Universal Soldier: The Return
Universal Soldier: The Return
R | 20 August 1999 (USA)
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Luc Deveraux, the heroic former Universal Soldier, is about to be thrown into action once again. When SETH, the supercomputer-controlled ultra-warrior, decides to take revenge and destroy its creators, only Luc can stop it. All hell breaks loose as Luc battles SETH and a deadly team of perfect soldiers in a struggle that pits man against machine and good against evil.

Reviews
Smartorhypo

Highly Overrated But Still Good

Nessieldwi

Very interesting film. Was caught on the premise when seeing the trailer but unsure as to what the outcome would be for the showing. As it turns out, it was a very good film.

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TrueHello

Fun premise, good actors, bad writing. This film seemed to have potential at the beginning but it quickly devolves into a trite action film. Ultimately it's very boring.

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Salubfoto

It's an amazing and heartbreaking story.

ivo-cobra8

Universal Soldier: The Return (1999) in my opinion is the most underrated, bashed, hated solid sequel flick that I absolutely Love and one of my favorite movies in the franchise! After the success of the first film Universal Soldier (1992) directed from Roland Emmerich, there were two TV movies directed who were suppose to be a mini series and they were all canceled. Universal Soldier II: Brothers in Arms (1998) and Universal Soldier III: Unfinished Business (1999) Starring Matt Battaglia as Luc Devereaux / GR44 and Chandra West as Veronica Roberts. Jean-Claude Van Damme had a strict policy not to make any sequels, but after 7.years later, he decide to make the sequel to the Universal Soldier, which he did make this film and it was his last movie released in the movie theater until JCVD (2008). I know this movie has flaws, because Luc Devereaux (Van Damme) is human and he his a daughter. Universal Soldiers can't have a children wow. That it was a bad acting and so on. I disagree with all of the haters, Regeneration and Day of Reckoning are even worst than The Return. Because they ruined the beloved character Luc Deveraux. I like Regeneration but not so much as I love The Return. I hate Day of Reckoning, I am thinking, it is the worst film in the franchise for Van Damme, only him been in a 7 mins. in the film, that was lame. I don't know why so many people hate this movie with critics & box office failure? In my opinion this movie is one of my all time favorites and it deserved to be one of the best Van Damme movies ever. I've always had fun with this one. Very fast paced, lots of action, cool fights, good soundtrack, and Van Damme acting with a smile on his face. I don't think this movie is bad, I love the original move to death and I love this one too. In here you have Van Damme acting with his smile on his face and he does care and has a heart in it. I like the new generation of Unisols, I thought they were pretty good, the fights were weary fast paced. This movie had a Personality and kept you entertained all the time. This one has Michael Jai White in it, he did a solid perfect acting performance as S.E.T.H. He was the soldier in the opening scene in Universal Soldier, I am happy he returned to the sequel with a different character playing in here. This one has Bill Goldberg in it as another UniSol soldier, who becomes enemy of Luc Deveraux. This movie isn't the greatest flick ever made, nor is it as good as Universal Solider for me. But it is still a fun flick regardless, and much better than the horrible direct to video sequels, and it is without a doubt ten times better than the awful sequels that came before it that aired on Showtime starring Matt Bataglia who can't even act let alone fight. This film has a bad ass soundtrack, some bad ass fights, and it is a fast paced fun movie that was a lot of fun to watch. I like my Universal Soldier films to have Van Damme kicking ass, and smiling at the same time. Not falling asleep while watching stupid monkeys or acting like Col. Kurtz. This flick offers that kind of high-intensity sci-fi action you've come to expect from Van Damme in a story you won't soon forget. There are much worse Van Damme flicks than Universal Soldier: The Return and much worse action movies as well. Hell half the action films released in the past few years can't even hold this movie's jock. Abduction with Taylor Lautner from Twilight gets a 5.0 and there is no way in hell that is a better action movie than this. I would much rather watch this fun, fast paced sequel than Terminator: Genisys or any reboot movie of the week. If anything, this is underrated and not worth the overwhelming amount of pure crap the film has gotten over the years. It isn't a Shakespeare folks. Hell, the first film wasn't either. It was just as silly at points and as over the top as this was. Day Of Reckoning makes this film's tone and style look like Mary Poppins and that gets a higher rating and more praise from people. I wish more movies were like this one today, especially from Van Damme. Honestly in my opinion I do care a lot about Van Damme he is my idol and I am very happy he did made a sequel to the original movie. The rating I am giving to this underrated hateful sequel is a 7, I am probably the only one who likes this movie.

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Scarecrow-88

Jean Claude Van Damme returned to the franchise (which had made-for-video sequels already) with this average sequel co-starring Bill Goldberg (not exactly a thespian) as one of many Unisols (Universal Soldiers for short) instructed by a evolving super computer program (created by Xander Berkeley's Dr. Cotner) named SETH (voiced by Michael Jai White, who later becomes Van Damme's main fighting adversary) to turn on the scientists responsible for their re-creation. SETH gets help from a vengeance-minded, spiky-green-haired former employee of the Unisol institute to apply its advanced brain to a "body in cold storage" (White's). Goldberg grunts and snarls, but Van Damme often gets the best of him. White of the rotten Dark Horse comic movie, Spawn, gets a chance to flex his muscle, allowed to really put a hurting on Van Damme during their fighting scenes, and credit to him for looking the part of someone who could actually give the hero a run for his money.The film takes place almost exclusively in some factory and a hospital, with lots of extras in soldier uniforms, security guard uniforms, nurses uniforms, and Unisol suits all getting pummeled, shot, or exploded into oblivion. Berkeley is too good an actor for a wasted part in a rather subpar actioner, while Kiana Tom, who started out the film as a battle- ready heroine to Van Damme's hero, is abandoned by a plot that no longer cared about her. Heidi Schanz is suitable news reporter, a cute and non-compliant (opinionated and bold) damsel in need of protection, with Van Damme often having to bicker with her when he's not dodging bullets and fists aimed at him. Even Van Damme's daughter suffers a bad fall, head injury, is kidnapped by White, and held as ransom as the villain demand for the hero to provide a "survival code" SETH needs in order to be fully in control of the Unisols and begin his plan of total human obliteration and Unisol takeover. Daniel Von Bargen, as General Bradford, is your typical military brass, barking orders and wanting to blow up the building housing the Unisols in order to keep them from being free to destroy the human race.Not cinematic as its predecessor and looks like a made-for-video product. It offers lots of explosions and guns firing off plenty of rounds. Not a lot of bloodshed, though. Goldberg is no Lundren, though.

