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Plot - Vietnam, 1969. In a small village Private Luc Deveraux (Van Damme) discovers numerous innocent civillians and fellow soldiers dead, all with their ears removed. He discovers the culprit to be Sergeant Andrew Scott (Lundgren) who has snapped and gone insane. Attempting to stop him, both men end up dead. The Hoover Dam, 1992. A group of terrorists have taken over the dam and are holding numerous hostages. A secret army project is called in, the Universal Soldier programme. The project takes dead men and re-animates them as the perfect soldiers. Deveraux and Scott are both members of this squad. They perform their duty admirably, but then the memories and personalities of both begin to re-emerge. Before long Deveraux is on the run with news reporter, Veronic Roberts (Walker) in tow and a renegade Scott hot on their trail.
Of all of Van Damme's cinematic output this is the one that has arguably accumulated the largest cult following. And with good reason. In it's own ways it's kind of awesome. I just want to be clear that I am in no way under any illusions about the 'greatness' of the this film. I accept that is pure B-movie goodness all the way. It plays like a budget RoboCop/Terminator hybrid, starring two B-list actors who never quite made it up onto the A-list with fellow action stars like Stallone and Schwarzenegger. But yeah, awesome!
Pretty much from the opening moments the whole film is building up to the face off between Van Damme's Deveraux and Lundgren's Andrew Scott. And when it arrives it most certainly delivers. It's a thrilling and brutal smackdown between the two action movie legends. Just on normal terms it would delight, but with the characters amped up on muscle enhancers things move up to a different level. Fighting all over the farm it's a fun and tense battle, frequently teasing the use of dangerous farming equipment. It very much calls back to the film's opening, setting up a similar situation. And that opening scene also deserves a mention as it's a terrific way to kick start proceedings. Set in a suitably nightmarish and hellish Vietnam, we see Lundgren's character has snapped and is brutally slaying innocent villagers. Despite Scott being Devereaux's superior, Private Deveraux has no choice but to challenge his Sergeant. When he doesn't see reason Deveraux must try and stop him with force. Things go all to hell however, leaving Deveraux, Scott and an innocent girl Deverauz tried to save all dead. Other standout action sequences include Van Damme and Ally Walker being brutally targeted at a motel, and the tremendous bus vs truck chase.
It would be easy for me to be cruel here and call this the perfect role for Van Damme; a role that requires nothing from him but to be an emotionless, monosyllabic and monotone machine. Surely something that was made for his limited skills. And yes perhaps there is something to that, but as you may have gathered from the reviews in my Van Damme season thus far I actually like Van Damme and so don't really feel the need to take shots at him. While I don't hold him in the same regards as someone like a Sylvester Stallone, he is in that same sort of category with Sly and Arnie in that they are guys I grew up watching. And as a result I still hold Van Damme and many of his films with a great affection. And I think he's very entertaining here, and on more than one occasion he displays some nice comic timing.
Lundgren makes for a great villain; just his large, muscular presence alone sells it. But when you add in his bold, wild performance as the psychotic madman it really creates a memorable and colourful nemesis for Van Damme to battle. Oh and of course that colourful and memorable nature is only heightened by his necklace of severed ears; one of the creepiest things ever! My favourite moment of his was his ranting and raving in a supermarket, wasting anyone who dares to get in his way. Lundgren just seems to have great fun in the role, and I really like his match-up with Van Damme. Together they provide a nice contrast; the giant, muscular brute that is Lundgren versus the smaller, quicker Van Damme. And for me personally it didn't take much convincing that Lundgren could be a maniacal killer. Of all the big action stars he was always the one I'd least like to face in a fight. Yes Stallone, Shwarzenegger, Van Damme etc would all destroy me but I just always felt Lundgren could have quite a mean and sadistic edge to him. Oh and I have to give a mention to the lovely Ally Walker, who I just adore in this film. I find here to be really quite delightful here, terrifically feisty and charismatic. She takes a pretty nothing part but infuses it with lots of energy and turns it into something that really stands out.
While the action does thrill throughout, that's not all there is to the film however. It has a few nice emotional scenes when it comes to Deveraux just wanting to go home, a sentiment left over from his Vietnam days. And the film also features a nice little dose of humour, much of it coming from Mr VD (of that sounds unfortunate!
) and the clueless predicament that his character find himself in; highlights being his attempts to re-learn the ability of eating and his need to frequently get naked. Van Damme even has a little bit of a self-knowing prod at himself regarding his accent - “What accent?”
One of the great things about the film's concept is just how worryingly plausible a notion it is. I could honestly very easily believe that the US government has a special division of secret soldiers just like this. And they really are quite a menacing creation. They're not overdone in terms of design and still look human, but when we get our first sighting of them a little chill does go up the back. And the men they've got to fill the roles, including Van Damme and Lundgren, just help to sell the idea of these men being perfect killing machines
Conclusion - Fantastic B-movie entertainment. Enjoyable turns from the cast, some awesome action and stunts, a fun and tightly-scripted story - what more could you want really from a film of this nature? And now there really is only one way to end a Universal Soldier review.
