Cannes Film Festival 2013

Review: Loopy and brutal 'Universal Soldier 4' should make fans Van Damme happy

I am so so sorry for that headline, but I would do it again in a heartbeat

<p>I cannot explain why JCVD's wearing white paint all over his bald head in this scene, but I'm sure it has nothing to do with Col. Kurtz.</p>

I cannot explain why JCVD's wearing white paint all over his bald head in this scene, but I'm sure it has nothing to do with Col. Kurtz.

Credit: Magnet Releasing

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I was going to write a formal review of "Universal Soldier 4: Day Of Reckoning," and then I put it in the player tonight and the following happened on Twitter:

"Okay, 'Universal Soldier 4,' here's your chance. Thrill me.

I will say that it's a good sign that the first face I see in the film is Scott Adkins. That guy is awesome.

So far, Adkins seems to be doing nice work playing a sensitive father dealing with a personal trauma. When does he kick someone's spine out?

I'll say this much for 'Universal Soldier 4': I'm 40 minutes in and I have no idea what the hell is going on.

I am compelled to keep watching if only for the freaky Jean Claude Van Brando thing they're going for. #thehorror #thehorror

Scott Adkins just got superpowers. Not sure why, but Scott Adkins with superpowers means I keep watching.

Two, two, two times the Adkins! Two, two, two times the confusion!

I love that Adkins is in 'Zero Dark 30," but watching this, I wonder why they didn't send him after Bin Laden alone. Woulda been easier.

Another way they could have improved 'Zero Dark 30'? Jean Claude Bin Laden.

John Hyams loves 'Blade Runner,' 'Apocalypse Now,' and dudes kicking holy hell out of other dudes."


Technically, I feel like I could leave it at that and we'd be good.  That is a very accurate moment-to-moment summary of how odd it is to sit through the film, but I do have a little more to say about it.  When I say I had no idea what was going on, that's not hyperbole.  There were stretches where I was baffled by the things people were doing or the way they were behaving or just the simplest of exchanges between them. 

It's not confusing in the broad strokes.  Sometimes when people say about a film, "I had no idea what was going on," what they're really saying is "I completely and utterly didn't care what was going on."  When you're disengaged from a film, even fairly obvious plot points can slip right by, even in a good film.  But when a filmmaker is like Hyams, obviously good at a few things, not so great at other things, narrative coherence becomes really fragmented on a moment to moment basis.  I get that in the film, Scott Adkins begins the movie as a family man who survives a vicious attack one night in his family home, where his wife and little girl and murdered in front of him.  He gradually becomes convinced, though, that he is not what he appears to be, and that he is actually somehow involved in a conspiracy involving a strange Kurtz-like figure at the heart of a phantom squad of super-powered lunatic ex-soldiers.  I can see the "Total Recall" and the "Blade Runner" and the "Apocalypse Now" in there, overt in moments, only-slightly-less overt in other moments.  I can see that Hyams really does like directing fight sequences and that the fight team in the film does some brutal work here, especially in the last 40 minutes or so.  But I can also see that from moment to moment, Hyams has no visible interest in whether or not anything we see happen makes any sense at all.  And it sort of doesn't matter.

Dolph Lundgren makes a guest appearance of sorts, with one uncomfortably delivered monologue that makes very little sense of out of the motivations of these disgruntled super soldiers who have somehow broken away from their programming to lead a revolution of guys who dress like they're in a paintball game, and one pretty decent fight against Scott Adkins.  Van Damme has a few more moments than that, and then one truly brutal fight towards the end.  Adkins takes a long time to kick into Universal Soldier mode, but once he realizes that he is basically Sean Young from "Blade Runner," he has no choice but to break nearly every bone in nearly every person he encounters, and it is glorious.  Scott Adkins is one of those martial artists who has a pretty good screen presence and who appears to be a genuine threat to your wellbeing.  He is scary, and that's exactly why I dig his work in the film.  I would not like to be hit or kicked by Scott Adkins, and that's pretty much the standard for "convincing action hero" in my book.

