Universal Soldier (Widescreen)

In fact, this film was done during Van Damme's increasing popularity.

Van Damme and Dolph play two 2 vietnam Vets who kill each other during the Vietnam War.

Actually the scene in Vietnam are intense and well directed.

Dolph, plays the psychotic and vindictive Staff Seargeant from the Army who wants to kill any Vietnamese (guilty or innocent) in path.

When Van Damme, tells the Sergeant that it's time to pull out , the crazy Sergeant sees him as a traitor and proceeds to beat up his comrade while Lungren tries to save the innocent Vietnam girl the Sergeant is holding hostage.

Eventually all of them die, or so we think.

The military eventuallys finds the dead bodies, but instead sends the Sergeant and Damme into a secret biochemical, regenerative expirement in which dead military soldiers are being revived as security soldiers known as the "Universal Soldiers".

The project at first is a success, but when Van Damme, starts recalling memories from his past, he remembers how his bloodthirsty Sergeant kills and all hell breaks loose.

It also reminds of the Robocop movie with Peter Weller, in which a dead cop is resurrected as a crime busting machine, but as the machine stars recollecting his past memories, the machine starts becoming more human.

The film has so many big budget stunts and fist fights and kickboxing action that you'll have to watch it a couple of times to appreciate the full value of this great sci fi film.

The other's film stars is the beautiful and sexy Alley Walker, who plays the reporter who joins Van Damne on his fight against the Universal Soldier.

Great critics like myself, remember Alley Walker from the great crime drama show "Profiler" on Nbc which lasted about 5 years.

Alley's character is great to watch, here character is very beautiful and has alot of humor and pizazz.

This is a surprisingly good movie, given the genre. Its major weakness, amazingly enough, is not the acting; it's the writing, which leaves some holes in the plot big enough to drive a truck through. The process for creating the Unisols from dead men is glossed over and technically quite weak, especially since this is supposed to be a science-fiction movie. Things are a little too simplistic, with the military predictably the bad guys and the crusading reporter a bit too self-serving and self-righteous.

However, its flaws are minor and are easy to overlook in light of the movie's good qualities. The action sequences are well-choreographed and the special effects are solidly done. One such effect was the removal of body hair from the men playing the artificially enhanced soldiers, which gave them a plastic appearance. The blood, wounds and explosions are all quite realistic and definitely not for the squeamish. By far, the best aspects of this flick are both the special effects and the acting. Ally Walker is both tough and funny as the reporter who helps Luc in his quest for information and his journey home. Dolph Lundgren is creepy and convincing as the psychotic Andrew Scott, with a healthy dose of black humor thrown in with his cruelty. Quite surprisingly, Jean-Claude Van Damme does an excellent job of conveying Luc Devereaux as a vulnerable, almost childlike man emerging from a long nightmare. Since there isn't much dialogue, he uses his facial expressions, particularly his large eyes, and his body language much more effectively than his words. The rest of the cast is also effective and believable in their roles, even the other big hulks they cast as the rest of the soldiers. Like in Terminator, the amount of dialogue is kept to a minimum and therefore the actors' shortcomings are not put on display.

We aren't big Van Damme fans, but found this movie very enjoyable and quite entertaining. It had some humorous moments, and was more intelligent than most of his movies. This DVD was well worth its money in entertainment value.