Big, dumb, loud, and fun. Four words that could aptly summarise the appeal of this blockbuster movie which proved a hit with audiences back in '92 and spawned three inferior sequels. UNIVERSAL SOLDIER is probably Van Damme's most successful mainstream movie to date and his pairing with Lundgren as the enemy is a good one; Lundgren's height alone gives him the imposing edge over the smaller, tougher Van Damme and their final one-on-one battle is one to remember. Packed with lots of hard-edged violence and some unwanted comic relief from a highly annoying female support (Ally Walker),UNIVERSAL SOLDIER is a movie that gets better as it goes along.

At first, the sheer woodenness of Van Damme and Lundgren is inexcusable. I know that they're supposed to be playing emotionless dead robots, but even after they first rebel they seem wooden and unable to even say their lines convincingly. Thankfully this wears off as time goes on and the pair settle down into their roles. In fact Lundgren goes a 360-degree turnaround at the end and actually becomes quite good as the psychotic soldier who believes that he's surrounded by the enemy. Van Damme? Well, here he plays a more sympathetic character than usual which will no doubt endear him to female fans, while still providing the high-kicking action that the fans expect. Ally Walker is terrible, though, as the intensely annoying female lead, and although it's good to see Ed O'Ross make an appearance as a colonel, he's underused and killed off quickly.

The flimsy plot strings together a scene of big-budget action sequences (no surprise, as most of Roland Emmerich's films are thus styled, e.g. INDEPENDENCE DAY) which are pretty impressive. From the opening hostage stakeout at the Hoover Dam to the shoot-up at a motel, to the climatic truck chase and the final battle with Van Damme and Lundgren, things just keep getting better and better. The high body count sees lots of people getting shot or killed in nasty ways, and of course there's the usual quota of bullet-shedding and big explosions.

Lundgren's method of death at the end of the movie (like you couldn't guess) is highly graphic and unexpected. The loud score is sufficiently adrenaline-pumping to work and the film tries so hard to please that the feeling rubs off on the audience. Although it may be dumb entertainment, UNIVERSAL SOLDIER "delivers the groceries" so to speak and is quite watchable in a forgettable way, in that it passes the time and engages the attention but doesn't leave much impact afterwards. It may be a popcorn movie but it's undoubtedly a well-made one.

During the Vietnam war, Private Luc Deveraux (Jean-Claude Van Damme) tries to stop Sergeant Andrew Scott (Dolph Lundgren) who has gone mad. It ends in a massacre and the military tries to cover it up. Their dead bodies are used in a secret experiment. In the present day, Colonel Perry commands these Universal Soldiers in a rescue mission when terrorists take 30 hostages. Reporter Veronica Roberts (Ally Walker) follows the team back to their base. The soldiers start experiencing traumatic recalls and Scott goes crazy once again. Deveraux saves Veronica and goes on the run.

This introduced me to director Roland Emmerich. This is a simple action thriller and it's fun. The story works. It's not complicated. Sure, it has that Terminator flavor but that's a good thing. This uses Van Damme and Lundgren to their best possible side. It lets them be a little bit robotic. It's an excellent action B-movie.

Right around the time this movie came out in 1992 Image Comics was forming, and it wouldn't surprise me if any number of their titles were influenced by "Universal Soldier". I'm thinking of books like 'Youngblood' and 'Brigade', having team members that were mechanically or biologically enhanced for super-human strength and endurance.

The psychobabble reason offered for the Unisols had to do with hyper accelerating the bodies of dead people back to a state of living tissue. To my thinking, dead is dead, so the concept didn't really make sense to me, but I did like Dr. Gregor's (Jerry Orbach) explanation of 'regressive traumatic recall' as the trauma inflicted at the time of death. What might have helped here would have been to get some of the old time horror film scientists on board with a workable premise, guys like Bela Lugosi, Boris Karloff or Lionel Atwill. They would have come up with something brilliant.

Fans of Jean-Claude Van Damme and Dolph Lundgren ought to have a pretty good time with this one if all you're looking for is some mindless, escapist and over the top action. It appeared Pepsi went for the big bucks to shut out Coca-Cola for product placement in the film, their logo was all over the place. Watching this back in the Nineties would have put the viewer right smack dab in the middle of the Now Generation.

What I got a kick out of were the subtle attempts at humor like the diner breakfast scene and Ronnie Roberts (Ally Walker) giving GR44 (Van Damme) the once over looking for a small hidden object. Hint - it's probably something hard.

Well look, it's not brain science or rocket surgery, but the picture moves along at a pretty good clip, and even the odds defying elements of the story have their place. If after watching you come away dissatisfied, I guess you could settle into one of those specially rigged lab chairs and grab a shot of that memory clearance formula. Sounds like it would do just the trick.