"Universal Soldier: Day of Reckoning" - The weirdest and best film in the series.

*This article contains SPOILERS.

I always wondered what one of the truly great, original directors would do with a Van Damme movie. Sure, he’s worked with some renowned action directors here and there, but what would Kubrick have done with a Van Damme movie? Of course that’s an impossibility, and it’s very unlikely that any director of Kubrick’s ilk (PTA, Scorsese, Aronofsky, etc.) will ever work with Van Damme. But that doesn’t mean a skilled imitation can’t happen; in fact, it already has. Writer-director John Hyams has made the closest thing we’ll likely ever get. His Day of Reckoning feels more like a unique director’s vision than any other Van Damme movie. The comparison that came to mind as I watched was Nicolas Winding Refn. The general look of the film, a mostly quiet protagonist, striking images of sex and ultraviolence, and the general mysteriousness of the film make it very much like Refn’s work. To be clear, I don’t think Hyams was copying Refn. I just thought of Refn as I watched it. Day of Reckoning is simply the product of Hyams being able to do whatever the fuck he wanted, and I am so glad he did.

Universal Soldier: Unleashed

The Universal Soldier series (the Van Damme entries) is truly strange. The first film is pure ‘90s action fun. The sequel attempted to recapture that feeling, but failed (at least commercially; I actually like it in a guilty pleasure kind of way). Then director John Hyams entered the picture and made Regeneration one of the most surprisingly awesome DTV movies of all time. That entry was much darker than the first two films, but Hyams was just getting started. Hyams wanted to do something special with the series, but he also did something very simple: take the idea of the UniSol program to its logical, violent, insane conclusion. Let me explain. 

I love the Universal Soldier series, but I always found it a bit lacking when it came to considering the ramifications of the program. For fuck’s sake, they are re-animating dead Vietnam soldiers as cyborg assassins! And it’s a fairly light-hearted series for the first two movies. This is some dark shit, and Day of Reckoning finally dives deep into the darkness. The UniSols of this film have survived too long, and they are all pretty much crazy. The scenes in the bunker are fairly disturbing. The UniSols just sit around, amped up and drunk, just wanting to kill something because they know nothing else. Andrew Scott and Luc Deveraux claim to be their liberators, but really they’re just masters of a different name. And when John takes over at the end, he’s still just using the UniSols to do his bidding. 

Only death can free these men, but they’ve already died, multiple times in many cases. The film ends with the revelation that John has created a clone to infiltrate the government agency that controls the program. Terrible things are going to happen because John, a government creation meant to stop the rogue UniSols, has chosen to believe the revenge narrative they created. It’s a vicious cycle that seemingly has no end, and that’s the point. Where else could this program go? I know this is covered to a degree in all these films, but this felt like the most realistic and fully formed exploration of the consequences of the program.

One of the main consequences of the program is violence. Of course, the entire series is violent, but only Day of Reckoning garnered an NC-17 because of it. This is because the use of guns is toned down...a bit. The gunplay is still there, and it’s gorier than ever. But the most brutal moments of the film don’t feature guns at all. One such moment involves a fight with baseball bats. In a generally great sequence, John realizes his abilities while fighting off a would-be UniSol assassin in a sporting goods store. After an awesome bat on bat fight, John gains the upper hand and eviscerates his attacker’s head with one swing. I don’t know what else to say except that it’s fucking awesome, and it’s the kind of thing I always wanted from this series. Because what’s the point of creating supersoldiers just to have them pull a trigger. Give those fuckers bats and machetes and let them go crazy.

And Day of Reckoning is truly crazy on many levels. The fact that many of the characters are either under mind control, can’t remember their past, or are flat out rage monsters creates an unnerving mood throughout. But the sound and visuals amp it up even further. The sequences in which Van Damme seems to be telepathically recruiting characters are particularly difficult to watch. The primary example of this is when the UniSol is recruited by Lundgren after the brothel massacre. The flashing lights and the chaotic score along with images of a bald Van Damme make it an extremely effective scene. It’s hardly something you would expect from this franchise.

