UNIVERSAL SOLDIER
A film review by Dale Shin
Copyright 1992 Dale Shin
I saw the previews and I was psyched to see it, so I did. Like all the movies I've seen this summer, I expected too much and got disappointed from the real thing.
Jean Claude and Dolph are soldiers in Vietnam. They kill each other because of Van Damme's "Casualties of War" morality and Dolph's "Apocalypse Now" freakiness. Resurrected as Universal Soldiers, they are badder than Navy Seals, the Green Berets rolled into one. Certain similar situations they face on their missions arouse some strange sense of familiarity in Van Damme. Ultimately he breaks out and all of a sudden becomes a weird mix of human-robot, robot-human. A nosy reporter's life is threatened so Van Damme takes off with her to protect her and slowly Dolph starts to revert back to his heart of darkness, which means he must chase down Van Damme and kill him.
There are some funny moments in the film and some okay acting. The fight scenes are okay as all fight scenes always look staged. The technical side of the story as in details of their robotness etc., is okay although not substantial enough to seem truly credible. Much of Van Damme and Dolph's behaviors have holes in it. At one point they seem to be totally human again, but the next minute they are restrained by their robotness. And they are rather quick to all of a sudden to get their memory back.
This is an okay movie. The composition, effects, etc. and its weaknesses don't make it worth it to see on a big screen for six dollars, so wait for video.
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