Universal Soldier: Regeneration

R 5.3
2009 1 hr 37 min Adventure , Action , Thriller , Science Fiction

When terrorists threaten nuclear catastrophe at Chernobyl, the world's only hope is to reactivate decommissioned Universal Soldier Luc Deveraux. Rearmed and reprogrammed, Deveraux must take on his nemesis from the original Universal Soldier and a next-generation "UniSol" that seems almost unstoppable.

  • Cast:
    Jean-Claude Van Damme , Dolph Lundgren , Andrei Arlovski , Mike Pyle , Corey Johnson , Garry Cooper , Emily Joyce

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Reviews

Baseshment
2009/10/01

I like movies that are aware of what they are selling... without [any] greater aspirations than to make people laugh and that's it.

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Sameer Callahan
2009/10/02

It really made me laugh, but for some moments I was tearing up because I could relate so much.

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Zandra
2009/10/03

The movie turns out to be a little better than the average. Starting from a romantic formula often seen in the cinema, it ends in the most predictable (and somewhat bland) way.

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Guillelmina
2009/10/04

The film's masterful storytelling did its job. The message was clear. No need to overdo.

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breakdownthatfilm-blogspot-com
2009/10/05

When the first Universal Soldier (1992) film came out, Jean-Claude Van Damme and Dolph Lundgren were very much in their prime of popularity. Both had been in their fair share of widely known movies and were often included into the same category as Sylvester Stallone, Arnold Schwarzenegger and Bruce Willis. It was also the movie that had one of the earliest collaborations between the big name action stars aside from Rocky IV (1985). Later on the series went underground to TV sequels but did not fair well financially due to the lack of star power. A few years later, Van Damme came back to the series in Universal Soldier: The Return (1999) but it too failed horribly. The poor writing in general and silly nature of the end product felt nothing like the first movie. With that it was no shock that the franchise remained dead a good decade before producers thought maybe another film could be made. When they did, it was met with open arms but also rolling eyes. It was passable at best but not good.Instead of being a third story time line to the original, one could consider this the first real sequel to Universal Soldier (1992). The reason behind this being that it completely ignores the events of Universal Soldier: The Return (1999) and has a more serious tone. The Ukranian Prime Minister's children have been captured by terrorist leader Topov (Zachary Baharov) and held in Chernobyl as ransom. Special forces are developing a plan to get them out but are stuck because Topov has teamed up with scientist Dr. Colin (Kerry Shale) from the UniSol project now known as Black Tower. On their side they have the next generation UniSol or NGU (Andrei Arlovski), an emotionless killing machine. After a few attempts it is decided by Dr. Porter (Gary Cooper), another scientist from the Black Tower project, to bring back Luc Deveraux (Jean-Claude Van Damme). However Colins has a backup and that's having Andrew Scott's body (Dolph Lundgren) on standby if a problem arises.For a continuation of the original story, the writing is average at its greatest. Yet there are still a lot of unanswered questions. So what did become of Veronica Roberts (Ally Walker)? How is Andrew Scott's body intact after the finale of Universal Soldier (1992)? Again, the UniSol project was only known by a select group of scientists so where was Dr. Colins and Dr. Porter? These questions just begin to add up over time. Written by Victor Ostrovsky (in his only credit ever), the only thing in the script that is relatively untainted is the fact that Deveraux has been in rehabilitation since the end of Universal Soldier (1992). But as for development very little of what Deveraux feels is explained and his reconvening with Scott only triggers old memories. Nothing is explained as to how both of them feel. It even seemed at one point that Scott was thinking about something but he ends up getting cut short. Why throw in something that might work only to completely negate it?There's also appearances from others like Corey Johnson, Mike Pyle, Emily Joyce and even son of the star himself, Kris Van Damme. Directing this feature is John Hyams, the son of director Peter Hyams. Hyams Sr. was the man behind 2010 (1984) and would later direct End of Days (1999). The direction here by John Hyams isn't that impressive. It's very linear in story structure. However when it comes action, the stunts and sequences are well staged. Much of the action that occurs throughout the running time are energetic by default and are very lively. The types of violence ranges from hand-to-hand combat, shootouts to improvised weapons. Also the interactions between Dolph Lundgren and Jean-Claude Van Damme are noteworthy to view. Since these two characters share a history together that boils both their blood, it's interesting to have the two meet in a situation that is very familiar to them. Andrei Arlovski as NGU is a competent fighter too but since his character has very few words, not much can be said.Camera-work was managed by Peter Hyams, which was unfortunately disappointing. Seeing that Hyams Sr. has had previous experience in doing cinematography, it's surprising that here the look to this picture is so unappealing. With credits to movies like 2010 (1984), Running Scared (1986), Narrow Margin (1990) and Timecop (1994), the visuals to this film should've look at least okay. Instead many scenes have dull colors and the backgrounds look to much like everything else surrounding it. Music was another problem when viewing this sequel. Composed by Kris Hill and Michael Krassner, the music is just as forgettable. Featuring only a few different cues, much of the sounds are just electronic clicks and warps. There's really no main theme and the cues for various sequences are about as anonymous as they get. As far as it's known, not even an official release of the music has been announced. So it's even harder for a fan of the music to really enjoy it. Although it would be hard to say whether it's worth it or not.Stepping up from the previous sequel, the script attempts to connect to the first film. Yet only a couple places does it actually work. Camera-work and music aren't that good but Dolph Lundgren and Jean- Claude Van Damme are fun watch on screen again and the action is good too.

