Universal Soldier (1992)

i must have seen a different film!!

A lot of fun.

Exactly the movie you think it is, but not the movie you want it to be.

It's simply great fun, a winsome film and an occasionally over-the-top luxury fantasy that never flags.

Noble private Luc Deveraux (an acceptable performance by Jean-Claude Van Damme) and demented sergeant Andrew Scott (robustly played with lip-smacking unhinged gusto by Dolph Lundgren) are a pair of soldiers who kill each other in the Vietnam war. Deveraux and Scott are subsequently transformed into genetically enhanced killing machines who are rigidly programmed to follow orders. However, complications ensue when both Deveraux and Scott regain their memories and pick up where they left off back in Vietnam.Director Roland Emmerich keeps the entertaining story hurtling along at a brisk pace, stages the exciting action set pieces with rip-roaring aplomb, and brings a refreshingly straightforward and unpretentious B-movie sensibility to the whole dynamic show. Better still, neither Emmerich nor the screenwriters Dean Devlin, Christopher Leitch, and Richard Rothstein take the pretty silly premise seriously; instead they treat the blithely trashy material with a pleasing sense of dark self-mocking humor and give Scott several choice one-liners to happily quip. Ally Walker injects her role as spunky and helpful reporter Veronica Roberts with a winning surplus of charm and energy. Moreover, there are solid supporting contributions from Ed O'Ross as the hard-nosed Colonel Perry, Jerry Orbach as the regretful Dr. Christopher Gregor, Leon Rippy as nerdy scientist Woodward, and Tico Wells as Woodward's sassy assistant Garth. Brawny hulks Ralf Moeller and Tommy 'Tiny' Lister portray two of the titular super soldiers. Christopher Franke's spirited score hits the stirring spot. Karl Walter Lindenlaub's slick widescreen cinematography provides an impressive polished look. A real blast.

Right around the time this movie came out in 1992 Image Comics was forming, and it wouldn't surprise me if any number of their titles were influenced by "Universal Soldier". I'm thinking of books like 'Youngblood' and 'Brigade', having team members that were mechanically or biologically enhanced for super-human strength and endurance.The psychobabble reason offered for the Unisols had to do with hyper accelerating the bodies of dead people back to a state of living tissue. To my thinking, dead is dead, so the concept didn't really make sense to me, but I did like Dr. Gregor's (Jerry Orbach) explanation of 'regressive traumatic recall' as the trauma inflicted at the time of death. What might have helped here would have been to get some of the old time horror film scientists on board with a workable premise, guys like Bela Lugosi, Boris Karloff or Lionel Atwill. They would have come up with something brilliant.Fans of Jean-Claude Van Damme and Dolph Lundgren ought to have a pretty good time with this one if all you're looking for is some mindless, escapist and over the top action. It appeared Pepsi went for the big bucks to shut out Coca-Cola for product placement in the film, their logo was all over the place. Watching this back in the Nineties would have put the viewer right smack dab in the middle of the Now Generation.What I got a kick out of were the subtle attempts at humor like the diner breakfast scene and Ronnie Roberts (Ally Walker) giving GR44 (Van Damme) the once over looking for a small hidden object. Hint - it's probably something hard.Well look, it's not brain science or rocket surgery, but the picture moves along at a pretty good clip, and even the odds defying elements of the story have their place. If after watching you come away dissatisfied, I guess you could settle into one of those specially rigged lab chairs and grab a shot of that memory clearance formula. Sounds like it would do just the trick.

During the Vietnam war, Private Luc Deveraux (Jean-Claude Van Damme) tries to stop Sergeant Andrew Scott (Dolph Lundgren) who has gone mad. It ends in a massacre and the military tries to cover it up. Their dead bodies are used in a secret experiment. In the present day, Colonel Perry commands these Universal Soldiers in a rescue mission when terrorists take 30 hostages. Reporter Veronica Roberts (Ally Walker) follows the team back to their base. The soldiers start experiencing traumatic recalls and Scott goes crazy once again. Deveraux saves Veronica and goes on the run.This introduced me to director Roland Emmerich. This is a simple action thriller and it's fun. The story works. It's not complicated. Sure, it has that Terminator flavor but that's a good thing. This uses Van Damme and Lundgren to their best possible side. It lets them be a little bit robotic. It's an excellent action B-movie.