And that’s precisely why it’s the best film in the series. Day of Reckoning is possibly the boldest sequel ever made. It’s a violent head trip, and it’s everything a Universal Soldier movie could and should be.

Universal Soldier: Apocalypse Now

While I found a lot of similarities to Refn’s work in Day of Reckoning, the most blatant homage is to Coppola’s Apocalypse Now. Actually, Day of Reckoning is damn near a remake. The basic plot is a soldier (Scott Adkins) is sent by the government (in this case, though, he’s unaware of the government’s involvement until later) to take out a rogue superior (Van Damme) who has gone insane and started his own army. He eventually makes his way to Van Damme, even going down a river at one point. The ending is where it diverges a bit from Apocalypse Now, even though he still kills Van Damme with a machete much like how Brando dies in Apocalypse. The difference is that rather than simply leaving, he takes Van Damme’s place, albeit with a much smaller army (you know, because he killed almost all of them earlier). The fact that he kills many of them could be a reference to the note Brando leaves for Willard telling him to kill them all. Small differences aside, this is very clearly meant to be a tribute of sorts to Apocalypse Now. And this is a logical film to emulate as Van Damme and Lundgren's characters were originally soldiers in the Vietnam War, and Lundgren's character was kind of an amped-up Kurtz himself in the first film. 

Van Damme’s screen time and overall performance and appearance is further evidence of the connection. Van Damme is barely in this movie. He shows up in the beginning scene, but after that he is only seen in glimpses or very short scenes, which is how Kurtz is portrayed in Apocalypse, as he’s heard in an audio recording early on, then we just see pictures of him. Both Deveraux and Kurtz hang like specters over their films. They are mysterious, dangerous men that our protagonist must face. 

Van Damme’s screen time is almost identical to Brando’s, but so is his appearance. He has a shaved head, and he even paints his face later in the film (seemingly for no other reason than to further resemble Kurtz). Van Damme also matches Brando’s understated performance. He is mostly quiet, which makes for one of the most effective, and definitely eeriest roles of his career. This is not a knock against Van Damme, but I’ve always thought his presence was more powerful when he is more silent. This is why his darker, more villainous roles stand out because when he stands around stone-faced he looks creepy as hell. 

It’s easy to be disappointed by how little Van Damme is in this film, but when you understand the design of the story (and it’s homage to Apocalypse Now), it makes perfect sense. And it makes for a more potent performance from Van Damme. If he had been around every other scene just being brooding and evil, it would have become a bit tiresome by the end. Better to leave him the mystery that must be found rather than to pull the curtain back too soon. Screen time doesn’t matter when his presence can be felt throughout the film. It’s a unique and great performance from Van Damme in easily one of the most interesting films he’s ever been involved in. 

Why Do I Own This?

It’s a Jean-Claude Van Damme movie. In fact, I bought it twice, technically. It was cheaper to by a Regeneration / Day of Reckoning combo DVD than buying Regeneration by itself. But then I found out that the DVD version of Day of Reckoning was not the uncut, NC-17 version. So I had to buy the blu ray. I’m glad I did, though, because the extra brutality in the uncut version is worth it.

Random Thoughts

That murder at the beginning is definitely the darkest thing Van Damme has ever filmed.

The craziest little whorehouse in the fucking world…

This movie needs a seizure warning. Seriously. The flashing lights and whatnot are difficult to watch.

What a terrifying cult: a group of genetically enhanced super soldiers sitting around whiskey drunk all the time just waiting for an excuse to start beating the shit out of each other.

I watched this right after John Wick 3 (I definitely need to watch something with less death now), and the sequence when Adkins kills all the UniSols is just as good as a sequence in the Wick series. Obviously Wick is the more premiere series, especially since there are multiple impressive sequences throughout those films while this film just has the one, but it's still very impressive for any action film, much less a DTV one.

Lundgren gets two badass deaths in back-to-back movies. That's rare because when most characters die in a movie, they stay dead.

UniSols using baseball bats and machetes makes for much better (and exponentially more gruesome) action.