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breakdownthatfilm-blogspot-com

After Roland Emmerich's Universal Soldier (1992), the series was capitalized on its success by producing sequels to it that were released on TV. However, these "sequels" as they were called, were received poorly due to fans' lack of interest and a far less entertaining cast. Then 1999 rolled around and Universal Soldier fans were surprised to see this come to their TV informing them trailer style that Van Damme was returning. It's curious to say what the title to this actual sequel just meant "the return" of. Was it the return of Jean-Claude Van Damme as Luc Deveraux? Or was it that the plot to this installment revolved around Deveraux returning to a similar station where Unisols were created just like him? Maybe it wasn't even that deep. Perhaps the producers just meant it was the return from the TV productions back into actual theatrically released movies. No one will know and probably not many will care either because this installment barely qualifies as a sequel.The reason why it is difficult for this movie to be called a sequel to the 1992 original is because of how flimsy the writing connects to its predecessor. After the 1992 film, there wasn't anybody left working on the Unisol project. Everyone except Deveraux had died because of how badly the project turned out to be. Yet, here we are (with no perception of how much time has passed between both films), Deveraux is now one of the leads of operation at a new Unisol factory. Apparently he acquired his humanity back from two meaningless scientists that have very little importance later on in the film. During a regular day, the main computer system (S.E.T.H. - voiced by Michael Jai White) becomes self-aware and decides that it's time he takes control. So who exactly approved the Unisol program? Plus, all the scientists were dead. Who knew how to regenerate more dead soldiers? It was a tiny select group of people.But this is the least of the problems. First of all, why is Deveraux assisting in the creation of more Unisols? What's his motivation behind this? What possible benefit could he have from this if he knows exactly what could go wrong? It doesn't make any sense. There's even a scene where Deveraux has a flashback to his death and the kind of treatment he was given when he was a Unisol. This almost hints at that Deveraux isn't passed his own stress, but it's never visited again. Deveraux even has a daughter named Hillary who he named after his wife of the same name - wait what? In the 1992 movie, the nosey news reporter was named Veronica and most fans can safely agree that it looked like the future couple was going to be Deveraux and Veronica. Where did this Hillary girl come in? Even more insulting is how obvious and obligatory it becomes when Deveraux comes in contact with another thickheaded female reporter, guess where that goes.These issues alone amount to a very confusing, poorly written main character that feels like a totally different person. Forget trying to even understand anyone else that's brought in because his or her development is given far less attention. The villain played by Michael Jai White brings up multiple questions as well. Just because a computer system becomes self-aware does not mean it all of sudden knows how to perform martial arts. S.E.T.H.'s motivations are also unexplained besides him wanting to rid the world of chaos. I assume this was apart of the fad for 1999 - making all computers self aware and ready to massacre mankind. Then there's Bill Goldberg as the skull-smashing wrestler turned Unisol. The only thing audiences will know about him is that he hates Deveraux. Why - no will know because it's never explained. What's the point of creating a personality if there's nothing to back it up? I enjoyed him more as the silent type in Looney Tunes: Back in Action (2003).William Malone and John Fasano are the writers behind this. Fasano was probably the man behind all the parts to the film that tried to recollect on what made the original as good as it could be. For all that, it seems like Malone's parts were favored more, which is what made this story so inconsistent. Malone is also the director behind the illogical Creature (1985) film. Just horrendously bad. What's even stranger is that these two writers tried to incorporate comedic lines that are as subtle as the ones of the first. For example, going back to Goldberg, he would be flattened by something and say "I hate that guy" in a cartoony way. What made the first movie funny at times was that of how deadpan it was delivered. Here, it just sounds silly.Mic Rodgers whose real profession is in stunt coordination directed the film. It's also very obvious because this movie contains a lot of action scenes involving stunts so it fits that this would be what he focuses on most. However, this doesn't fix anything. The action is generic and again, cartoonish at times. It's mindless action - nothing complex. Surprisingly for 1999, there aren't many special effects either. Cinematography isn't great either because very little of this movie takes places outside a building, and if it is, it's in the dark. Lastly, Don Davis' score has some quality to it but again, it's nothing that's really memorable considering several times hardcore metal is put in from time to time. Metal is fine but it has to be used in the right manner. This wasn't it and Davis isn't a newbie at composing. He scored the Matrix trilogy!It's practically nothing like the 1992 original. For a title that supposed to signify the return of greatness - the return is far less than even minimally acceptable. Continuing stories do not contain writing like this.

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Yahav

I liked the first movie.Seeing the second totally ruined it though. Horrible cast. Horrible director. No story whatsoever. Bunch of lame actors punching and shooting each other, kids could act better.No matter what, if you read this and plan to rent or download this movie - DON'T DO THAT, for your own sake. You'll just waste over 90 minutes of your life.I know some people like it just for the action but get real.. you have more action in the daily news. No need to waste so much time on this.Believe me, you don't want to learn in the hard way.

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