{"id":2208,"date":"2024-08-09T14:09:59","date_gmt":"2024-08-09T14:09:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/?p=2208"},"modified":"2024-10-14T00:38:24","modified_gmt":"2024-10-14T04:38:24","slug":"universal-soldier-the-return","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/2024\/08\/09\/universal-soldier-the-return\/","title":{"rendered":"Universal Soldier: The Return"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"Universal Soldier: The Return <\/strong>(1999)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 TriStar\/Action-Sci-Fi\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 RT: 83 minutes\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Rated R (nonstop strong violence, language, nudity)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Director: Mic Rodgers\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Screenplay: William Malone and John Fasano\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Music: Don Davis\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cinematography: Mike Benson\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Release date: August 20, 1999 (US)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cast: Jean-Claude Van Damme, Michael Jai White, Heidi Schanz, Xander Berkeley, Justin Lazard, Kiana Tom, Daniel von Bargen, James Black, Karis Paige Bryant, Bill Goldberg, Brent Anderson, Brent Hinkley.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Box Office: $10.6M (US)<\/p>\n

Rating<\/strong>: ** \u00bd<\/p>\n

\u00a0One of the rules I try to live my life by is don\u2019t make a simple thing complicated. I wish the guys behind the Universal Soldier movies followed that rule. Universal Soldier: The Return<\/strong> is a sequel to the 1992 sci-fi actioner starring Jean-Claude Van Damme and Dolph Lundgren as two soldiers killed in action in Vietnam brought back to life by a secret government program. It\u2019s the second theatrical film, but the fourth installment of the series. It was preceded by two made-for-cable TV movies in \u201998. Their titles are immaterial since they\u2019ve nothing to do with either theatrically released entry. I never bothered with them myself. I keep it simple by regarding Universal Soldier: The Return<\/strong> as the only true sequel to the original.<\/p>\n

\u00a0I pretty much knew what to expect from Universal Soldier: The Return<\/strong> when I went to see it opening day. It opened in late August and wasn\u2019t screened in advance for critics or audiences. JCVD\u2019s career was in a serious nosedive at the time with a string of box office disappointments like Street Fighter, Sudden Death, The Quest, Maximum Risk, Double Team and Knock Off. Also, Lundgren wasn\u2019t on board for this one. I figured I was in for a rough 83 minutes with Universal Soldier: The Return<\/strong>. Much to my relief, it wasn\u2019t as bad as all that.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Don\u2019t misunderstand, Universal Soldier: The Return<\/strong> is as dumb an action picture as they come with a plot barely developed beyond the idea stage. It\u2019s really a bunch of scenes of JCVD getting into fight after fight as he tries to prevent something very bad from happening. Since we last saw him, Luc Deveraux is a changed man in that he\u2019s just a man now. He had whatever was done to him to make him a UniSol reversed. SAY WHAT?! How this process actually works makes even less sense now. In any event, Luc now acts as a consultant\/trainer for the UniSol program which has gone digital as we head into the 21st<\/sup> century. They\u2019re all connected to a sentient computer system named S.E.T.H. (Self-Evolving Thought Helix) through neural implants in their brains. They\u2019re faster, stronger, smarter and more likely to f*** up than their predecessors. And f*** up they do.<\/p>\n

\u00a0It\u2019s announced that the UniSol program is to be shut down due to governmental budget cuts. That right there might be the most unrealistic thing in Universal Soldier: The Return<\/strong>. Don\u2019t they always go for health and education first when it comes to reducing spending? ANYWAY, SETH doesn\u2019t take the news well. In fact, he takes it very badly. He strikes back by programming the UniSols to take over the facility and kill all the humans. He also makes the decision to transfer himself to an enhanced human body (White, Spawn). He needs an access code to deactivate a program that will shut SETH down in a matter of hours. The only one he can get it from is Luc who\u2019s actively trying to put an end to the siege himself. The military, represented by General Radford (Bargen, The Postman), won\u2019t be any help. They just want to blow the place up and be done with it. If there\u2019s any collateral damage, so be it.<\/p>\n