"Universal Soldier: Regeneration" - The UniSol Movie We Deserve

*This article contains SPOILERS.

I’m still working on my year-end list, but I had to take a break to get a Van Damme movie in this month. Since I revisited Universal Soldier last month, and I covered the now-ignored sequel Universal Soldier: The Return for my first Why Do I Own This? article, I decided to go ahead and finish off the series in December and January. So this month, I’m writing about Universal Soldier: Regeneration, a movie I wrote about upon its initial release and was disappointed in. After rewatching it this week, I have no idea how this movie disappointed me back then. Sure, Van Damme is a bit docile for most of the film, but it makes sense for the story. I just don’t get why the action didn’t impress me back then, because this DTV movie looks a hell of a lot better than most theatrical action movies. Also, Regeneration takes some of the darkness hinted at in the much lighter previous two movies and runs with it. 

Universal Soldier: Blade Runner

In my article about the original film, I joked a bit about how the whole UniSol program is fucking horrific, despite the fun tone of the film. The filmmakers of Regeneration, director John Hyams (who I think is the dominant voice here as he went on to write and direct the even darker sequel, Day of Reckoning) and Victor Ostrovsky (this is his sole IMDb credit, and the only extra info about him is some bizarre quote about someone being labeled an anti-Semite), obviously thought there was much more to this series than fun action. 

Van Damme’s story arc is definitely much darker this time around. Originally, I was a bit disappointed by Van Damme’s lack of involvement in the first half of this film; it’s almost like his first scenes are some separate short film about recovering from grief or memory loss or something. This time around, I realized that the filmmakers were showing the hellish existence he’s going through because of the program. It’s never explained what has been going on with him, aside from a line about being brought back a couple years ago. So we have to assume that something happened since the previous films that led to him being put back in storage. And now he’s out again, but he has severe memory issues, which a therapist is trying to help him with. 

This is right in Van Damme’s wheelhouse as an actor. As he’s aged, his face has become perfect for conveying silent suffering. While this is a largely silent role, Van Damme is still able to turn in one of his most impressive, sad performances. He’s essentially a zombie, and he eventually just accepts it because what kind of life can he expect to have anyway? And the doctor’s statement that they will no longer have control over him after the last treatment is not hopeful, but terrifying. What will happen to him now that he’s more powerful than ever and has true freedom? (Stay tuned for next month’s article to find the disturbing answer!)

While Van Damme’s story was a slow burn, Dolph Lundgren is shot of a cannon in this film going full Roy Batty almost immediately. Universal Soldier compares easily to Blade Runner, but that comparison was not all that apt tonally until Regeneration, mainly because of Dolph Lundgren’s arc. Brought back as a clone, he is clearly independent and angry as soon as he wakes up. And after completing his first mission, he turns on his maker (who looks a little like Tyrell), killing him exactly the same way Batty kills Tyrell in a blatant homage to Blade Runner. 

Lundgren spends his short time in this film questioning his existence and being violently confused. He fights Van Damme because he doesn’t know what else to do but kill and fight anything he comes across. But when it’s clear that he’s about to die, he is not angry or scared, he just wants to tell Van Damme what he remembered. Van Damme kills him before he can say anything else. It’s a tragic situation for both men, only slightly lessened by the admittedly awesome and gruesome death.

Lundgren’s inclusion almost comes across as a gimmick (mainly because his screen time is so short), but his presence brings the most interesting aspect of the story to bear. I did not care at all about the outcome of the actual plot because it was almost stereotypically bland for a DTV action movie: a rebel army threatens to blow up Chernobyl, holding the Ukranian Prime Minister’s teenage children hostage unless they are granted independence. This is not a knock on the film because it is quite clear that none of this is all that important compared to the ramifications of a genetically altered UniSol and a cloned UniSol. This focus is confirmed as more important in the next film. In many ways the title Regeneration refers to the rebirth of the franchise as dark, interesting sci-fi instead of simple, yet fun, action. But if you’re going to have action anyway, it might as well be great, right?

