While I’m not a big fan of horror films, I’ve always had a place in my heart for action films. Action movies of the eighties were about muscle bound machismo; think Schwarzenegger and Stallone–blow a few things up. Save the world. When the credits rolled ninety minutes later, the audience went home pumped up and satisfied. With the dawn of the nineties came a new kind of action star–they were still pumped up but they brought some degree of martial arts/fighting skills to the table. Leading the pack of actors were men like Steven Segal, Jean Claude Van Damme and Dolph Lundgren. There time at the top of the box office heap was short but memorable.
Directed by Roland Emmerich (Stargate), produced by Mario Kassar, written by Richard Rothstein, Christopher Leitch and Dean Devlin, Universal Soldier begins at the end of the Vietnam War. We find Luc Devreaux (Jean-Claude Van Damme) and Sgt. Andrew Scott (Dolph Lundgren), coming to deathly blows after Sgt. Scott goes off the deep-end, killing innocent villagers. As heavy rains fall, the two soldiers lay dead; victims of each other’s brutality.
Fast forward to present day. Terrorists have taken over the Hoover Dam and are holding hostages. The police are ordered to stand down and Unisols (Universal Soldiers) are called in to handle the crises. They enter the dam and begin taking control of the situation. Devereaux (now GR44) and Scott (now GR13), both Unisols are among those called in. Devereaux is efficient and calculated, while Scott is heavy handed and brutal. As the command center monitors the action, it is suggested that Scott is actually enjoying the brutality. The unisols handily secure the area, but Devereaux begins having flashbacks after seeing a couple that resembled the same couple in Vietnam, the couple that died at the murderous hand of Scott. This causes him to ignore radio commands from the command center. A television field reporter Veronica Roberts (Ally Walker) is on the scene reporting on the incident, and is fired after going on air. Seeing an opportunity to get her job back, she attempts to get a lead on the Unisol project, but is repeatedly rebuffed. She later sneaks on to the projects base with a camera and discovers a body of a damaged Unisol that appears dead. He isn’t, and forces Veronica to attempt an escape. The Unisols, led by Devereaux and Scott are ordered to return them to base. The reporter and cameraman are eventually captured, and Scott mercilessly shoots the camera man. Once again (like in Vietnam) Devereaux intervenes and rescues Roberts and they escape in an abandon car. Once Devereaux and Roberts escape, they attempt to find out more about the Unisol project while evading every attempt at being captured by Scott. Their new goal is to get Devereaux home, and expose the Unisol project to the world without being captured or killed by Scott.
Frankly, the plot of Universal Soldier is flat out ridiculous but the film is still a lot of fun if you like those early nineties action flicks. Jean Claude Van Damme’s rather wooden acting skills are perfect for the part of a programmed soldier. Ditto Dolph Lundgren; this isn’t Hamlet. Lundgren will never be accused of having much range but he’s rather good here. He chews up scenes with an unhinged maniacal glee.
Universal Soldier isn’t great cinema but it isn’t trying to be. Roland Emmerich and the actors are asking the audience to suspend belief and just go along for the ride. If you can do that, you’re in for 102 minutes of action packed fun.
Lionsgate has done a great job bringing Universal Soldier to Blu-ray with an ultra clean 1080p/VC-1 encode framed in a 2:35:1 aspect ratio. The print master is clean and completely devoid of pops, scratches, and any other film related defects. Images are always sharp, highly detailed, with very good image depth and pop. Colors are vivid and not oversaturated. Contrast is excellent, black levels are very stable. Overall the picture had excellent dynamic range, exhibiting both excellent qualities on day and night images, with excellent shadow detail.
With a piercing English 5.1 DTS HD Master Audio track, Universal Soldier sounds terrific. The downpour falling in the opening scene at the Vietnam village is entirely immersing, surrounding you in the enveloping rains and following up with chest smashing bass hits that come with the pounding gunshots of our two leads trying to kill each other. The directional effects are great, missing no opportunity to use them to full effect. The dialogue in the center channel sounds a few years old and isn’t as crisp as the rest of the sound, but not to worry, the audio for this film is good.
With the exception of the ‘advanced trivia track’, all these features are ported over from the special edition DVD.
Director, Writer and Talent Commentary – Jean Claude Van Damme kicks off this reasonably good commentary and is joined by the director (Roland Emmerich), co-writer (Dean Devlin) and co-star Dolph Lundgren. Recorded separately, it feels a little disjointed at times.
Alternate Ending – (13:08) – An alternative ending that resembles the final cut with only a few noticeable differences until the very end where it takes quite the different path.
“Guns, Genes and Fighting Machines” – The Making of Universal Soldier – (18:54) – This is a great feature that really digs into the making of and about the studio that afforded the filmmakers the creative freedom to make it.
“Tale of Two Titans” – Featurette – (14:13) – A look at the two actors who play the muscle-ridden Zombified ‘Universal Soldiers’. They discuss what got them into the physical activities that bulked them up and the breaks that helped them become action heroes. The big roles for Van Damme and Lundgren, Bloodsport and Rocky IV respectively, are interesting to hear about.
“Out of the Blu” – Advanced Trivia Track – Like VH1’s once hot pop-up video, facts sporadically and infrequently informing of tidbits of information that are of varying degrees of value.