\u00a0It\u2019s never said how many years passed between the two movies, but Luc has a daughter Hilary (Bryant) who looks to be about ten if that helps. He\u2019s a widowed dad doing the best he can to raise her on his own after the untimely death of his wife. Based on the evidence before me in Universal Soldier: The Return<\/strong>, I\u2019d say that every day is Take Your Daughter to Work Day. It\u2019s the only reasonable explanation as to why she\u2019s there when the UniSol uprising goes down. In the fracas, little Hilary sustains a head injury and is taken to the hospital by Luc\u2019s assistant Maggie (Tom, Cyber Bandits) to await life-saving surgery while her dad saves the world from SETH. Oh yeah, Luc is joined at the hip to another attractive female reporter (Schanz, The Truman Show) after a big story. What is it with this guy and good-looking women that snoop for a living?<\/p>\n

\u00a0Directed by stunt guy Mic Rodgers, Universal Soldier: The Return<\/strong> is simple-minded in both story and purpose. When you take away all the technological mumbo-jumbo, it\u2019s basically a variation of Die Hard and redo of the first movie combined. The plot is merely connective tissue between scenes of JCVD showing off his true talent against larger opponents like the hulking UniSol (wrestler Goldberg) that has it out for Luc for some unknown reason. Of course, he\u2019s bested by the star each time. Their encounters usually end with Goldberg saying \u201cI hate that guy!\u201d At least he shows some interest in what he\u2019s doing. JCVD looks bored a lot of the time. What he delivers here is less a performance than an action star going through the motions.<\/p>\n

\u00a0While Dolph out of the picture, JCVD\u2019s co-star and main opponent White steps in and does a pretty good job of it. He looks sufficiently menacing and puts up one hell of a fight. As you probably expect, the climax involves SETH holding Luc\u2019s daughter captive as a means of luring him back to the facility for one last go-around. As the sidekick\/love interest, Schanz is terrible. She appears to be attempting to copy Ally Walker\u2019s character and performance from the first movie. She doesn\u2019t come close. Besides Goldberg\u2019 UniSol, the only other notable supporting player is Brent Hinkley (Ed Wood) playing a punk-haired computer hacker named Squid. He\u2019s the one that provides a fresh body for SETH to transfer his consciousness into. Why he has a body on hand is anybody\u2019s guess. I wish he had a few more scenes.<\/p>\n

\u00a0For all its many faults, Universal Soldier: The Return<\/strong> is still a reasonably entertaining action picture as long as you keep your expectations low. It has plenty of action and violence with all the gunplay, fights and explosions. Granted, it feels pretty stale. It isn\u2019t anything we haven\u2019t seen before. If you want to know the truth, Universal Soldier: The Return<\/strong> is more laughable than anything else. It\u2019s completely ridiculous. It\u2019s total rubbish. In order to get ANY enjoyment from it, it helps to know this going in. Well, it might help.<\/p>\n

TRIVIA TIDBIT: Universal Soldier: The Return<\/strong> is the last of JCVD\u2019s movies to get widely released in theaters (until The Expendables 2 in 2012). He moved on to the DTV market with titles like Replicant, The Order and Legionnaire.\"\"<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Universal Soldier: The Return (1999)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 TriStar\/Action-Sci-Fi\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 RT: 83 minutes\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Rated R (nonstop strong violence, language, nudity)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Director: Mic Rodgers\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Screenplay: William Malone and John Fasano\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Music: Don Davis\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cinematography: Mike Benson\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Release date: August 20, 1999 (US)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cast: Jean-Claude Van Damme, Michael Jai White, Heidi Schanz, Xander Berkeley, Justin Lazard, Kiana Tom, Daniel von Bargen, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":3120,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2208","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-action-adventure"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Universal-Soldier-The-Retur.jpg?fit=620%2C348&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2208","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2208"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2208\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3123,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2208\/revisions\/3123"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3120"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2208"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2208"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2208"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}