Leofwine_draca Jean-Claude Van Damme's latest is an unwelcome return to form(ula) for the actor after trying something a bit different with the likes of LEGIONNAIRE and DESERT HEAT. Yes, this is a bad film, though not perhaps as awful as the critics would have you believe. However, this time around the blame is not to be laid at Van Damme's feet; he's the same wooden actor as always, but here he's surrounded by actors and actresses even worse than himself.Somebody made the unwise decision to cast wrestlers (!) in the roles of the bad guys, a worrying trend that seems to have caught on with THE MUMMY 2 as well. Michael Jai White tries to cut an imposing presence as a pumped-up computer-brained murderer, but he's stilted and wooden beyond belief. In the other extreme, wrestler Bill Goldberg turns up as an evil soldier and lends some unwelcome comic relief (!) to the proceedings. After being habitually beaten up by Van Damme, he gets to mutter some cheesy line or other, and some beyond belief in-jokes where he says some of his wrestling lines ("saved by the bell...").The token female load interest typically lacks both acting abilities and charisma; Van Damme himself plays edgy/jokey Van Damme, making quips and wisecracks whenever he gets a chance to speak. Only the presence of seasoned support Xander Berkeley helps to lift the spirits a notch or too, but he gets killed off early on. The budget here was spent on some (admittedly impressive) huge explosions, leaving the rest of the film to have a glossy but cheap look to it. Actually, apart from the action and shooting, there aren't any other special effects apart from the main baddie's demise at the end; unfortunately, this too is mishandled as a) the CGI looks terrible, and b) his death is stolen from both TERMINATOR 2 and DEMOLITION MAN.On the film's plus side, there is plenty of action to keep things moving along swiftly; indeed at 83 minutes this film literally flies by. The violence level is high, but not excessive as I'd heard. In spite of the lack of seriousness in the picture, the BBFC still saw fit to cut some bits out! Necks are snapped, lots of people run around burning, and there's a ton of shooting. Personally, I would have liked to see a little bit more inspiration in the deaths; my heart rose when I noticed a helicopter in the background in one fight scene, I thought perhaps somebody was going to get cut in half by a rotor. No such luck. Another opportunity, where a laser beam shines in somebody's eye, is also missed.Overall, for me, there was one other stupid thing which lowered knocked the score down. Some imbecile saw fit to impose ridiculous songs over a lot of the action, totally ruining the effect. Okay, so I can handle music, but having someone scream unintelligible lyrics at inappropriate moments? It was bloody awful and difficult to believe. Otherwise, this is a typical brainless high-action film, no worse than something like SOLDIER.

Wizard-8 "Universal Soldier: The Return" was the last Jean-Claude Van Damme vehicle to get a substantial theatrical release. The studio that backed it up probably saw the diminishing returns for the Van Damme movies that had been released just before this one, seeing that they released the movie near the end of August, a traditionally weak time at the box office. It's not like they had a particularly strong movie to work with in the first place. It often has a cheap feel to it, coming across like many direct-to-video efforts of the time. The script also resembles those found in DTV movies, being very simple- minded and playing out with absolutely no surprises. (Additionally, some plot holes, a somewhat abrupt ending, and a short running time suggest some major cuts during the editing stage.) Well, all those problems probably wouldn't matter much if the movie was exciting and action packed - but it isn't. The action comes across as flat and by the numbers, and isn't the least bit exciting. So it isn't surprising that the "return" at the box office wasn't that substantial.

WakenPayne OK I saw this movie to get a benchmark for bad but with this movie it's Unisol's best movie now plot Luc Devereux is now a technical expert who is working with the government with his partner Maggie, who's been through countless hours of training and combat with him, to refine and perfect the UniSol program in an effort to make a new, stronger breed of soldier that is more sophisticated, intelligent, and agile. All of the new Unisols, which are faster and stronger than their predecessors, are connected through an artificially intelligent computer system called SETH, a Self-Evolving Thought Helix. When SETH discovers that the Universal Soldier program is scheduled to be shut down because of budget cuts, he takes matters into his own "hands" to protect himself. Killing those who try to shut off his power, and unleashing his platoon of super-soldiers, led by the musclebound Romeo, SETH spares Deveraux, only because Deveraux has the secret code that is needed to deactivate a built-in program that will shut SETH down in a matter of hours. With the help of a hacker named Squid, SETH takes human form. Not only must Luc contend with ambitious reporter Erin, who won't leave his side, but Luc also must contend with General Radford, who wants to take extreme measures to stop SETH. SETH has also kidnapped Luc's injured 13-year-old daughter Hillary, and is now holding her hostage. Luc is the only person who can rescue Hillary, because Luc knows firsthand how a UniSol thinks, feels, and fights. now there are problems like in any movie like did anyone find it weird how a reporter just-so-happened to be there and The soldiers can take being flattened with a truck however when Vanne Damme shoots them with a gun with one bullet and they die and the final fight scene was unbelievable when Luc is now human and Seth is 5x stronger and faster than any other Unisol and Luc can take a hit from him. with the final fight when Luc smashes him to pieces I was really surprised that the pieces didn't melt and reform him (Terminator 2). another thing that bugs me is how the hell does Vanne Damme get good actors to play relatives I mean in the case of Vanne Damme it's completely off the grid of how Science Fiction this movie is. The Music Score now that must have a mention have you ever listened to a song where you'd rather cut a blackboard with a knife well Universal Soldier 2 is like that. The good points are there's no Dolph (HOORAY) and unlike the 1st one there is only one naked scene whereas in the 1st one there are many (I'm still haunted by the scenes in #1) also the actors in this have some talent whereas in the first one the casting guys were sadists (if you don't believe me look it up)

TBJCSKCNRRQTreviews In any case, that would probably have been a better idea than making this. I have not seen a second of either made-for-TV sequel, so I can't comment on, well, anything relating to them. As far as being a follow-up to the first, however, one can't go a full viewing without a "coulda had a V8" face-palm at the sheer laziness of the plot. I'm not kidding, for the main story of this, they pretty much xeroxed the script for the original and changed a name or two. Writing in general is nothing special, though one has to be taken in by the vast amount of clichés they managed to fit into 90 minutes that you'll forget soon after they're over. The drama's basically non-existent, as its entirely phoned in, with well-meaning scenes copied from superior films. There's more martial arts(Damme can still deliver), and if that's what you're looking for in this, you could do worse. The acting ranges between decent and downright poor, and I think everyone in this flunked chemistry(as in, on-screen). Special effects are fine, the CGI isn't bad. The action is OK, it just doesn't really have much of an impact. Humor comes off as *incredibly* forced, with some of the stupidest one-liners you'll ever hear. The biggest joke is that this was released theatrically, anyway. Music is loud and unimpressive. There's strong language, plenty of violence(meanwhile, I'm not sure I saw a single drop of blood, and apart from the broken bones and the like, this isn't terribly brutal) and nudity... can you say "obvious and gratuitous eye-candy"? I recommend this to those who are interested after reading this review. If you're into B-movies, go for it. 1/10