UNIVERSAL SOLDIER: DAY OF RECKONING (John Hyams, 2012)

[whiteandblank]

I really want to see this now!

[Jox]

http://twitchfilm.com/2012/09/fantastic ... d-off.html
Fantastic Fest 2012 Review: UNIVERSAL SOLDIER: DAY OF RECKONING Will Take Your Head Off!

director John Hyams continues to steer the previously wavering franchise in new and invigorating directions, thanks in large part this time round to the involvement of Larnell Stovall and new leading man Scott Adkins.

If this all sounds strange, laboured and overly complicated, that's because it is.

Finally off the leash, after a whole act of solely dramatic work, Adkins tears into his opponent in a pent-up blizzard of punches, flying kicks and brutal roundhouse blows. Reteamed with Undisputed fight choreographer Larnell Stovall, Adkins ignites the screen, as both he and Arlovski pull a number of makeshift weapons - ranging from free weights to baseball bats - into the skirmish to blistering effect. The fight is the centrepiece of the film, but also the much-needed sign that dramatic obligations have been taken care of and it's now time for the action to take over. And it's a signal the entire cast and crew were clearly primed for, as the final act of Day of Reckoning is insanely good fun.

this increasingly deranged universe it somehow holds together.

All told, Universal Soldier: Day of Reckoning delivered enough thrills, bloodshed and jaw-dropping fight scenes to whip up the Fantastic Fest crowd into a blood-baying frenzy.

Hyams' enthusiasm for expanding this universe, exploring the existential possibilities of his heroes and villains (no, really - the guy cares!) serves to underscore that good science fiction comes from great ideas, rather than huge budgets and visual spectacle.

But with the enthusiastic and creatively ambitious talents of Hyams, Adkins and Stovall at the controls, this franchise is set to run and run - and right now it's anybody's guess where they might take us.

[Jox]

http://www.firstshowing.net/2012/fantas ... ing-in-3d/

http://www.nerdist.com/2012/09/fantasti ... -of-death/

It’s really pretty weirdly artful for an action sequel of this sort; at times, it feels like Gaspar Noe took over directorial duties from John Hyams.

It’s no stretch to say this is the best Universal Soldier movie – better to say it’s the biggest cinematic boner your inner (or outer, depending) 17 year-old boy is likely to have this season.

JCVD is more serious, perhaps, than he has ever been, while Lundgren works his method-acting, crazy-guy shtick that’s become 100% believable. Viewers may laugh, but more at the audacity of the gore rather than any kind of silliness.

[Jox]

Scott Adkins interview
http://screencrush.com/scott-adkins-int ... reckoning/

You fight both Van Damme and Dolph Lundgren in this movie. How does doing a fight scene with one compare to doing a fight scene with the other?

Dolph’s really easygoing. He’s a big guy and he likes his movements to be that of a bigger guy; a little bit slower and more powerful. So you need to address the choreography for Dolph. So it’s a flurry for me, and then a nice powerful movement from him. With Jean-Claude, to be honest, I have to dumb it down a little bit to cater for him, I’m afraid to say, because we’re from different eras. We do it faster, more like they do in Hong Kong these days. And when Van Damme came up, they were doing it the Western way. That’s a bit slower and a bit more step to step.

As a fan, it does seem like you’re held back a little by fighting these guys who come from that other era and have that older style. For me, the real highlight of the film is the sequence where you take down the whole compound of bad guys in long take and you can really let loose.

Yeah and that’s easier because you’re working with stuntmen who do that day in and day out. I mean there’s that great shot where I kick that guy in the head full force. Larnell Stovall, the fight coordinator, is this guy’s friend, and he says “I think you need to take one in the head. You going to be cool with that?” “Yeah man, I’m cool! Let’s do it!” WHACK! The camera angle was wrong on the first one, so we had do it again.

[laughs]

He was pretty dazed after that. But he’s a great, tough guy. I love stunt guys like that who are going to put it on the line for everyone’s entertainment.

How often does that happen, where someone says “Just hit me”?

Not often. But there are some stunt guys that are up for it. And I love that about them.

‘Day of Reckoning’ is in 3D. I’m sure that affects how you do the fight scenes.

It’s different for the cameraman, because it’s a much bulkier and heavier rig. Our Steadicam operator was bigger than Dolph — and we needed him to be that size because we used this massive, epic, RED camera rig.