Universal Soldier is one of those violent action movies that is much maligned amongst a lot of critics but still popular amongst audiences. Released in 1992, Universal Soldier was a box office success however critics dismissed it as a mindless and derivative action film with over the top violence. I first saw Universal Soldier when it first premiered on TV as a 10 year old back in 1994 and I have always considered this movie to be a fun an entertaining movie. Not only that, you cannot deny that Jean Claude Van Damme and Dolph Lundgren as the star leads boosted its eye candy appeal.Universal Soldier starts off in Vietnam in 1969 where Private Luc Deveraux (Jean Claude Van Damme) has discovered a village in which US soldiers and Vietnamese villagers have been brutally murdered with their ears severed off. The person responsible for the massacre is the platoon Sergeant Andrew Scott (Dolph Lundgren in a cracking performance as the villain) who has kept the severed ears as a necklace and is also holding a young Vietnamese couple hostage. Luc Deveraux tries to reason with the deranged Andrew Scott however the couple end up being killed and both Deveraux and Scott shoot each other to death. Deveraux and Scott's corpses are recovered by a second U.S. Special Forces squad and cryogenically frozen, their deaths covered up as "missing in action". Deveraux and Scott are revived without memories of their previous lives and are selected for the "Universal Soldier" program, an elite counter terrorism unit. Also known as UniSols, they are genetically augmented soldiers with enhanced healing abilities and superior strength, but also have a tendency to overheat and shut down. They are given a neural serum to keep their minds susceptible and their previous memories suppressed. Fast forward to 1992 and the UniSols are deployed to resolve a hostage situation in which a number of armed hostiles are taken a number of hostages at Hoover Dam and have killed a number of hostages and police officers. Deveraux's callsign is GR13 and Scott has been assigned GR44. The situation is resolved however there is some flaws that start to surface, when Deveraux becomes unresponsive after having a flashback and Scott is seen using excessive force. One of the technicians, Woodward (Leon Rippy), wants to remove Devereaux for further analysis, but UniSol commander Colonel Perry (Ed O'Ross) refuses and insists there is no problem. After being fired, television news journalist Veronica Roberts (Ally Walker) attempts to get her job back by trespassing onto the military base to further investigate the UniSol project along with her cameraman. After they are detained by Deveraux and Scott, Scott executes the cameraman in cold blood and Deveraux escapes with Veronica. Deveraux along with Veronica must uncover his past life and how he was resurrected, and how the Universal Soldier project came to light in the 1960's by Dr. Christopher Gregor (Jerry Orbach). Unbeknownst to Colonel Perry and everyone else, Scott slowly regains his psychotic behaviour and spearheads the mission to kill Deveraux and Veronica.A lot of people saw Universal Soldier as a rip off of the Terminator movies and the plot as unoriginal. I didn't see it that way nor was it a concern for me. I liked all of it. In particular, the butt kicking old school action was enjoyable and Jean Claude Van Damme and Dolph Lundgren were fantastic as the main leads. Van Damme was still at his height of his popularity and his 360 kicks are still on display. Dolph's physical prowess was also at his best and he has still maintained his physical abilities many years later.Director Roland Emmerich who later became well known for blockbusters such as Independence Day (1996) and The Day After Tomorrow (2004) does a quality job in one of his early movies that helped gain him recognition.I didn't care for any of the sequels, they were just pure rubbish. Universal Soldier: The Return (1999) was one of the worst movies that I had the misfortune to see and I refuse to see the rest of the direct to DVD sequels that have since followed.Universal Soldier is pure action packed eye candy and you certainly can't go wrong with Jean Claude Van Damme and Dolph Lundgren as the main attraction. Although it may be a bit dated now, many years later I still have a soft spot for Universal Soldier. Ignore the critics and ignore the plot, just sit back and enjoy the action packed fun.8/10.