SOLDIER RATING: 6 / 10 --> Barely recommendable
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RAMBO meets MAD MAX in this follow-up to director Paul Anderson's derivative science-fiction exercise, EVENT HORIZON (6.5/10), with Kurt Russell collecting one of his biggest paychecks yet, and the studios passing it off as the first official "sci-fi Western". Anderson claims that compared to Kurt's character in this film, "Clint Eastwood is f-king Hamlet!"
PLOT: A boy is born and bred to become a cold-hearted, man-killing machine with only fear and discipline as his emotions. When a new breed of man-killers are created, his kind are obsolete. He is eventually dumped into a wasteland of garbage, and left for dead. Discovered by a host of "homeless people in space", this soldier attempts to grasp newer concepts such as love and affection. Eventually, the newer mankillers arrive on said wasteland, and the battle between this once obsolete soldier and his replacements begins.
CRITIQUE: Short, easy to digest, science-fiction Western, that does very little to innovate anything in either genre, and ends up fogging your mind with memories of gunfire and explosions, and not much of anything else. If you like to see a lot of people get shot up, then you should check out this movie. If you like to see a lot of fire and explosions go off, then go see this movie. If you want to see TV's "The Commish", Michael Chiklis play eighth banana in a mediocre science-fiction pic, then go see this movie! Otherwise, skip it, and rent it on video one night when you have absolutely nothing better to do, and you want to shut your brain off for a while.
On the positive tip, Kurt Russell does play his cold, feeling-less character to a tee. He apparently only had a handful of words to enunciate during the entire film, but he sure made up for it in unemotional stares. Wow, what a man! All that and he was built like a lighthouse on steroids. Pretty good for a forty-something, if I don't say so myself. Scott Lee also had very little dialogue (probably even less words than Russell), but did provide for some sense of rivalry, I suppose. All in all, the film never bored me at any point, but it also never blew me away at any time. It basically just punched in its time card when it was supposed to, and called it a night.
Russell's character kept reminding me of that classic line from John Carpenter's THEY LIVE (7.5/10), where Roddy Piper says, "I came here to chew bubble gum, and kick some ass--- and I'm all outta bubblegum!". That's basically what Russell was like for the entire movie! He was just there to kick ass and not much else. I had more fun that I anticipated because I was with my friend, and we had some fun with the crappy lines and campy hommages (I noticed at least one to RAMBO and one to APOCALYPSE NOW). See it if you like brainless guns and explosions, and a good performance by Russell. Skip it, if you don't like guns, explosions or Kurt Russell.
Little Known Facts about this film and its stars: The writer of this film, David Webb Peoples also co-wrote BLADE RUNNER (7.5/10), and wrote 12 MONKEYS (8/10) and the Oscar-winning UNFORGIVEN. Isn't that so very, very odd?! Kurt Russell has 69 words of dialogue in this entire picture. He was reportedly paid $20million to do this movie, which rounds that off to about $290,000/ per word. Kurt...you're a great, great man!! With a middle name like Vogel, how could you go wrong? Kurt played professional baseball (2nd base, AA club- California Angels) until a torn shoulder muscle forced him into retirement in 1973. He was hitting .563 at the time of his withdrawal. His friend, Ron Shelton wrote the Crash Davis role in BULL DURHAM (7.5/10) for him, but the studio insisted on Kevin Costner instead. During one particularly realistic fight scene with Jason Scott Lee, Kurt Russell broke his ankle. Kurt apparently only landed his role in TANGO & CASH after Patrick Swayze dropped out. Also, he apparently only landed his role in BACKDRAFT (8/10), after Dennis Quaid nixed it. Kurt Russell's real-life son with partner and fellow actress Goldie Hawn, Wyatt (Note: Kurt played the character of Wyatt Earp in 1993's TOMBSTONE), plays Russell's character as a 12-year old at the beginning of this film. Jason Scott Lee most famous part before this film was his portrayal of Bruce Lee, in DRAGON: THE BRUCE LEE STORY (8/10)-(no relation). Note: Kurt Russell has apparently announced this film to be his last action movie. Stay tuned!
Review Date: October 27, 1998
Director: Paul Anderson
Writer: David Webb Peoples
Producer: Jerry Weintraub
Actors: Kurt Russell as Todd
Jason Scott Lee as Caine
Gary Busey as Captain Church
Genre: Science-Fiction
Year of Release: 1998
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(c) 1998 Berge Garabedian
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