Straightforward Action in a Straight-to-DVD Movie.

Regeneration hits all the right notes for me: it’s brutal, the action is easy to follow (no quick cuts that plague the genre), the blood and gunshot wounds are practical instead of CG, and multiple sequences are shot as one long take. There’s a bit of a renaissance for action at the moment (the John Wick series comes to mind), but back in 2009 (when Regeneration came out) it was rare to find good R-rated action. 

Once again, I have no idea why this film didn’t impress me more originally. I guess it was the presence of the MMA fighter. He makes for a decent silent villain, but I found his signature movie in this film, straddling someone and punching them in the head a dozen times in less than thirty seconds, to redundant to the point that it becomes laughable near the end of the film. But it’s narrow-minded to let that small qualm keep me from enjoying a truly impressive action experience. 

I don’t want to just rehash all the best sequences like I’m hosting “The Chris Farley Show” (“Remember when JCVD jammed that pipe into Lundgren’s forehead then shot through the pipe with a shotgun and obliterated Lundgren’s head? That was awesome.”). So I’ll just focus on Van Damme’s involvement, which also might explain my initial lukewarm response as well.

I prefer to see Van Damme roundhouse kick people constantly in his films. I don’t like to admit that he’s aged and a lot of martial arts moves are beyond him. This is why a lot of his DTV stuff is more soldier/gun-based. There’s nothing inherently wrong with that type of action, but most DTV directors are incapable of doing anything interesting with it. Director John Hyams (and his dad [and fellow director of JCVD movies] Peter Hyams serving as director of photography) is more than capable, providing multiple impressive sequences that don’t involve roundhouse kicks. The standout moment is Van Damme’s infiltration of the complex, which involves a truly impressive hallway sequence done in one take. Van Damme doesn’t roundhouse kick a soul, and yet it’s one of the greatest action scenes he’s ever filmed.

The main event of the movie, Van Damme vs. Lundgren, doesn’t disappoint, either (and yes, I know Van Damme still has to fight the MMA dude after this, but come on, this is the fight people watched the movie for). Once again, no round houses to be found, but it’s still an intensely physical fight that movies seamlessly from room to room as these two zombie/clone/cyborgs that-should-not-be do battle. 

Universal Soldier: Regeneration is a perfect example of how excellent action can be achieved while dealing with a limited budget and aging stars. It helps that the aging stars are aging quite well, but you get the point: Lundgren and Van Damme are not young at this point. It really proves that crappy action is the result of weak filmmakers, which is why they are making DTV movies, after all. But every now and then, a talented director either gets his start or is willing to slum it and make something special. And Regeneration is special, even if it took me a second viewing ten years later to realize it.

Why Do I Own This?

It’s a Jean-Claude Van Damme movie.

Random Thoughts 

The beginning car chase is a bit of a Bourne ripoff, what the shaky cam and Eastern European-ness of it all.

But overall, it's a totally decent opening action sequence.

But what the fuck were those cops at the road block near the end thinking? They were standing in a row together in the open. Why not take cover behind the cop cars?

Holy shit! Shouldn't they do a little measuring before they cut off the arm for replacement, or do they not care if one arm is longer than the other?

When will people learn? Do NOT approach Luc Deveraux while he's in a restaurant. 

You can definitely tell the bad guy unisol is an MMA fighter; they incorporate it into nearly every action sequence.

Jesus. I take it this dude's signature move in the UFC was to get on top of an opponent and punch him in the head twenty times in one minute.

Van Damme gives a great death look that makes a soldier jump out a window. 

I guess there are worse last words than "fucking prick."

My god, what a great death scene for Lundgren.

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"Universal Soldier" - Fun with Cyborg Zombies

*I write these articles with SPOILERS.

