Universal
Soldier 2: The Return Starring: Jean-Claude Van
Damme, Michael Jai White, Golderg
Universal Soldier
Luc Deveraux is back. Jean-Claude Van Damme
gallantly attempts to resurrect interest in his
tepid career with this action-riddled
roller-coaster ride. Set in the not-too-distant
future, Deveraux has been employed by the
government to oversee the new UniSol project.
What is UniSol? It's a military plan to turn dead
soldiers into invincible fighting machines (see
the first Univeral Soldier for more details).
It's also the scheme that went horribly wrong
when the soldiers turned psycho, killing the
scientists who created them. Not deterred by this
early setback, the government replicates the
project. This time they figure that they can
control the soldiers through a supercomputer
called SETH (kind of like HAL in 2001, but
smarter). But, as we all know, machines
frequently break down. Pretty soon the computer
comes to the conclusion that it's superior to
humans and therefore it must destroy them. Uh oh.
Van Damme to the
rescue. The muscles from Brussels heroically leap
into action confronting the dangerous soldiers
led by Bill (WCW) Goldberg and Michael Jai White
(last seen in Spawn). The action is impressive
and the stunts are engrossing. Goldberg is
charismatic as the cartoonish villain who sneers
and snouts while muttering macho things like,
"I'm gonna kill that guy." Van Damme
looks more at home in a production that he is not
directing, and for once he lets his fists do the
talking. Ironically, the movie is missing the
gloss and big-budget pathos of its predecessor
(created by Dean Devlin and Roland Emmerich),
making the original decidedly better. --Jeremy
Storey (amazon.com)
Release Date: 1999
Rating: R
Approximate
Running Time: 90 minutes
|
|