It’s not bad or unwatchable but despite the amplitude of the spectacle, the end result is underwhelming.

A movie that not only functions as a solid scarefest but a razor-sharp satire.

This movie tries so hard to be funny, yet it falls flat every time. Just another example of recycled ideas repackaged with women in an attempt to appeal to a certain audience.

All of these films share one commonality, that being a kind of emotional center that humanizes a cast of monsters.

With Independence Day: Resurgence coming out today let's go back at time a bit when Roland Emmerich directed a pretty good action movie called Universal Soldier starring Jean Claude Van Damme and Dolph Lundgren. Now is this movie dumb and over the top? Yes a lot it's a mix of action man and Terminator but only lower in good acting or good writing. Lundgren for some reason is obsessed with ears in this movie a lot and Van Damme wants to eat the whole restaurant. But the movie has some great action sequences, fight scenes and overall it's a very good 90's movie just except a cheesy 90's movie and you will love it. Universal Soldier gets an A+

Universal Soldier is one of those violent action movies that is much maligned amongst a lot of critics but still popular amongst audiences. Released in 1992, Universal Soldier was a box office success however critics dismissed it as a mindless and derivative action film with over the top violence. I first saw Universal Soldier when it first premiered on TV as a 10 year old back in 1994 and I have always considered this movie to be a fun an entertaining movie. Not only that, you cannot deny that Jean Claude Van Damme and Dolph Lundgren as the star leads boosted its eye candy appeal.Universal Soldier starts off in Vietnam in 1969 where Private Luc Deveraux (Jean Claude Van Damme) has discovered a village in which US soldiers and Vietnamese villagers have been brutally murdered with their ears severed off. The person responsible for the massacre is the platoon Sergeant Andrew Scott (Dolph Lundgren in a cracking performance as the villain) who has kept the severed ears as a necklace and is also holding a young Vietnamese couple hostage. Luc Deveraux tries to reason with the deranged Andrew Scott however the couple end up being killed and both Deveraux and Scott shoot each other to death. Deveraux and Scott's corpses are recovered by a second U.S. Special Forces squad and cryogenically frozen, their deaths covered up as "missing in action". Deveraux and Scott are revived without memories of their previous lives and are selected for the "Universal Soldier" program, an elite counter terrorism unit. Also known as UniSols, they are genetically augmented soldiers with enhanced healing abilities and superior strength, but also have a tendency to overheat and shut down. They are given a neural serum to keep their minds susceptible and their previous memories suppressed. Fast forward to 1992 and the UniSols are deployed to resolve a hostage situation in which a number of armed hostiles are taken a number of hostages at Hoover Dam and have killed a number of hostages and police officers. Deveraux's callsign is GR13 and Scott has been assigned GR44. The situation is resolved however there is some flaws that start to surface, when Deveraux becomes unresponsive after having a flashback and Scott is seen using excessive force. One of the technicians, Woodward (Leon Rippy), wants to remove Devereaux for further analysis, but UniSol commander Colonel Perry (Ed O'Ross) refuses and insists there is no problem. After being fired, television news journalist Veronica Roberts (Ally Walker) attempts to get her job back by trespassing onto the military base to further investigate the UniSol project along with her cameraman. After they are detained by Deveraux and Scott, Scott executes the cameraman in cold blood and Deveraux escapes with Veronica. Deveraux along with Veronica must uncover his past life and how he was resurrected, and how the Universal Soldier project came to light in the 1960's by Dr. Christopher Gregor (Jerry Orbach). Unbeknownst to Colonel Perry and everyone else, Scott slowly regains his psychotic behaviour and spearheads the mission to kill Deveraux and Veronica.A lot of people saw Universal Soldier as a rip off of the Terminator movies and the plot as unoriginal. I didn't see it that way nor was it a concern for me. I liked all of it. In particular, the butt kicking old school action was enjoyable and Jean Claude Van Damme and Dolph Lundgren were fantastic as the main leads. Van Damme was still at his height of his popularity and his 360 kicks are still on display. Dolph's physical prowess was also at his best and he has still maintained his physical abilities many years later.Director Roland Emmerich who later became well known for blockbusters such as Independence Day (1996) and The Day After Tomorrow (2004) does a quality job in one of his early movies that helped gain him recognition.I didn't care for any of the sequels, they were just pure rubbish. Universal Soldier: The Return (1999) was one of the worst movies that I had the misfortune to see and I refuse to see the rest of the direct to DVD sequels that have since followed.Universal Soldier is pure action packed eye candy and you certainly can't go wrong with Jean Claude Van Damme and Dolph Lundgren as the main attraction. Although it may be a bit dated now, many years later I still have a soft spot for Universal Soldier. Ignore the critics and ignore the plot, just sit back and enjoy the action packed fun.8/10.