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Rodrigo Amaro
2009/10/06

"Universal Soldier" is one of those films that shouldn't have any kind of sequels, unless if they were made by Roland Emmerich and after two or three years of gap between the movies. No, if my memory doesn't betray me there's was one in the 1990's with no one from the original cast (?) perhaps it was the way it was translated here to look like a sequel when it wasn't; other in 1999 with Van Damme, very forgettable; and then this one in 2007, bringing back Van Damme and Dolph Lundgren. Of all the following episodes this was the one that worked better despite all the absurd and the weak plot. It's completely watchable, a guilty pleasure so to speak.The plot concerns about a terrorist group that kidnapped the sons of a political authority in Russia and they also invaded Chernobyl with the purpose of blowing the plant if their demands won't be followed. Best of all of this is that the terrorists have a trained little army of indestructible soldiers that don't feel pain, lethal machines whose mission is to destroy the enemy. Among them there's the clone of Andrew Scott (Lundgren) that doesn't seem to obey even their "new creators". The other side reprogrammed Luc Deveraux (Van Damme) to help them in this mission but he has problems of his own, since he's not the same fighter he was years ago. Some quality action and impressive fight scenes makes of "Universal Soldier: Regeneration" a movie with good attributes, nice to be appreciated. However, the most awaited part of it is quite embarrassing if not disappointing. Five minutes of screen time and that's it the fight between Deveraux and Scott and it's not exciting, awesome or fun to see; the conclusion of it was funny though, to let people wondering what just happened. If you manage to overlook the slippings and trippings of the plot (blowing the thing or not they all are gonna die, I mean they're on Chernobyl for crying out loud! Highly contaminated!!!) it can be quite a good way to spend the day. For the most part and I believe this is quite unanimous you'll be saying that the first film was the best ever and this is just a poor sequel. 6/10

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daworldismine
2009/10/07

the original universal soldier is an action classic, the second one is the worst movie van damme ever made, but this third installment, has gone back to the roots, and is a brutal, action packed thrill ride, that gladly ignores the second one, and brings back dolph lundgren for one of the best fight scenes I've seen in a long time, brutal, fast, and with a killer ending, the movie looks dark, and the atmosphere grim, but this movie offers some of the best action cinema to come out of Hollywood for a long time, this is the sort of movie i miss, just pure non stop action, but to be honest i think the script this time was pretty good, and is a very worthy sequel to the original movie, a must see action flick

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TangoX
2009/10/08

OK so I gave it 10 out of 10.. Why well because this really was as good, if not better than the first movie, in fact this should have been the second film, in the series, as that was pretty terrible.That of course did leave quite a few holes, my advice would be this. If your going to watch Universal Soldier, make sure you leave the second one out, then this will make total sense. Apart from the little mistake, its really very good, a lot of work went into this film and it does show.I loved seeing Dolph Lundgren back in the action, it is good to see him back in more films now, it was pretty spot on, not many words and a great fight scene between the two of them...However I would say this, I do think this is better than the first film, which is a hard act to follow, yeah I know its not the best in the world and I gave it a full score, however I do think its better then the 5 most of the other people on here have given it...My advice is rent it or buy it, keep it because you will want to watch it again, some pretty impressive stunts and fights are on the menu, if you like action, this film is for you.

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