I’m getting into my monthly groove a bit late this month, but better late than never, especially when the movie I’m covering is Universal Soldier. This was the beginning of Jean-Claude Van Damme’s bigger budget work, and the success of this film is a big reason why he became a ‘90s action mainstay. The film could easily be dismissed as a kind of Terminator-ripoff, but who cares when it’s treated with such a fun, light tone? They weren’t going for an Oscar, so why not make something in Van Damme’s wheelhouse? Playing a robotic, fish-out-of-water type is perfect for Van Damme. Much like Schwarzenegger, it makes his accent less noticeable, and he knows how to play it for laughs (much like he does in Replicant). It had been years since I watched this, and I was as pleasantly surprised with it as director Roland Emmerich and writer Dean Devlin were when they recorded their commentary.

What a Great Time for Action Movies. 

I watched this with the audio commentary, and it was actually pretty insightful. It was a decent commentary because it was one that was recorded years later for the special edition DVD rather than recorded before the movie was even released (which is the case more often than not on these old commentaries). Because of that, Emmerich and Devlin are reminiscing just as much as they are providing behind the scenes tidbits. It seems like they haven’t seen the movie in years, and they are genuinely surprised by how good the movie is and what they were able to get away with at the time. They’re looking at the movie from a 2004 lens, and I can see why they feel the way they do.

The early 2000s was not a place for rated R action movies. PG-13 was the name of the game (we’re currently in the middle of a bit of a R-rated renaissance right now), and it was likely that Emmerich and Devlin could not get a project off that ground anymore unless it was rated PG-13. So these guys are nostalgic for the action days of the ‘90s, and they were great times.

First and foremost, action movies that involve a lot of violent death simply should be rated R. There’s nothing more hypocritical than claiming that a PG-13 rating is to spare our nation’s youth from glorified violence, and then just clean up all the death and destruction to get by sensors. Implied or bloodless death is still death. At least in the ‘90s studios still had the balls to say, “This is a violent movie, and it should be rated accordingly.” 

Since it was the ‘90s, this also meant that the action had to be almost completely practical. There are so many squibs and real explosions in this movie that it’s refreshing to watch compared to most current action films. There’s nothing groundbreaking about the action in Universal Soldier, but it feels real, and that’s more important than style.

Finally, the ‘90s were a time when a violent action movie could still be goofy and fun. We’re talking about a movie in which a soldier makes an ear necklace (twice!), and there are many moments of goofy humor. Hell, Lundgren even holds up the ear necklace and talks into it! There are still fun action movies, but I feel like this particular type of fun action is dead. It’s because the action is not the funny element, it’s all the character stuff happening around the action. It’s Van Damme eating a dozen plates of food followed by a scene with Lundgren killing a doctor by jamming a hypodermic needle into his skull (those moments didn’t happen back to back, but you get the idea). 

Action movies of this era didn’t take themselves very seriously, and that is what made many of them great. No matter the serious implications in a plot about reanimating dead Vietnam soldiers to become cybernetic killers for the government, you still have to look at such a plot and acknowledge how silly it is. Universal Soldier embraces this silliness, and the film is better because of it.

A crazy, sci-fi Interpretation of Apocalypse Now.

Dolph Lundgren’s character makes it easy to compare Universal Soldier to Apocalypse Now. He’s a more straightforwardly crazy Colonel Kurtz. He spent enough time in the war to start to think that only he knows the right way to run things. 

Lundgren was obviously game for all this as he’s clearly having a lot of fun with the role. He’s a more animated, or re-animated, Kurtz. I’m just imagining Marlon Brando giving crazy speeches as he makes his way across the country, blowing up everything in his path. 

I suppose what made the comparison stick out to me the most was the setting of Lundgren’s speech halfway through the film: a grocery store. If you remember, in Apocalypse Now, Kurtz says that Willard is “an errand boy sent by grocery clerks.” Did Devlin and Emmerich (who refer to Lundgren as Kurtz in the commentary, by the way) think of this when they conceived of the scene? Probably not, but maybe. Either way, I just found it funny to imagine this film as a version of Apocalypse Now, and why not? There’s already three versions of that movie, why not add a fourth?

Van Damme Shows Emotion Better When He’s a Robot Zombie.

Universal Soldier is kind of a zombie movie, what with the re-animated soldiers. But it’s also a kind of robot movie, as well. These two character types are perfect for Van Damme, and I’m not being a smart ass. 

