UNIVERSAL SOLIDER: DAY OF RECKONING is like a Universal Soldier film written by Phillip K. Dick and directed by David Cronenberg.  It is like an action movie version of SCANNERS meets APOCALYPSE NOW.  This well-directed movie has some nicely filmed and edited action sequences in a semi-sequel that spins the UNIVERSAL SOLDIER series in some new bizarre directions.   Jean-Claude Van Damme is back as Luc Deveraux as a man named John (believes Luc killed his wife and daughter) searches to find Luc and get his revenge.  John (Scott Adkins) finds that everything isn’t as it seems.  He doesn’t remember many things except for a few memories of his family.  Is John’s mind his own and can his memories be trusted?

 

This new semi-sequel takes the UNIVERSAL SOLDIER series in bizarre new directions, but it does open up the door for dead characters to show up due to the cloning factor and heal like a lizard concept for the new Unisols.  If they make another Universal Soldier movie, I would love to see them tie in every movie into one coherent storyline since UNIVERSAL SOLDIER: THE RETURN and UNIVERSAL SOLDIER: REGENERATION are sequels to the first movie and this newest one is only a semi-sequel. The action scenes and the direction are what stand out in this movie as Van Damme takes Luc Deveraux in another direction as a guy who isn’t seen as a hero, but I wonder if this is the same Luc from the previous two films since the cloning concept opens the doors for Van Damme to come back as a clone or for the Deveraux in this film to be a clone.  Andrew Scott (Dolph Lundgren) is back as a clone of the original Scott.  My big question is how they decided on Scott Adkins to be the new lead of the series(even though he isn’t bad as the character of John)  where I would love to see Van Damme to take center stage in the Universal Soldier films again as Van Damme has been showing some acting muscle in his recent movies.   I still think UNIVERSAL SOLDIER: REGENERATION is better than UNIVERSAL SOLDIER: DAY OF RECKONING.  I do wonder if a couple of scenes will give people seizures or headaches with the lights flashing across the screen.

 

SPECIAL FEATURES:

Audio commentary by director John Hyams and actor Dolph Lundgren is an interesting track to listen to as it is revealed  that Dolph liked the script even though he didn't agree with the whole story.

 

DAYS OF RECKONING: THE MAKING OF UNIVERSAL SOLIDER 4 is an overlong production journal that chronicles the production of the movie with behind-the-scenes footage and interviews with cast and crew.  This three part documentary runs for 80 minutes and probably worked better if they edited it down to half that length.

 

FINAL ANALYSIS:   UNIVERSAL SOLDIER: DAY OF RECKONING is a bizarre semi-sequel that channels some well-directed action thrown into a blender with Phillip K. Dick, Apocalypse Now, and David Cronenberg.

 

This DVD Review is (c)1-24-2012 David Blackwell and cannot be reprinted without permission.  Send all comments to feedback@enterline-media.com