Have you ever seen a movie that was so amazing, you just sit in awe for the next half hour reliving the experience in your head and then rave about it for the next two weeks to all your friends? I have, and let me tell you, Universal Soldier was not that movie.
The movie stars Jean-Claude Van Damme and Dolph Lundgren as two soldiers who killed each other in Viet Nam and are resurrected to become UniSols, nearly invincible robot-like soldiers. Somnehow, they regain their memories and revert to the way they were when they died. Jean-Claude (Luc) wanted to go home, and Dolph (Scott) wanted to kill Luc. The way they established this was by having the scientists say that they're reverting back to how they were when they died. There was never anything to establish this. My guess is that the actors overheard the scientists offscreeen and acted accordingly.
The movie also features Ally Walker, who played Sam on NBC's Profiler. It wasn't a bad show, but I'm guessing she doesn't want anyone to remember this movie. I know I wouldn't.
Dolph Lundgren, in case you didn't know, played He-Man in Masters of the Universe as well as Drago in Rocky IV and Cyber-Jesus in Johnny Mnemonic. After seeing those movies, you might think good ol' Dolph was a bad actor, but compared to Universal Soldier, he was a genius.
Jean-Claude Van Damme, whose movies I've reviewed in the past, tries to act cerebral in this one. As a tortured soul, the script requires his character to look pensive and emotional at times. Van Damme pulls this off by looking confused as if trying to remember his lines. Either that, or he really was trying to remember his lines.
I learned two things from this movie:
1. It is better to have invincible soldiers than it is to have competant ones.
2. When the military is doing top secret experiments to create classified weapons, anyone can get onto the base very easily, since there's usually only one guard, and he's somewhere else.