UNIVERSAL SOLDIER: DAY OF RECKONING...This movie is on drugs!

Finally after following the production of this film for like two years I am able to watch DOR.  I don't have On-demand and it never played in any theaters near where I live so I had to wait for it on Blu.  It was worth the wait.  Now I really can't write about this film without spoiling a majority of what happens in the film so be warned.  Spoilers ahead.  I will say this.  DOR is one trippy action film.  This isn't your typical finger/toe chopping, bat bludgeoning, machete hacking shoot'em up.  This film will make your head hurt.  Beware the white flashes!

The awesome Scott Adkins stars as John whose family was murdered by Luc played by Jean-Claude Van Damme.  Since REGENERATION JCVD has escaped the government and has become Marlon Brando in APOCALYPSE NOW.  He has gone up river into hiding converting other Universal Soldiers who are hunting him down.  He has a mind freeing injection he gives soldiers who are programmed as sleeper agents for the government.  When given the injection their vision strobes to white flashes causing the soldier to see the truth and the audience member watching too long at the screen to convulse on the floor uncontrollably and evacuate their bowels into their pants in front of their friends.  At least that is what happened to me.  Word of warning.  Don't stare at the screen too long when the strobing happens.  It will hurt your head.  The piercing sound effects don't help either.  Can't imagine what that would have looked like in 3D.  Absolute hell, I imagine.  JCVD plans on creating his own clone army to fight the government that created the Universal Soldier program.  Fight fire with fire.  That sort of thing.  John is given the injection but it does not work.  His memories help him resist which lead to occasional bizarre episodes of John seeing Luc in mirrors and such messing with his mind.  John has to take the journey up river to find Luc and ultimately himself.  How deep.

Scott Adkins is the new JCVD.  The best way you can tell is that you don't even realize until the end that both JCVD and Dolph Lundgren are not in this film very much.  We haven't had a solid reliable star in the eighties style action film for awhile.  Scott fills their shoes perfectly.  In a way at the end there is sort of this passing of the torch so to speak with Scott defeating JCVD.  The two fights between Adkins and JCVD (who turns into a bloody looking clown from hell) and Dolph are the film's highlight.  All the action scenes are fluid and brutal with blood all over the place and a high body count.  It is exactly what you want to see.  You can tell what is going on and there isn't an abundance of quick stylish cuts and camera shakes.  I also appreciate that the car chase scene was more like two cars battling rather than a boring chase to see which vehicle can drive faster and turn corners better.

One of the best things about this DAY OF RECKONING is how it wasn't filmed in Bulgaria or Yugoslavia like so many other lower budgeted action films including REGENERATION.  They all look too similar with few standing out from the crowd.  DOR was filmed in Louisiana with a nice swamp setting which adds to the whole APOCALYPSE NOW vibe.  The movie takes a big risk focusing a big part of its run time to the psychological element of brain washing, cloning and the whole what-is-real and who-can-you-trust type of shenanigans that usually happen in thrillers and not action movies.  It does work well without being too convoluted.  Even though maybe the film doesn't fully explain itself I did feel satisfied with the whole story by the end. 

DAY OF RECKONING is a better film than REGENERATION.  In REGENERATION the film's main character was Luc but he was barely in it with the film depending on the supporting cast to drive the story.  They did a great job but I want to see my action star throughout the film.  I watch a JCVD film to see JCVD.  Scott Adkins is in DAY OF RECKONING throughout the story.  This is a Scott Adkins action movie.  The film rests on his badass appeal.  DOR is better because Adkins is the star.  He is better as the lead than a supporting character.  Every movie he is in from now on should have his face bigger than everyone else on the poster.  Make it so.  Besides the painful strobing scenes for which there are two of I think the only thing that kind of sucks is that there is not enough Dolph.  He really is fantastic in this film.  But what can I say.  I love the big guy.  Like Adkins he is way too under appreciated.  I would love to see a film where the two team up and take down some bad guy played by a former wrestler or something.  You can throw in Segal for good measure too.  Make it so too.

Jason

EXPENDABLES 2 IS THE BEST MOVIE OF 2012!!!....Prob-Probably.

I realize that I had some pretty low expectations for EXPENDABLES 2 so maybe this movie isn't as great as I think it is.  Maybe after a few more hundred viewings I will see the flaws and missed opportunities that usually come with an expensive high dollar action movie boasting such a wonderful cast.  Just to be safe I lowered the amount of exclamation points at the end of my title to this blog entry to just three instead of ten.  This movie does have a strange small controversy surrounding the original rating for the film.  Stallone himself did say that this was going to be a PG-13 style film but that Van Damme's performance was so awesome that no one would care.  That statement was later denied completely and pretended by Stallone himself to have never been said reassuring us that this was going to be an uncompromising violent film pushing the R rating.  I took that as they filmed for a PG-13 but panicked after nerd backlash (myself included) and pushed for R.  Thank goodness you can C.G.I. blood easily onto digitally filmed movies.  With all that said I can say that EXPENDABLES 2 was blast-tastic.  It was a bloody good time.  It was an action movie fans dream come true.  I really thought the whole movie was really really neat.