I mentioned at the beginning that playing a robot/clone/etc. is perfect for Van Damme. He does a good job selling his emotionless state, and he brings effortless humor to most of his scenes. But as a sentient zombie, he gets to show his range as an actor, even though that role might seem inhibitive. 

For all it’s goofiness, Universal Soldier is a movie about young men who died in war and are brought back as emotionless soldiers, but their memories are still there waiting to come forward. The horrifying aspect is when they start to regain their consciousness. Van Damme has multiple scenes in which he acknowledges he is actually dead. That’s pretty heavy for such a silly movie. And he truly sells it, too. You see this sad look in his eyes when he discusses his death. Van Damme is not only conveying his melancholy for his own lost life, but also his inability to truly feel his emotions as he’s still a product of a military experiment. 

Granted, Universal Soldier does not focus on these grim details, but when it does take a second or two to acknowledge how fucked up this experiment is, Van Damme is more than capable of handling the work. I’m not surprised by this, but Dean Devlin was, and he’s not afraid to admit to it in the commentary. But this is why I love Van Damme. Sure, the kicks and splits and all the twin movies are fun, but the guy is seriously capable of conveying complex emotions without saying a word. This is to be expected of most actors, but to see it in an action star, especially during the ‘90s, is special. That is what makes Universal Soldier stand apart from other Van Damme films.

Why Do I Own This?

It’s a Van Damme movie, and a top tier one at that.

Random Thoughts 

Van Damme's commentary is naturally incomprehensible. I do like how he refers to this movie as "U.S. 1."

Holy shit, that's Michael Jai White at the beginning! He plays the villain in Universal Soldier: The Return. But they don't mention him as one of Van Damme's fellow soldiers. Why not?

Seeing Leon Rippy as a scientist is distracting. I'm too used to him as a slightly crazed hillbilly-type.

Dolph Lundgren stomps the neck of an already dead terrorist; science guy monitoring this: "I think homeboy likes this shit."

I did not realize Deebo was in this. Maybe that's why he is such a badass in Friday. Is Friday a spinoff of Universal Soldier?

Huey was right to worry about Ronnie's plan. Poor bastard.

The part with Van Damme cooling his dick off with the air conditioner in the motel was actually behind the scenes footage they ended up using in the movie.

"What accent?" Yes! Acknowledge it and make a joke about it.

Emmerich: "You know, this movie's better than I thought." In the commentary, he and Dean Devlin are constantly surprised that they like their own movie.

So a redneck outside a titty bar sees a dude in fatigues wearing an ear necklace, and he cracks a joke about it. I don't think I would fuck with the ear necklace dude.

Lundgren's grocery store rant is great as is, but the soldier in the background eating a raw steak really puts it over the top.

"You're discharged, sarge." That's pretty fucking awful.

God damn, I forgot how gruesome Lundgren's death was.

There’s an alternate ending, and it is terrible. Lundgren kills Van Damme’s mom, then the ending happens as it does in the normal version. Then Van Damme’s dad pulls a gun on him, and the scientist who started the program shows up (Jerry Orbach). They explain that Van Damme’s parents are fake (his real parents still think he’s dead, then they shoot Van Damme a few times and talk about how he needs to give up and come with them. The cops, and Ronnie’s former news channel, then show up. For some reason local podunk cops have jurisdiction, and all the government guys are arrested. Then a news producer hands Ronnie a microphone and wants Ronnie to give a newscast over the dying Van Damme (why are the cops allowing this?). She can’t because she loves him. Then there’s an epilogue in which Ronnie tells us that Van Damme was reunited with his real parents and decided to let himself die on their farm. She hung out with him for his final two months. The end. I’m okay with the scientists showing up, and Van Damme’s parents being undercover agents, and I’m even okay with Van Damme deciding to die, but the cops just swooping in and the news stuff is just random. And if Van Damme is going to die, give an actual scene of this; don’t just use B-roll footage and explain it in a voiceover.

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