TheBlueHairedLawyer I'd heard some absolutely terrible things about this one, so I went into it as though I was to be watching a comedy, and I didn't watch any of the other 'Universal Soldier' films that had come before it (of course, it's never clear in what order the sequels are in, anyway). 'Brothers in Arms', it's... well, there's just no way to sugarcoat it - it's cheap, it's cheesy, the dialogue is bad, the placement of peculiar songs during scenes of gratuitous violence was bad and quite weird, and there's a bizarre cryogenics scene where a naked man is broken out of a freezer and when he wakes up, it's like watching a scene out of The Rocky Horror Picture Show. On the bright side though, this film is funny, has some great Canadian scenery and background Canadian talent, and it does seem to at least follow up on the original film fairly well compared to the other produced sequel ever did. Among some of its best cast members include Chandra West as tough reporter Veronica, Julian Richings as Bix the naive hitchhiker and... okay, that's about the best talent that this film has to offer cast-wise. Unfortunately, while it has a strong female lead, the two male leads (Matt Battaglia and Andrew Jackson, neither of whom even look like their characters from the first film are supposed to if searched images from the first are anything to go by), speak in constant monotone, make a multitude of odd faces while acting for no apparent reason, make weird moaning noises during the Pet Sematary-like resurrection scenes, and neither of them seem to know what they're doing half the time. Also I'm a big fan of VHS as a format (yeah yeah, I'm a pretentious hipster), but this particular film, recorded on VHS and later released to DVD, has definitely not aged well. And don't even get me started on all those corny-looking "action fight scenes".To be fair, this film is still watchable. I didn't love it, but I definitely didn't hate it either, and it does have its moments. It's one of those "so bad it's good" type ones that you'll probably only ever watch once, but there are far worse ways to spend your time.

Rautus Universal Soldier is a great action movie and a fun movie, Universal Solider: The Return isn't has good as the first but it is defiantly entertaining if you switch off your mind. Universal Soldier II is a unofficial sequel which was shot back to back with Universal Solider III; Unfinished Bussinss and was made for television. Univeral Soldier II and III doesn't star the muscles from Brussels Jean Claude Van-Damme has the main character Luc Dexeraux but instead Matt Battaglia, his performance isn't as good as Van Damme's but he does an okay job at portraying the emotionless UniSol. The acting from the other actors are okay, being a TV movie you can't expect Grade A acting. Then again some action movies don't have Grade A acting since it's the action most people want to see. One thing that makes Universal Soldier II Ches is the fact that it does have a huge amount of unnecessary zoom in shots and unnecessary slow motion scenes, plus the music they play doesn't really go with what's happening. They play the song "Spirt in the Sky" while a group of soldiers meet up, the action and fighting isn't has good as the first but I guess since it was a made for TV movie they didn't have a big budget for big action scenes.The film starts off right where the first film ended with Luc and Scott fighting outside his home, the next day Luc is taking a bath in ice to cool his body temperature down. That night a group of people working on the Univeral Soldier activate a device in Luc's body which will make him return to them. In the morning Veronica and Luc's parents discover that he's missing, Veronica then goes to find him before something happens. Luc is taken by the military and reused in the Universal Soldier programme, meanwhile Veronica infiltrates the compound and finds that Luc's brother Eric has been kept in storage. She breaks him out and they sneak into a van. Luc and the other UniSols go into the van and are transported to there location, Eric and Veronica are soon found out. Luc sees his brother and another memory makes him uncontrollable again, he helps Veronica and Eric out by attacking the guards. Luc and Veronica manage to escape from the vehicle but Eric gets caught by one of the Universal Soldiers, Luc and Veronica then try to rescue Eric and put a stop to the Universal Soldiers.Univeral Soldier II: Brothers In Arms isn't has good as the first film or the official sequel but it is watchable and entertainingly cheesy in parts, it's worth a look.

sveknu I really didn't like the first Universal Soldier movie, so I didn't have high expectations for this one. Still, I got disappointed. The movie is twice as bad as the first movie. The plot is almost the same, but of course, they switched the cast. Van Damme and Lundgren is out, and instead we get to meet a guy I never had heard of before (Battaglia). In fact, he wasn't that bad, especially since the main thing about his part was to act as little as possible. They also added a couple of other known actors, such as Gary Busey and Jeff Wincott. Busey is OK as the bad guy, but it didn't help since his character was just stupid. Also be alarmed about this being an action movie, since it's not. There's hardly any action at all, and the small amount of action they give us is ultra low-budget and supercrappy.

bob the moo Matt Battaglia picks up the character of Luc Devereaux where JC Van Damme left off. This again sees him going AWOL but brings in other characters (including his reanimated brother Eric) and has yet more secret Government conspiracy in the shape of Gary Busey and Burt Reynolds.This "made-for-TV" film is a poor distant relative of the first Universal Soldier. I'm not saying the first one is a great film (it's an OK action movie) but if the first one was the President of the USA then this film would be the equivalent of his white trash, wife-beating drunken brother living in a trailer in Louisiana - it's that embarrassing to compare them.This fails in every aspect of what should be good in a film. The plot is lazy and relies on coincidence or unlikely events to move it on. A lot of things are either unbelievable or glossed over without explanation. However this is an action movie - so if the action is good then it matters less yeah? Unfortunately the action is poor, there's one explosion and all the fight scenes make WWF look fast and exciting, none of these guys have any moves or speed. The action only has one good touch - where an explosion is set to classical music - however even this is a rip off of John Woo (remember "over the rainbow" in Face/Off?).The acting is lamentable. Battaglia's wooden performance will make even the hardest critic think that maybe Van Damme isn't that bad an actor after all. Jeff Wincott as brother Eric is not as wooden but still acts like he's being forced to do something he's not comfortable with. Chandra West as reporter Veronica should provide the human element to proceedings but all she is left with is rubbish one-liners and an unrealistic sense of calm. As for Burt Reynolds and Gary Busey.....I could fill a page with my comments on them.Reynolds spends most of the film in the shadows (I understand why) and delivers a rubbish accent throughout - why does someone who just got a career boost with Boogie Nights (and to a lesser extent Bean) commit to appear in this type of rubbish. Not even once but again in Universal Soldier 3!! It also is sad to see Gary Busey do another low-rent villain in a rubbish film - it's hard to believe that he is very well known and once did some high-profile films. This is yet another flush on the toilet that is his recent career.The direction is so-so, relying on editing that Homicide: Life on the Street did years ago. Slow-motion, "jumping" edits etc all make the film a little more interesting but really they're stolen from better directors and cannot achieve the impossible feat of saving this.This is a boring, poorly acted, poorly plotted "action" movie. Please avoid this vacuous piece of twaddle. Oh and if you enjoy this or think that it's good then you deserve a slap.