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

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

Postby dolphage on 26 Jan 2014, 17:23

Hyams is always great in interviews. He's a bit like Stallone in that he's the classic american "talker". Whenever I hear an interview with him I get the feeling that he feeds off the opinions of the interviewer and goes with whatever they're suggesting about his moviemaking and embellishes on it.
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Re: UNIVERSAL SOLDIER: DAY OF RECKONING (John Hyams, 2012)

Postby Jox on 28 Jan 2014, 15:17

10 Awesome Movie Gunfights You’ve Probably Never Seen
10. John’s Awakening (Universal Soldier: Day Of Reckoning)
Director John Hyams gave the dormant Universal Soldier franchise a much needed shot in the arm with his 2009 DTV sequel Universal Soldier: Regeneration. Abandoning the campy humour of the original and making a straight ahead action thriller with some terrific fight scenes worked wonders for the credibility of the series. So it was something of a surprise that when he directed the follow-up Day of Reckoning he made something that feels like a bizarre hybrid of The Shining and Lost Highway, with high-impact fight scenes thrown in for good measure. The film stars Scott Adkins as a man named John who awakens from a coma after the brutal murder of his wife and child, seemingly at the hands of franchise hero Jean-Claude Van Damme. Throughout the film he investigates what really happened and discovers that the memory of his family was falsely implanted and that he is really a clone bred to assassinate a rogue band of Universal Soldiers. Towards the end of the film this group takes him in to remove the painful memory so he can join their ranks, but during the procedure he rebels. Violently. From this moment the film basically becomes one long action sequence and in a series of long, flowing takes John goes on a bloody rampage, wiping out all the soldiers in the base. He uses a fluid combination of tools, guns and martial arts to take on his opponents and the camera spares us none of the grisly details. The scene also gives real life marital arts expert Adkins ample opportunity to show off his physical prowess as he tears through the base like a violent animal. Or in this case a violent animal armed with a shotgun. And his one on one fight with villain Dolph Lundgren in a room full of weapons is a real treat.

http://whatculture.com/film/10-awesome- ... seen.php/2
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Re: UNIVERSAL SOLDIER: DAY OF RECKONING (John Hyams, 2012)

Postby Jox on 10 May 2014, 12:23

Adkins:
How long did the Universal Soldier: Day of Reckoning sports store scene take to put together - it's insanely cool...

I think we shot that in two days.

TWO DAYS?

Yeah, it was really difficult because I tore my ACL six weeks before we made that film, which is a really bad injury to have, especially if you’re a martial artist, and it was just really difficult to shoot the whole film.

But yeah it was great working with Andrei Arlovski, he’s really good with the choreography.

What was funny was the baseball bats – we had a load of fake ones – and we kept breaking them, so we ended up using real baseball bats.

Because the other option was to wait for them to make another one, which was going to take two hours so we were like, “Fuck it, let's use real ones, don’t tell the Screen Actors Guild.” And that’s what we did.

Which must have hurt a bit...

It really hurts, listen, I’m fighting Andrei Arlovski the heavyweight champion in the USA, I can’t say that it hurt him much but it definitely hurt me.

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

Postby Jox on 12 May 2014, 19:45

My favourite film of yours is one with Van Damme and that’s Universal Soldier: Day Of Reckoning. But that’s another one with a script that’s... I imagine that was an odd one to read.

I really liked what John [Hyams] was trying to do with that. I think it’s a really great film and a lot of people have put it down unduly. It’s a clever film. Maybe some things should have been a bit easier to grasp for the audience, I’ll give you that. But John is the type of director who doesn’t bang you over the head with it, he wants you to think about it and work it out for yourself. That’s really a story about the monster, through the monster’s eyes, from his point of view. It was an interesting way to take the franchise. It’s dark and it’s moody and it’s depressing, but it’s a valiant effort and I’m very proud of the film.

I think the critics liked it a lot more than the fans who wanted a stupid action film did.

I think my favourite scene in that film, and I’d like to ask you how difficult it is to make a scene like this, is the one where you’re being attacked by former UFC heavyweight champion Andre Arlovski with an axe. Because that must be frightening.

We did some strange stuff with that. The first shot, we wanted the axe to go into the wooden floor. The rubber axe doesn’t go into the wooden floor, and we thought ‘we want this shot’, so we ended up bringing in the real axe. So the first thing when I duck and he puts the axe into the cupboard and it hits the lamp shade, it was a real axe. Because we needed it to obliterate it. When it goes into the wall it’s a real axe.

When we did the baseball bat fight, the fake baseball bats kept breaking, and we’ve only got two days to shoot the fight. We’re shouting at the props people, there’s a big argument, they’ve got to go away and they’ve got to spend time making another one make because they only made four to begin with and all this bullshit. We just ended up saying “Bring out the real bats!”

You try to be safe, but at the end of the day you want to raise the bar and do things in a short amount of time, because it’s not a big budget movie. I think it’s nice for people to know what goes on behind the scenes, because we put our hearts and souls into it, know what I mean? We spill blood for them.