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Year of release
1992
Directed by
Roland Emmerich
Written by
Richard Rothstein
Christopher Leitch
Dean Devlin
Starring
Jean Claude Van Damme
Dolph Lundgren
Ally Walker
Ed O'Ross
Universal Soldier
-
1992
Directed by
Roland Emmerich
Written by
Richard Rothstein
Christopher Leitch
Dean Devlin
Starring
Jean Claude Van Damme
Dolph Lundgren
Ally Walker
Ed O'Ross
Universal Soldier
-
Plot - Vietnam, 1969. In a small village Private Luc Deveraux (Van Damme) discovers numerous innocent civillians and fellow soldiers dead, all with their ears removed. He discovers the culprit to be Sergeant Andrew Scott (Lundgren) who has snapped and gone insane. Attempting to stop him, both men end up dead. The Hoover Dam, 1992. A group of terrorists have taken over the dam and are holding numerous hostages. A secret army project is called in, the Universal Soldier programme. The project takes dead men and re-animates them as the perfect soldiers. Deveraux and Scott are both members of this squad. They perform their duty admirably, but then the memories and personalities of both begin to re-emerge. Before long Deveraux is on the run with news reporter, Veronic Roberts (Walker) in tow and a renegade Scott hot on their trail.
Of all of Van Damme's cinematic output this is the one that has arguably accumulated the largest cult following. And with good reason. In it's own ways it's kind of awesome. I just want to be clear that I am in no way under any illusions about the 'greatness' of the this film. I accept that is pure B-movie goodness all the way. It plays like a budget RoboCop/Terminator hybrid, starring two B-list actors who never quite made it up onto the A-list with fellow action stars like Stallone and Schwarzenegger. But yeah, awesome!
Pretty much from the opening moments the whole film is building up to the face off between Van Damme's Deveraux and Lundgren's Andrew Scott. And when it arrives it most certainly delivers. It's a thrilling and brutal smackdown between the two action movie legends. Just on normal terms it would delight, but with the characters amped up on muscle enhancers things move up to a different level. Fighting all over the farm it's a fun and tense battle, frequently teasing the use of dangerous farming equipment. It very much calls back to the film's opening, setting up a similar situation. And that opening scene also deserves a mention as it's a terrific way to kick start proceedings. Set in a suitably nightmarish and hellish Vietnam, we see Lundgren's character has snapped and is brutally slaying innocent villagers. Despite Scott being Devereaux's superior, Private Deveraux has no choice but to challenge his Sergeant. When he doesn't see reason Deveraux must try and stop him with force. Things go all to hell however, leaving Deveraux, Scott and an innocent girl Deverauz tried to save all dead. Other standout action sequences include Van Damme and Ally Walker being brutally targeted at a motel, and the tremendous bus vs truck chase.
It would be easy for me to be cruel here and call this the perfect role for Van Damme; a role that requires nothing from him but to be an emotionless, monosyllabic and monotone machine. Surely something that was made for his limited skills. And yes perhaps there is something to that, but as you may have gathered from the reviews in my Van Damme season thus far I actually like Van Damme and so don't really feel the need to take shots at him. While I don't hold him in the same regards as someone like a Sylvester Stallone, he is in that same sort of category with Sly and Arnie in that they are guys I grew up watching. And as a result I still hold Van Damme and many of his films with a great affection. And I think he's very entertaining here, and on more than one occasion he displays some nice comic timing.
Film trivia - The original script initially had the film titled as "Crystal Knights". Urgh!!! 
Originally the script also presented a much darker representation of the US military. The colonel orders Dolph Lundgren's character to eliminate any civilians who witness him as he chases Van Damme. And it's revealed that the terrorists the Universal Soldiers face off against where not actually terrorists, but mercenaries hired by the government to provide fake justification for the Universal Soldier programme. The reason for these changes was that during filming the reputation of the US military was at an all-time high following the first Gulf War, and it wasn't thought audiences would want to see such a negative portrayal of them.
Originally the script also presented a much darker representation of the US military. The colonel orders Dolph Lundgren's character to eliminate any civilians who witness him as he chases Van Damme. And it's revealed that the terrorists the Universal Soldiers face off against where not actually terrorists, but mercenaries hired by the government to provide fake justification for the Universal Soldier programme. The reason for these changes was that during filming the reputation of the US military was at an all-time high following the first Gulf War, and it wasn't thought audiences would want to see such a negative portrayal of them.
While the action does thrill throughout, that's not all there is to the film however. It has a few nice emotional scenes when it comes to Deveraux just wanting to go home, a sentiment left over from his Vietnam days. And the film also features a nice little dose of humour, much of it coming from Mr VD (of that sounds unfortunate!
) and the clueless predicament that his character find himself in; highlights being his attempts to re-learn the ability of eating and his need to frequently get naked. Van Damme even has a little bit of a self-knowing prod at himself regarding his accent - “What accent?”One of the great things about the film's concept is just how worryingly plausible a notion it is. I could honestly very easily believe that the US government has a special division of secret soldiers just like this. And they really are quite a menacing creation. They're not overdone in terms of design and still look human, but when we get our first sighting of them a little chill does go up the back. And the men they've got to fill the roles, including Van Damme and Lundgren, just help to sell the idea of these men being perfect killing machines
Conclusion - Fantastic B-movie entertainment. Enjoyable turns from the cast, some awesome action and stunts, a fun and tightly-scripted story - what more could you want really from a film of this nature? And now there really is only one way to end a Universal Soldier review.
“Goodnight a**hole!”