EXPENDABLES 2 is about Stallone's crew on the hunt for Van Damme and his personal military force known as the Sang.  What was originally a short mission retrieving plans from a crashed plane quickly turns personal when one of their own dies at the hands (or should I say feet, ha-ha?) of Van Damme.  After watching the trailers I was pretty sure I knew how this film story wise would play out.  I knew who would die and why there was a woman now a part of the crew.  Well thankfully EXPENDABLES 2 threw me a curve ball.  I was wrong.  Way wrong which in this case was a good thing.  The movie is a little unpredictable slightly in that respect.  Most of the time you can call it before it happens.  But that's no big deal.  They try to give you a little surprise at the beginning but you can see it coming a mile away.  But maybe that is just me.  Maybe I watch way too many movies gaining way too much knowledge on how films play on audiences expectations.  Maybe I should stop writing this nonsensical review and go outside and live life to it's fullest..........But there are spiders outside so on I go with this way too positive review.

This movie moves quickly.  In my head I remember it being one extremely long action sequence.  Really though there are some quiet moments here and there to reflect a little on these characters personalities.  The action is filmed fast and sometimes it looks really good but then other times because so much is going on at once it is kind of hard to tell who is doing what to who.  Once I thought I was watching Randy Couture beat the crap out of some guy in heavy shadow but it turned out once the fight moved into daylight that I was actually watching Terry Crewes.  The two were wearing the same hat making their dark silhouettes almost identical.  Overall though all the action scenes were great even if the majority of them were filmed in basic American Acton Movie Style.  Meaning we get shots of good guys firing guns cutting to reaction shots of bad guys who have a strange aversion to taking cover falling down dead.  At least the body count is high.  Very high.  Like probably in the hundreds high.  That's a good action movie, folks.  There are some moments where I think that they really were aiming for a PG-13.  There isn't that much blood for one thing.  It looks like it was all added in post which the first one was but you don't have a lot of guys getting blown into pieces or major decapitations by big knives and such.  At one point Jet Li grabs two frying pans and starts fighting a few guys because he lost his weapons or whatever.  Its a good moment yet I was reminded of TEENAGE MUTANT NINJA TURTLES 2: SECRET OF THE OOZE where the Turtles stopped using their weapons and started fighting with yo-yo's and other stupid toys to try and appeal to the too stupid to know what TMNT is all about demographic.  EXPENDABLES 2 doesn't go that crazy but it just made me wonder what they were originally shooting for.

Its really cool to see Stallone, Schwarzenegger, Willis and Chuck Norris fighting side by side.  Their appearances are a little more than simple one scene cameos.  Seeing these guys together is the best thing about this movie.  It is a moment that deserves some reflection.  Who would have ever thought such a movie could be made?  It is kind of a dangerous thing.  I am surprised the universe didn't implode somehow at the epic oddity of Chuck Norris saying a "CHUCK NORRIS FACT".  Just be careful, EXPENDABLES 2 is all I am saying.  I was afraid his acting would suck or be not as good as the others but Norris did a good job.  As soon as Schwarzenegger, Stallone and Willis are together the movie can't resist but start throwing out their classic one liners back and forth.  Thankfully the movie doesn't descend too far into the tongue-in-cheek territory.  They seem to do it to make fun of themselves and their past persona's.  I guess EXPENDABLES 2 isn't just an action movie but a post-modern action movie similar to ONCE UPON A TIME IN THE WEST.  It is an action movie about these guys' past action movies.  That is kind of cool when you think about it.  Another bad thing about getting these three guys together is that the rest of the Expendables take a backseat to the film's focus.  Suddenly at the end the movie seems to be more about them than the core crew of the Expendables.  Yes, even Dolph Lundgren takes a backseat.  Speaking of Dolph I am so glad to see that he is in the entire film.  He is a lot of fun and I would have liked to see more of his interaction with Jet Li.  These two have a unique chemistry together.  I hope they explore it more in EXPENDABLES 3: NOW WE ARE JUST PUSHING IT.  I just hope in the next one if there is one that Segal at least makes an appearance and they bring back Scott Adkins as another character to represent the future of action stars. It is neat to see Adkins and his mentor Van Damme together fighting side by side.

I like that there is a solemn attitude towards death in this film even if it is highly hypocritical.  These guys encountered all kinds of horrors in battle and you can see it on their faces as they reflect on there past when Chris Hemsworth (who plays a young sniper new to the team) starts talking about his past experiences in the Afghanistan war.  Yet the Expendables have smiles on their faces and cracking jokes as they gun down hundreds of bad guys.  Gee, it sure looks like war is fun to them.  Why so glum, chum?  I think having this attitude or acknowledgement of the consequences of violence keeps the movie from becoming a light hearted action comedy.  We don't want another DOUBLE TEAM on our hands here.