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

Postby Jox on 21 Jul 2014, 18:46

It's rare that anyone, let alone a critic, comes back on his opinion about a movie, apologizes for it, and explains why it has become a favorite:
Why I Just Can’t Stop Loving UNIVERSAL SOLDIER: DAY OF RECKONING

Evan makes amends to a movie he did wrong.

Never before have I been more wrong about a movie. The optimal time for an admission like this has long passed, but I want to make it anyway. Universal Soldier: Day of Reckoning has become one of my all time favorite movies. It’s a film that takes some rather large storytelling risks on faith that the audience will be smart enough to keep up. Instead, I thought I was smarter than the movie and called it stupid. It’s a small thing, but that haunts me because I always wish for movies like Day of Reckoning, and when one finally arrived I berated it. Publicly. Twice.

http://badassdigest.com/2014/07/21/why- ... reckoning/
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Re: UNIVERSAL SOLDIER: DAY OF RECKONING (John Hyams, 2012)

Postby dude hallenbeck on 22 Jul 2014, 11:04

Evan is normally very unfunny (In my opinion, for example the original review itself), so it was really refreshing to see him to put aside the jokes and give an honest take about what he liked and didn't like.
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Re: UNIVERSAL SOLDIER: DAY OF RECKONING (John Hyams, 2012)

Postby Jox on 05 Aug 2014, 00:30

Only came out July 31 in Italy but theatrically,
and it grossed €21,916 this week-end for 5,479 admissions (in 3 screens I believe so it's not bad)

http://www.notoriouspictures.it/schede/ ... alsoldier/

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

Postby dude hallenbeck on 22 Aug 2014, 13:17

The birth, death and regeneration of the Universal Soldier movies

http://www.denofgeek.com/movies/31802/the-birth-death-and-regeneration-of-the-universal-soldier-movies

"David Lynch never shot an action sequence like the ones in Day Of Reckoning."
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Re: UNIVERSAL SOLDIER: DAY OF RECKONING (John Hyams, 2012)

Postby Jox on 22 Aug 2014, 13:31

The entire quote is priceless:
The fact that a straight-to-video sequel to a 1992 Van Damme movie can be compared to the works of Lynch, Noe and Philip K Dick (with some Kubrick and Cronenberg in there as well) is a fantastic achievement, but what’s so interesting is how it melds all these things together into one crazy, visceral experience. It’s truly a one of a kind movie. Plus David Lynch never shot an action sequence like the ones in Day Of Reckoning.


On another note, the movie just grossed $271,024 in Italy in 18 days (on about 50-60 screens and the run may not be over) which is kind of a good surprise since the movie has been out elsewhere for almost two years and the distributor didn't even advertise the movie on their social media...
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Re: UNIVERSAL SOLDIER: DAY OF RECKONING (John Hyams, 2012)

Postby whiteandblank on 23 Aug 2014, 13:28

Its almost tragic that this film didn't get a proper release.
Its tragic that Adkins doesn't get enough recognition, and Dolph too really. Adkins was wasted in Exp 2.
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Re: UNIVERSAL SOLDIER: DAY OF RECKONING (John Hyams, 2012)

Postby dude hallenbeck on 24 Aug 2014, 14:42

Dolph has evolved into a great character actor. He plays Andrew Scott twice in three years in two different yet incredibly consistent performances. His monologue in Regeneration is Roy Batty Blade Runner worthy. I truly believe that.
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Re: UNIVERSAL SOLDIER: DAY OF RECKONING (John Hyams, 2012)

Postby Jox on 24 Aug 2014, 16:35

Oh yes, it's one of the best performances of his career and like he was doing Shakespeare for action heroes or something. It's sincerely emotional (and the existentialist writing makes it resonate strongly) and therefore not over the top or "over-acting".
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Re: UNIVERSAL SOLDIER: DAY OF RECKONING (John Hyams, 2012)

Postby dude hallenbeck on 25 Aug 2014, 10:58

It's not "over the top" if the character is intended to be large.
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Re: UNIVERSAL SOLDIER: DAY OF RECKONING (John Hyams, 2012)

Postby Jox on 20 Oct 2014, 21:33

According to John Hyams on Twitter, a new UNISOL entry is not ruled out yet.
James Nunn ‏@mrjamesnunn Oct 18
For all @TheScottAdkins @jrhyams @Dolph_Lundgren @JCVDonline fans in the UK #UniversalSoldierIV is on itv4 :-)

P2 ‏@AvP2015 Oct 18
@mrjamesnunn @jrhyams @TheScottAdkins @Dolph_Lundgren @JCVDonline Will there be a Universal Soldier 'V'? #UniversalSoldierIV

John Hyams ‏@jrhyams Oct 18
@AvP2015 @mrjamesnunn @TheScottAdkins @Dolph_Lundgren @JCVDonline there should be.
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Re: UNIVERSAL SOLDIER: DAY OF RECKONING (John Hyams, 2012)

Postby dude hallenbeck on 21 Oct 2014, 13:50

Good. I hope it stays in keeping with the Nietzsche-ian philosophy of DoR.
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