Universal Soldier (1992) Is one of the best Van Damme action sci-fi classic movies from the 90's also my favorite childhood movie that I am still watching it today. It is my third best favorite Van Damme movie! It has Dolph Lundgren in it and I love this movie to Death!!! Jean-Claude Van Damme and Dolph Lundrgren are awesome in this film. Action and fighting sequences were awesome till today Roland Emmerich did made a great job as the director of this action sci-fi film flick. Every time I see this action flick I am not bored with it and is definitely Van Damme's best action movie. I enjoy the action, I mainly love this movie, because it focus on Vietnam War and it has experiments that US military actually really secretly did that. The fights scenes between Van Damme and Lundgren were awesome! This is the only movie that I care and love about! All the sequels to me sucked ass! None of them can hold a candle to this movie! Jean-Claude Van Damme and Dolph Lundgren reunited 20. years later after working together in here, in the film "The Expendables 2" (2012) my favorite action packed movie. This movie is a bad ass and kicks ass! I love it so much, I even prefer above Kikcboxer and Double Impact. This is the movie that I love. I love all the actors in this movie, Ally Walker was a great cast as reporter Veronica Roberts. Chandra West who played her in TV movies couldn't even hold a candle to Ally Walker./:Ally Walker was also cast as Dr. Samantha 'Sam' Waters in my favorite TV Show Profiler. "ARE WE HAVING FUN YET?" Hell yes.The best science fiction action film ever made. It still holds up great to this day. Whenever I watch this movie I am having fun. A really fun inventive action flick with some really kick ass fight scenes and a sense of fun about it, that makes it irresistible. Van Damme and Lundgren were great in this and it really is a shame that despite this being a hit Lundgren still did not get out of direct to video land and continued to get overlooked by Hollywood after the film's release. This movie it is the film that made Van Damme in to a star and saved his career. It is so aggravating how far they rushed with the sequels. At least we still got the one amazing movie that made Dolph one of the greatest villains ever, well maybe not a "villain" a but a real bad ass! I like the aspect of the cool down process and the story is easy to understand. Also, Dolph Lundgren's scene in the grocery store is one of my all time favorite scenes in any movie. I really love this movie to death. Alongside Hard Target and Bloodsport, Universal Soldier is my third favorite Van Damme movie. I don't care what anyone say's or thinks about this movie, I will not listen to them, I will listen to my self! When I was 13. years old, I was in the hospital talking with my new friends about this movie, that I have made them there, when I was lying on the bed. That time, I never watched or heard about this movie before and they told me how great it is. They where right, it took me few months till I finally watch this movie on TV and I absolutely loved it. This film for me has a great memories on my childhood. This is the basic plot about the film it has death soldiers, that turns in to a cyborg killing machines that are anti terrorist and their experiments goes awry wrong and they start killing innocent people and only one man, a machine can stop them. The final battle scene between Van Damme and Lundgren is epic! Van Damme uses his awesome spin kicks with his legs, that we already saw in Bloodsport, Kickboxer and Double Impact. The meat grinder scene is, when Scott is crushed and killed, that was really a bad ass scene! I am giving this movie my perfect 10, because it deserves it and Roland Emmerich did a great job directing this movie. I can watch this movie over and over again. Jean-Claude Van Damme and Dolph Lundgren did a both a perfect solid job playing their characters. I love them!

This was really the first time that JCVD graduated beyond low budget karate movies and into the realm of popcorn entertainment. Unlike fellow early 90s karate man Steve Segal, who would more or less make the same film over and over for his entire career, Van Damme flirted for a while with becoming the next Arnold, and perhaps no film in JCVD's filmography is more Schawzeneggerian than 'Universal Soldier'.Directed by the man who would go on to become the king of the disaster movie, Roland Emmerich, it's heavy on gory violence, but paradoxically light on action. The result is a surprisingly dull film carried mostly by a strong turn from villain Dolph Lundgren, who steals the movie right out from under JCVD.