Somebody told us that the viewer’s depth perception changes in 3D, so we have to get closer with the punches. Normally I’m going to put my fist right here [Adkins holds his hand about a foot from my face] and that’s going to sell. But they were saying, “No, you’ve got to get it here [Adkins moves his hand an inch from my face]. And now I’ve got [former UFC heavyweight champion] Andrei Arlovski shoving his fists in my face like that! It gets to the point where you just accept the fact that you’re going to get hit at some point and you’ve just got to get on with it.

More positive reviews
http://www.craveonline.com/film/reviews ... -reckoning

I needn’t have fretted because Unisol 4 is a bold new direction for the Universal Soldier universe, and still every bit a Universal Soldier movie.

For all the talk that this is not an action movie, there’s more action than in most so-called action movies, and it’s all good action. The fights are amazing, shootouts dramatic and there’s a stunning car chase on what looks like real freeway overpasses.

There’s enough Van Damme and Lundgren to keep them in the franchise and make you feel you’re getting your money’s worth. It’s high Van Dammage and premium Lundrenergy (™Fred Topel) but also it’s not their movie. Adkins performs some amazing feats, many in an extended single take tracking sequence. You can see where they hide the cuts, but they’re still takes of several minutes straight. That’s really hard to do. Thank you, Scott.

3D as a first person point of view makes sense. Many of the scenes are from John’s eyes literally, and the 3D remains at that level for the whole movie. It’s not really vast depth and certainly very little comes out of the screen, but it’s supposed to be real vision, so I was okay with watching it in 3D. Even a strobe light doesn’t hurt in 3D, so that’s some quality stereography there.

Universal Soldier: Day of Reckoning is intense, brutal and beautiful all at once.

http://screencrush.com/universal-soldie ... ng-review/

it’s pretty damn good; muscular, atmospheric and surprisingly scary.

when the martial arts sequences arrive, they hit fast and furious.

There’s a superb brawl in a sporting goods store, where baseball bats are brandished like samurai swords, and an absolutely superlative sequence where Adkins rages with balletic precision through Deveraux’s compound, laying waste to his private army with fisticuffs and gunplay, all captured in a series of precisely staged long takes.

That scene can hold its own against the action in any major Hollywood movie this year, but Hyams also knows how to tell a story with his camera when dudes aren’t kicking each other in the groin.

if Hyams and Adkins can pull this off, imagine what they could do with more time and money. These guys should be making an ‘Iron Fist’ movie for Marvel. Having brought one series back to life, they deserve a chance to start something from scratch.

[Jox]

http://uk.ign.com/articles/2012/09/25/u ... ing-review

It's intriguing stuff, with shades of Frankenstein, Blade Runner, Total Recall and even Apocalypse Now thrown into the mix.

The brutality of the violence is something to behold, with Hyams staging each scene with such bone-crunching brilliance that you practically feel the impact of every blow, and utilising 3D to really put the viewer into the heart of the action.

for pure action Day of Reckoning is up there with The Raid as the best of the year.

The result is a very different kind of Universal Soldier movie, but one that at least has the balls to try something new.

in an age when filmmakers seem happy to churn out the same movie over-and-over again, credit should go to Hyams for mixing up the tried-and-tested formula.

[Jox]

http://www.aintitcool.com/node/58585

" 'Day of Reckoning' is unlike any of the other films in the series, devoid of any camp or humor and completely out of canon. This is the grown-up version of 'Universal Soldier' that ponders lofty themes like the soul of man, free will and the role of government.

Director John Hyams looked to influences like David Cronenberg and 'Apocalypse Now' for the film's inspiration. I'm not kidding."

[Jox]

http://www.filmschoolrejects.com/review ... -bsali.php

Universal Soldier: Day of Reckoning is an entirely different type of UniSol movie, for better or worse. It’s a slower, more personal character story that in fact takes an opposite track from most.

The film is dotted with fight sequences of frank, yet awesome savagery. Dolph Lundgren actually looks to be in far better fighting condition here than he did in either Expendables film and the shootout that sets up his first row is sinfully entertaining. Adkins’ battle with recent franchise acquisition Andrei “The Pitbull” Arlovski may unseat the sporting goods store rampage throne currently held by Genghis Khan in Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure. That’s saying nothing of the climatic bouts between Adkins and the two pillars of the series. The Adkins/Lundgren fight taken on its own could have gained the film admittance to this festival. Sweet baby Drago, it’s intense.

John Hyams was still able to create something from virtually nothing, and that is to be commended. Day of Reckoning has moments of skillful and crowd-pleasing action, and the idea of the UniSol’s breaking the bonds of their programming and forming a vengeful brotherhood is an interesting concept. The problems with Universal Soldier: Day of Reckoning only highlight the potential of this franchise under Hyams. If given the right tools, and not tempted by gimmicky visual schemes that ultimately limit his vision, there is more than a fleeting possibility that he will continue the series in superb fashion.

