Review of Universal Soldier: The Return (1999) by Jason D — 07 Feb 2010

Many people thought this was a Part 2 when in all actuality, Universal Soldier - The Return is the fourth (count 'em, FOURTH) Universal Soldier film, which follows the original and two Made for Cable TV movies (on Showtime, I think, all I know is they had Gary Busey and Burt Reynolds in them, which should show you their quality).

Anyways, Jean-Claude Van Damme reprises his role as Luc Deveraux, a retired Universal Soldier who helps the government with developing better super soldiers. This time, the computer, SETH (played by Michael Jai White, who, oddly enough, has a very small role in the original film) turns bad and starts sending all sorts of villainous soldiers after them, including Bill Goldberg (then, at the height of his WCW wrestling career), who comes off as way too comical.

Overall, this film is silly. This is the kinda action movie you see going Direct to DVD now, but it still managed to entertain me mildly. Nowhere near as good as the first, but I'm willing to bet money it's better than parts 2 and 3.

Watching it these days though...this film is definitely corny as shit. Thankfully, the fifth Universal Soldier (titled Universal Soldier: Regeneration) would wind up being the saving grace of this franchise and would make you forget about all the other lame sequels.