Perhaps the greatest sin the film commits is that at one point, Adkins gets to play twins in a scene, but they do not have a significant fight of any sort.  If you wanted to make the next film about two Scott Adkins clone robot soldier zombies who kick each other through plate glass for two hours, I will buy multiple copies of the Blu-ray to give away as Christmas presents.  I promise.

On any sort of objective letter grade system, this isn't a film I can give a good rating to, but if you want a few well-done fights and you like Adkins, I can't completely recommend against it.  It's no "Undisputed III," but I was more entertained by it than I was by the last film in the series, and director John Hyams does enough right that I'm curious to see what else he can do.  Son of cinematographer/director Peter Hyams, he seems like the kind of guy who could make a solid career for himself by directing a fresh dose of ass-whuppin' every year, hung on whatever concept he comes up with as an excuse.

"Universal Soldier 4: Day Of Reckoning" opens today in limited release and can also be viewed thanks to VOD.

Drew-mcweeny-sm
Drew McWeeny
Film Editor
A respected critic and commentator for fifteen years, Drew McWeeny helped create the online film community as "Moriarty" at Ain't It Cool News, and now proudly leads two budding Film Nerds in their ongoing movie education.

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  • Default-avatar

    John Ames

    That's so awesome that you wrote a review on this movie. I saw it just for kicks and giggles and it did not disappoint. It honestly made utterly no sense but the action was fun. It came across as more of a horror/thriller didn't it? Very surprised by that.

    November 30, 2012 at 5:14PM EST Reply to Comment
  • Default-avatar

    jaketaylor7

    I'm a big Adkins fan and his movies so far have reminded me of early Van Damme and Segal fare (violence and action... everything else is secondary). I didn't know he was in Zero Dark Thirty, but I hope his shows something there that'll allow him to work with better directors and take his career to the next level.

    November 30, 2012 at 7:13PM EST Reply to Comment
    • Default-avatar

      Ur mom Same here!! I do hope he appears a lot in Zero Dark Thirty.

      November 30, 2012 at 10:24PM EST
  • Default-avatar

    matthew

    You said this movie would make Van Damme fans happy but you barely even mention him in the review.

    November 30, 2012 at 8:55PM EST Reply to Comment
  • Nlf2_talkback_profile

    Vern

    I'm surprised by how confused some people are by this movie. Of course it's not straight forward, but it's a mystery, and most of the big questions are answered by the end. The unanswered ones just make it more interesting.

    It's a surreal, atmospheric horror thriller, but there's also a ton of great action that kicks in. In addition to the fight with Adkins, Dolph also has a great one with Andrei Arlovski (who also faces Adkins in the movie's best fight). There are two horrendously violent shootouts, a car chase and several great martial arts fights.

    I watched it on VOD and found myself watching it twice during the 2-day rental period. I'd planned to see it again in 3D but that was assuming Magnet giving it a "limited release" meant "on more screens than Arlovski has toes in the movie."

    Hyams is by far the best director to come out of DTV action so far, and even in a great year for action his movies are better than most of the theatrical stuff. If you love this, Regeneration and Dragon Eyes he's also done two excellent sports documentaries: The Smashing Machine (about an MMA fighter) and Rank (about a bullriding competition).

    December 1, 2012 at 6:07AM EST Reply to Comment
    • N_talkback_profile

      Newbs Vern you are absolutely right, as always. There's really nothing confusing about this film -- it's a little complex in the plot department, but not overly so. Plus, it kicks ass so hard in the face, all day.

      December 1, 2012 at 9:43AM EST
  • Default-avatar

    Guest

    Because I'm aware of previous Universal Soldier movies, I went into this expecting ass-kicking to begin straight away and last the entire movie, but it lags horribly between each bout, it's just far too slow. I watched it over two nights as I fell asleep halfway through it the first night...

    December 1, 2012 at 3:38PM EST Reply to Comment

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