http://www.filmadelphia.org/blog/pff21- ... ie-reviewsThough the movie lacked in story, it had everything a great action movie should have: boobs, booze, and blood. I’m sure that action movies should probably have more than that, but the fight scenes in this movie were worth the price of admission. The scene in the sports store stands out a a shining moment, and Jean-Claude Van Damme was in great form. For what it was, it was pretty awesome. Certainly beats most Michael Bay movies. 3 out of 5 stars.
http://dorkshelf.com/tag/universal-sold ... reckoning/More major film franchises should try making entries as potentially alienating to their core demographic as John Hyams has with this fourth instalment of the Universal Soldier franchise. Those looking purely for brain dead thrills and things that go boom every few minutes will come away shocked and disappointed by what they’ve just seen, but those going in knowing to expect something a bit headier with a deliberately slow pace and purposefully confounding plot will find a lot to like. Yes, it is kind of a mess and still probably best relegated to short theatrical runs before finding its real cult following on VOD and DVD, but Hyams (who also helmed the previous entry in the series, the far lighter Regeneration) deserves a healthy amount of congratulations for trying something as daring as this.
Adkins shows he’s more than just your average tough guy who can rock a tank top better than the rest of them. Since he’s on screen for 95% of the time, it’s good to see that he’s up to some existential heavy lifting and not just some ass kicking. In the film’s unabashed cribbing from Coppola’s Apocalypse Now and to the second half’s awkward, but not ineffective lurch into Lynch’s Lost Highway, Van Damme seems to be simultaneously playing Colonel Kurtz from the former and Robert Blake’s character from the latter. Similarly, it’s nice to see Lundgren hamming it up while playing a composite of Dennis Hopper’s twitchy photographer and Henry Rollins’ guard. The similarity between these projects seems pretty undeniable and subversive even though the concepts brought on by these comparisons can get lost in the studio mandated machismo that’s necessary to make the film at all sellable to audiences.
But the very macho nature of the film is what makes it even more interesting on a thematic level. Hyams doesn’t mine his film’s sense of ultraviolence for laughs all of the time. Certainly, there are moments designed to be crowd pleasing and cathartic, but he also keeps a keen eye towards the tragedy of it all.
Hyams, for better or worse, has made machismo threatening again.
as far as this type of fare goes its festival scene hype is well warranted and hard earned.