For me EXPENDABLES 2 was better than the first one.  I was surprised, excited and relieved that the whole film didn't seem like a watered down bland mess.  It was a near perfect action movie accomplishing what it set out to do.  You can include this one in your conversation as to what are the greatest action movies of all time are.  This one belongs somewhere in the top ten.  Bring on BULLET TO THE HEAD and THE LAST STAND.


BTW:  Second best thing about EXPENDABLES 2?  No SHINEDOWN song to cast a stain on the whole film.


Jason

UNIVERSAL SOLDIER: REGENERATION (Pay attention Steven Seagal!)

In no way, shape or form should UNIVERSAL SOLDIER part WHATEVER be this good.  It's a direct-to-DVD low budget movie filmed in Bulgaria or Romania or YOUR BUTT.  The movie has this "we wanted Steven Seagal but he passed so we settled with Van Damme and changed the title to UNIVERSAL SOLDIER" feel to it.  Similar to most Seagal films in the last twenty years USR gives little screen time to the main stars.  Instead alot of scenes deal with the secondary characters walking around talking and looking at stuff until the end when Van Damme appears and causes all kinds of badassness.  But this movie works and is even better than the original UNIVERSAL SOLDIER which was just okay.  How is that possible?  One word.  Talent.

A direct-to-DVD Seagal movie would consist mostly of secondary characters running around getting into car chases or sitting in rooms talking with occasionally Seagal popping up to say something incoherent (and sometimes in a bad old man voice dub) or play slap-happy with a goon or two.  The movies have all kinds of different uninteresting stories going on and you really don't care.  You want to see Seagal kick everyone's ass and that's it.  His latest movies are poorly put together with little effort spent on story, characters, cinematography, action and direction along with a whole slew of other things that go into making movies.  The producers of these films bank everything solely on the popularity of the main star Steven Seagal.  Idiots like me walk around and see the cover and say "Wow! Seagal really looks mean on the cover of this one AND he's holding a pistol like he's about to shoot somebody.  Maybe this time this will be a good one."  We fall for it every time.  That's how these movies make profit. 

Now look at UNIVERSAL SOLDIER: REGENERATION.  Just the very beginning of the film starts off with a thrilling car chase with gunfire and people getting all shot to pieces.  It sucks you in and you realize that this movie is going to be something special. As the movie goes on, however, you become concerned because Van Damme is barely in this movie.  He's almost a supporting character rather than the main star.  But the secondary characters are so well acted that they become interesting.  Take for example the rogue scientist that sells his work to the highest bidder.  He is a little smart ass unafraid of pissing off the large armed men around him including the bad guy in charge.  What a great actor he is and we will probably never see him in anything ever again.  You could have a whole movie based around him and it would be quite enjoyable.  The acting is good all the way around.  I don't think there are any typical cheesy one liners.  The movie takes the story seriously. 

The action is plentiful and well choreographed.  The director knows how to film a fight scene.  There isn't the shaky cam with extreme close ups of every move.  The ending with Van Damme killing a hundred guys at once is something we all have wanted to see since CYBORG.  This movie does Van Damme justice allowing him to be a simple character with a complex inner struggle to fit in with society after being resurrected from the dead.  Thankfully the movie doesn't spend too much time on that aspect.  But I will say that the older Van Damme gets the better of an actor he gets.  Watch JCVD for a better example.

My only real complaint about REGENERATION is the little screen time Dolph Lundgren has in the film.  I almost wish they didn't let us know he was in the film so we would be surprised to see him make an appearance at the end.  In a way the advertising of VAN DAMME  VS. LUNDGREN reminds me of like an old Universal studios monster movie like FRANKENSTEIN MEETS THE WOLFMAN.  The monsters barely meet and don't really fight at all.  At least Van Damme's fight with Dolph is a good one.  I don't want to spoil it.  The movie is pretty vague in terms of what kind of sequel it is.  I believe it throws out RETURN all together and barely mentions anything from the very first UNIVERSAL SOLDIER.  In fact you could make the argument that this movie is a reboot to the franchise.  The only thing getting in the way of that argument is the cloned Lundgren telling Van Damme that "all this seems familiar."  When the two meet Dolph has a boy and a girl (who Van Damme was sent in to save) in a corner getting ready to kill them.  The room is lit by flames (I think) giving the setting a similar look like the burning village from Vietnam where Van Damme and Dolph first fought and killed each other.  Pretty cool, huh?

REGENERATION puts all the money on the screen.  The direction and cinematography are great.  You can see great care put into every scene.  The bleak grey colors that dominate the entire movie never become an eyesore.  This movie in terms of resources is probably just as expensive as most direct-to-video movies are.  Why can't they all put as much effort into their schlock as the makers of REGENERATION do.  If you are going to make an action movie or an horror movie or whatever make it the best damn whatever you can.  Put everything you got and then some into making it the best ever.  Otherwise go back to making amateur porn with your not so hot girlfriend that's into anime and Pokemon cards.  Please don't show it to us.  We don't care.

Jason