Early 90's decade was most known for action and martial arts movies, they were very popular also here on the Balkans and i still remember how on television they just played movies with Schwarzenegger, Van Damme, Seagal, Chuck Norris and others, our television channels still time to time play this kind of movies. I am admitting when i was a kid i really enjoyed action movies, i am still enjoying them time to time, when i want to relax and not to think of hard themes i always find something in this sphere to watch or rewatch, so these days i started to rewatch early movies with Jean Claude Van Damme. Of this early Van Damme flicks, Universal Soldier is most known of them. But in my opinion the worst one. I really enjoy campy and cheesy movies but this one, has nothing of that, it is just totally brainless and even the action sequences are badly done. And you also have one of the most annoying companion i have ever seen on movie, actress Ally Walker, i hoped she will die in some part of the movie but no she is there till the end. But when you see that this one is directed by one of the worst directors in history of cinema Roland Emmerich than everything is clear. I only give this movie the rate 3/10 because of the scene with Van Damme eating a tons of food in the drive-in, i laughed so hard, so stupid but funny. Watch this movie if you are only die hard Van Damme fan and because of the scene i mentioned, on another hand skip it.

Big, dumb, loud, and fun. Four words that could aptly summarise the appeal of this blockbuster movie which proved a hit with audiences back in '92 and spawned three inferior sequels. UNIVERSAL SOLDIER is probably Van Damme's most successful mainstream movie to date and his pairing with Lundgren as the enemy is a good one; Lundgren's height alone gives him the imposing edge over the smaller, tougher Van Damme and their final one-on-one battle is one to remember. Packed with lots of hard-edged violence and some unwanted comic relief from a highly annoying female support (Ally Walker), UNIVERSAL SOLDIER is a movie that gets better as it goes along.At first, the sheer woodenness of Van Damme and Lundgren is inexcusable. I know that they're supposed to be playing emotionless dead robots, but even after they first rebel they seem wooden and unable to even say their lines convincingly. Thankfully this wears off as time goes on and the pair settle down into their roles. In fact Lundgren goes a 360-degree turnaround at the end and actually becomes quite good as the psychotic soldier who believes that he's surrounded by the enemy. Van Damme? Well, here he plays a more sympathetic character than usual which will no doubt endear him to female fans, while still providing the high-kicking action that the fans expect. Ally Walker is terrible, though, as the intensely annoying female lead, and although it's good to see Ed O'Ross make an appearance as a colonel, he's underused and killed off quickly.The flimsy plot strings together a scene of big-budget action sequences (no surprise, as most of Roland Emmerich's films are thus styled, e.g. INDEPENDENCE DAY) which are pretty impressive. From the opening hostage stakeout at the Hoover Dam to the shoot-up at a motel, to the climatic truck chase and the final battle with Van Damme and Lundgren, things just keep getting better and better. The high body count sees lots of people getting shot or killed in nasty ways, and of course there's the usual quota of bullet-shedding and big explosions.Lundgren's method of death at the end of the movie (like you couldn't guess) is highly graphic and unexpected. The loud score is sufficiently adrenaline-pumping to work and the film tries so hard to please that the feeling rubs off on the audience. Although it may be dumb entertainment, UNIVERSAL SOLDIER "delivers the groceries" so to speak and is quite watchable in a forgettable way, in that it passes the time and engages the attention but doesn't leave much impact afterwards. It may be a popcorn movie but it's undoubtedly a well-made one.

This was really the first time that JCVD graduated beyond low budget karate movies and into the realm of popcorn entertainment. Unlike fellow early 90s karate man Steve Segal, who would more or less make the same film over and over for his entire career, Van Damme flirted for a while with becoming the next Arnold, and perhaps no film in JCVD's filmography is more Schawzeneggerian than 'Universal Soldier'.Directed by the man who would go on to become the king of the disaster movie, Roland Emmerich, it's heavy on gory violence, but paradoxically light on action. The result is a surprisingly dull film carried mostly by a strong turn from villain Dolph Lundgren, who steals the movie right out from under JCVD.

Universal SoldierThe only way to defeat an army of robots is to download a PTSD virus onto their system.Thankfully, the armed forces in this sci-fi film are only reanimated corpses.After shooting each other in Vietnam, Private Deveraux (Jean-Claude Van Damme) and Sergeant Scott (Dolph Lundgren) are resuscitated in the 1990s under a secret military operation.Tasked with wiping out terrorists, the pair does its job flawlessly.But when Scott's bloodlust returns, it jogs Deveraux's memories of what happened in 'Nam and of the family he left behind.With Scott unhinged, Deveraux is compelled to help a reporter (Ally Walker) expose the army's inhuman experimentation, even if it means taking down his teammates.Perfectly cast as emotionless robots, the mumble-mouth leads make the most of the formulaic material by relying more on stern looks and leg splits to convey their feelings. Furthermore, recycling dead soldiers saves a fortune on death notifications.Yellow Lightvidiotreviews.blogspot.ca