Every star has their good and bad moments, but few can match the rollercoaster ride that Kurt Russell's career has been on during the past 10 years. When he's hot ("Overboard," "Executive Decision"), look out; when he's not ("Captain Ron," "Escape From L.A."), duck and cover. Russell must have been laughing all the way to the bank after netting multiple millions for "Soldier," a science-fiction tale as generic as its title, which requires him to deliver a total of perhaps 12 words -- and considerably fewer facial expressions -- in between running around and gunning down countless extras. But viewers may be excused if they find it's more fun to play shoot-'em-up yourself than to watch others do it, particularly in a movie as alarmingly shoddy and poorly written as "Soldier." In several eerie ways "Soldier" echoes "The Postman," the collossal Kevin Costner turkey the kind people at Warner Bros. dumped in cinemas last Christmas, and anyone who feels any nostalgia for that excruciating opus should be in a mental-health clinic rather than a movie theater. Once again, we're treated to that hoary old tale about the lone renegade -- in this case a genetically engineered fighting machine known as Sgt. Todd (Russell) -- who sticks up for the poor, peace-lovin' folk when their frontier settlement is attacked by the forces of evil. Imaginatively, screenwriter David Webb Peoples dresses the villianous militants in pseudo-Nazi attire, which definitely sets them apart from the heroes, most of whom are clad in jumble-sale rags. But while the mellow residents of the Arcadia 234 Waste Disposal Area can't seem to find a decent clothing store, they obviously have some sort of state-of-the-art hair salon nearby since a large percentage of the population seems to sport frosted tips, two-tone dye jobs and carefully crinkled tresses. All Sgt. Todd sports is a crew cut, multiple scars and an unwavering scowl, although back in the days of the War of the Six Cities he used to coat his face in patriotic red, white and blue greasepaint. If all this talk about the movie's fashion sense seems beside the point, you should understand it's by far the most fascinating aspect of "Soldier," which throws buckets of blood around in an attempt to perk up a deadwood plot. Director Paul Anderson never met a cliche he couldn't appropriate, so the film also includes numerous scenes of bodies hurtling through the air in slow-motion, several instances of people scurrying away from fireballs and a handful of moments in which shadowy characters are illuminated by flashes of lightning. At least "Soldier" might have had the courtesy to whip up some snazzy visuals, but the none-too-special-effects on view here look like they were taken from some Saturday morning kids' show; they're laughably cheap. As in "The Postman," there's a busty babe and some lovable moppets on hand to put our unemotional hero back in touch with his heart, so we can sit through a sequence in which Sgt. Todd weeps -- in slow-motion, naturally. Anyone who pays good money to sit through "Soldier" will feel like joining in the pity party. James Sanford
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