New still

[Jox]

THE PRESSKIT / PRODUCTION NOTES (.doc)
Interesting fact is that Scott Adkins could have been in US: REGENERATION but it didn't work out (schedule-wise I guess?), then after he saw the film wishing he was in it, he contacted John Hyams on Facebook and pursued him until he got the part in US4.

When casting Hyams and the producers wanted to make sure that when it came to the lead they wanted to make sure that they cast someone who had professional MMA moves, but also could act. Filmmakers initially wanted Scott Adkins in Regeneration, but it didn’t work out. Moving forward with casting for Day of Reckoning a mutual friend brought to John’s attention an interview where Scott Adkins had glowing remarks about John and Regeneration. “I had not had the opportunity to see any of his work, but what I liked about Scott was he was very persistent and really wanted the part. He reached out to me on Facebook and didn’t stop until the part was his. I loved that because when writing the script and developing John’s character, it was really important that the actor really wanted the part and could pull off, Scott is both”, states Hyams.
Scott Adkins sincerely wanted to be in this film and made sure John (Hyams) knew it, Scott states, “I really wanted to be in Regeneration but it didn’t work out and when I saw the film I was so jealous that I wasn’t in it. I thought John did a phenomenal job with it. Soon after I heard about Day of Reckoning and I immediately sought out John (Hymas) and started emailing him. Fortunately he was a nice guy and responded. I honestly would have taken a lesser role just to work with him, but it worked out that I got the lead role of John”.

The VARIETY review in print

[Jox]

http://www.destroythebrain.com/review/f ... ckoning-3d

Overall Score: 7/10
Story:7/10
Characterization:7/10
Execution:7/10

The action scenes hit extremely hard | The 3D was surprisingly effective.

[leigh1975]

Nice summary, Mosquito. Sad to hear that the Van Damme fight was lacking. He is most certainly still capable of doing plenty of physical fights himself (see Expendables 2). In Unisol 3, it was Dolph's double that really took me out of the Scott/Luc fight. Either way, the stunt doubling in these DTV movies really irks me these days, but I guess it's just a product of the financial and time constraints for these productions.

It depends how busy the individual stars are, they may only have time to shoot dialogue scenes in their schedule, shooting the fights eats up so much time. I believe this is what happened with Dolph in Unisol £, but please correct me if I'm wrong.

[Jox]

http://movieline.com/2012/09/25/univers ... st-review/

Silly, Serious Universal Soldier: Day Of Reckoning At Least Makes A Star Out Of Scott Adkins

here you have an action flick high on gory, bone-crunching slicing and dicing and kicking and punching — everything star and Ben Affleck doppelganger Scott Adkins (Undisputed II and III) can possibly do to evoke oohs and aahs in 3-D in the serious-faced, beefy fashion of his '80s and '90s predecessors — and yet director John Hyams didn't sound completely delusional this week at Fantastic Fest when he said his UniSol fourquel was influenced by David Cronenberg, Michael Haneke, and (yes, I see it, kinda!) even art house provocateur Gaspar Noe.

Hyams satisfies where it matters — in his slashing, limb-severing, body-pounding action, and the physically impressive Adkins, a stunt performer turned leading man.

Notably, Adkins, Van Damme, and Lundgren turn in far more compelling work than they did in their last film together, Expendables 2, though maybe that's not saying much. Van Damme, gloriously off-kilter in that picture, is a study of coiled restraint in Oreo cookie Apocalypse Now face paint; Lundgren might be at his career best - again, perhaps not saying much. In the least, and most significantly, Day of Reckoning should propel British martial artist/stunt veteran Adkins out of the niche genre world — action cinema's Adkins diet?

[Jox]

Countdown to German release
http://www.pmhe.de/us4cs/

[Ringy]

Countdown to German release
http://www.pmhe.de/us4cs/

German countdown is Fantastic!!! I'm excited!!!!


Today's Unisol 4 News
http://www.nikkei.co.jp/category/offtime/eiga/news/article.aspx?id=MMGEzv001027092012
Unisol 4 and Six Bullets ofiicial site(coming soon)
http://www.vandamme-matsuri.com/
Nikkats official site
http://www.nikkatsu.com/movie/detail.html?mid=32400

[Mosquito]

Short piece of interview with Hyams and Adkins:

[Jox]

The buzz is kicking
'Universal Soldier: Day of Reckoning': One of the 'best action movies of the year'?
http://www.nola.com/movies/index.ssf/20 ... recko.html