several years later, they are brought back to life as obedient cyborgs by a covert and off- the-book government programme. However, when both of the former soldiers start to reform their old memories, all hell starts to break loose...In some ways, science fiction films are often the most difficult to review as they are often created in an alternate reality where the writers can make things up (meaning that what may seem like big plot holes in the real world may not be plot holes in the writer's world). However, I do feel that even science-fiction films should have some kind of internal logic and this is where Universal Soldier runs into problems...OK; so a covert team have somehow managed to turn dead flesh into living tissue which enables them to create a team of obedient cyborg soldiers - I presume that lobotomies were carried out on the soldiers to suppress their memories, but this is purely supposition as this is never clarified. Devereaux's memory cap is popped by getting a sense of Deja Vu, or a flashback to his days in Nam (which I suppose is plausible at a stretch). However, Scott's 'Total Recall' comes out of nowhere and essentially occurs when he smashes through a car windscreen. Perhaps a head trauma triggered it, but this is never explained in the film and seems rather ridiculous when scrutinised.The wider story (involving the recruitment of reimagined cyborgs stepping in to assist in crime fighting) is a good idea, but it's given so little thought or consideration in this picture that it actually becomes rather laughable. Once Devereaux's memory cap is popped he goes on the run with news reporter Veronica Roberts (Ally Walker) and the pair find themselves being chased by Scott and the remaining cyborgs. However, what doesn't make sense to me is that a bunch of cyborgs which are controlled by some kind of covert sub-division government would seemingly intentionally draw so much attention to themselves? Literally thousands of rounds are fired and literally everyone that the cyborgs encounter either gets killed or they end up kissing the pavement, but yet there are never any police, FBI or government officials who seem to get involved or investigate any of these occurrences. Even the way that this covert operation (in respect of the cyborgs) is handled feels rather laughable - they have an eye camera and an ear piece that can easily be dislodged which results in the cyborgs being of no use to them. Couldn't they have created something more sophisticated?Still if you overlook all the holes in the story (and admittedly it is hard to do) and overlook the rather bad acting (again difficult, but not impossible) then as an action film it is perfectly serviceable. Many of the fight sequences between Lundgren and Van-Damme are quite well-staged and Van Damme's fight in the diner is a good tongue-in-cheek action fest as well. It's fair to say that no-one was ever going to be Oscar-nominated in this film, but I have to say that Lundgren (despite how bad he was), did at least try to make this film fun - even with his rather atrocious 'I'm all ears' one-liner.With its ludicrous plotting and lack of any sort of logic Universal Soldier remains a serviceable and very basic action flick, but doesn't have the involving narrative of the many films it borrows from meaning that it is OK as a one time watch, but offers little more than that.

Leofwine_draca Big, dumb, loud, and fun. Four words that could aptly summarise the appeal of this blockbuster movie which proved a hit with audiences back in '92 and spawned three inferior sequels. UNIVERSAL SOLDIER is probably Van Damme's most successful mainstream movie to date and his pairing with Lundgren as the enemy is a good one; Lundgren's height alone gives him the imposing edge over the smaller, tougher Van Damme and their final one-on-one battle is one to remember. Packed with lots of hard-edged violence and some unwanted comic relief from a highly annoying female support (Ally Walker), UNIVERSAL SOLDIER is a movie that gets better as it goes along.At first, the sheer woodenness of Van Damme and Lundgren is inexcusable. I know that they're supposed to be playing emotionless dead robots, but even after they first rebel they seem wooden and unable to even say their lines convincingly. Thankfully this wears off as time goes on and the pair settle down into their roles. In fact Lundgren goes a 360-degree turnaround at the end and actually becomes quite good as the psychotic soldier who believes that he's surrounded by the enemy. Van Damme? Well, here he plays a more sympathetic character than usual which will no doubt endear him to female fans, while still providing the high-kicking action that the fans expect. Ally Walker is terrible, though, as the intensely annoying female lead, and although it's good to see Ed O'Ross make an appearance as a colonel, he's underused and killed off quickly.The flimsy plot strings together a scene of big-budget action sequences (no surprise, as most of Roland Emmerich's films are thus styled, e.g. INDEPENDENCE DAY) which are pretty impressive. From the opening hostage stakeout at the Hoover Dam to the shoot-up at a motel, to the climatic truck chase and the final battle with Van Damme and Lundgren, things just keep getting better and better. The high body count sees lots of people getting shot or killed in nasty ways, and of course there's the usual quota of bullet-shedding and big explosions.Lundgren's method of death at the end of the movie (like you couldn't guess) is highly graphic and unexpected. The loud score is sufficiently adrenaline-pumping to work and the film tries so hard to please that the feeling rubs off on the audience. Although it may be dumb entertainment, UNIVERSAL SOLDIER "delivers the groceries" so to speak and is quite watchable in a forgettable way, in that it passes the time and engages the attention but doesn't leave much impact afterwards. It may be a popcorn movie but it's undoubtedly a well-made one.

jokerswild1 The plot is pretty unoriginal, but the existence of the plot in this particular film is really just an excuse for action, and the action in question is good enough to make this worth your time.If you looked at the poster and saw the names of Jean-Claude Van Damme and Dolph Lundgren, you probably figured out that the acting would be pretty poor, and you were right. Van Damme tries his best, but he doesn't really have it in him. To be fair though, Luc Deveraux isn't a compellingly written character in the first place. Lundgren is OK when he's just an emotionless soldier, but pretty hammy once his character's true personality reemerges. Even though neither of them are very convincing actors, the opening of the film is actually quite dark and compelling. As previously stated, the action is quite good, with the best sequences being in the third act. The cinematography and production values are of high quality as well.