Universal Soldier: Day of Reckoning

I saw it a few nights ago and it's surprisingly good. The action, or should I say the gore, is pretty fantastic. It gives no reason for why Van Damme is bad, but it doesn't take away from how awesome it all is. Dolph has a bigger role than Jean Claude, but unfortunately the ever-uncharismatic Adkins is the star. The opening scene is very memorable - sick, scary, hard-hitting and explicit. Van Damme is pretty useless, he gives one expression throughout and has about 10 words max. Dolph is pretty great, funny and just revels in the role - he also uses some of his Universal Soldier (1992) lines too. Arlovski and Adkins are fine too, but only because this is a B-movie - if it were a mainstream cinema release, they'd stand out as below-par. John Hyams is a very competent director. I like how he's shot the film, many single takes and no erratic Bourne-esque shakey-cam - just simple takes and precise edits. It looks more TV movie in some sense, but as the action in this is above that level, it lifts the whole movie up a notch.

B