646f9e108c With stolen top-secret technology, terrorists have created a next-generation Universal Soldier - an elite fighter genetically altered into a programmable killing machine. With this "UniSol" (Former UFC Heavyweight Champion Andrei "The Pit Bull" Arlovski) leading the way, they seize the crippled Chernobyl nuclear reactor, threatening to unleash a lethal radioactive cloud. The only one who can stop them is Luc Deveraux (Jean-Claude Van Damme), a UniSol who's been decommissioned for years. Reactivated and retrained, Deveraux must make a full-out assault on the heavily armed fortress. But inside, he'll discover not one but two of these virtually indestructible warriors. Andrew Scott (Dolph Lundgren), Deveraux's vicious UniSol enemy from the original Universal Soldier, has been secretly reanimated and upgraded. Now, these elite fighters are locked, loaded and programmed to kill; and the fate of millions hinges on this high-action showdown. When terrorists threaten nuclear catastrophe, 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". A friend of mine recommended this movie to me a few months ago. I was skeptical to say the least. Just look at the facts. This is the direct-to-DVD release 4th sequel of an essentially dead franchise starring the 50+ year old original actors and a recently retired MMA fighter with virtually no acting experience. On paper, this does not sound like a winning combination for a movie unless you're looking for a Mystery Science Theater type experience. In that case it would sound fantastic. <br/><br/>What I did not expect was to have my mind fellated by some of the most heart pumping action I've seen in a long time. This movie was a straight up exercise in badassery. I will break this down with as few spoilers as possible later. <br/><br/>What convinced me to watch a movie I was wary to explore? The movie itself. A few friends of mine were chilling out trying to decide what movie we were going to watch. We were in the mood for something awesome, which is a mood we are always in. My good friend (who made the recommendation initially) and Facebook "movie soulmate" (not gay, I checked) said, "I'm putting this in, and if you don't love it after 5 minutes, we can stop" (still, not gay). Needless to say, we did not stop this movie. It jumps into the action immediately, and it is fantastic. <br/><br/>The opening scene is a brutal shootout/car chase scene which begins about 20 seconds in. Some distributors release a few minutes of footage to give the potential audience a taste of what they were in for. If that scene had been released to the public by the production company, Foresight Unlimited, there would have been a clamoring for a theatrical release. I cite the massive response to the Mortal Kombat short release as evidence, and that's not even a movie yet. I'm awarding Foresight Unlimited "Most Ironically Named" company in existence. <br/><br/>When the movie was over all I could do was wonder how in the hell this didn't get a bigger release. Where was the marketing? What went wrong? I love movies, and I never in a million years would have thought to check this one out on my own. Over the last few years, the concept of the Red Band Trailer has become pretty popular. If there was ever a movie that would have been well served by doing this, it's Universal Soldier: Regeneration. <br/><br/>I attempted to find a Red Band Trailer that did the movie justice and found no such trailer exists. What I did find however was a poorly constructed trailer that makes the film look just like the kind of movie I would try and avoid. I can understand people getting upset at trailers that show all the good parts of a movie only to be ultimately disappointed. I'm one of those people. But that's no excuse for putting together a trailer that completely misses the tone of the film, and shows NONE of the great action I instantly loved.<br/><br/>It seems I've gone off on a tangent about how everything went wrong from a distribution standpoint, and left the pure awesome of the movie by the wayside. So let's get down to brass tax. Do you like the idea of BAMFs walking around with visible compound fractures and not giving a damn? Does the concept of bad guys and good guys getting literally punched to death sound brutal? (It does, and it is). What if I told you you'll get one of the most epic "good guy on a rampage" climaxes of all time with a body count somewhere around the number of words in this paragraph, capped off by what could be one of the greatest finishing moves of all time? Yeah, you'd watch it. <br/><br/>The best part about all of it is that none of it is cheesy. You'd expect that from a lower budget movie of this variety, but you don't get it. The best comparison I can think of is what we saw with District 9. Low budget getting great production value. They put their dollars in the right place. Do yourself a favor and find this movie. Put it in, and if you don't like it after 5 minutes, you can stop. SPOILER ALERT: You won't.<br/><br/>(Addendum) From a film standpoint this is probably a 7, but I gave it a 9 because anyone who would watch this movie isn't in it for the screenplay, just for the awesome. It would be a 9 to those people.<br/><br/><ul><li>The Movie Sponge</li></ul><br/><br/>themoviesponge.myblogpod.com MINOR SPOILERS Universal Soldier 3 is probably not what you wanted Van Damme to do after the success of JCVD. Turning down the Expendables sounds like a very big mistake too, since this action star is no longer in his prime. But doing US3 with John Hyams directing and Peter Hyams shooting just might be the the best career decision Jean-Claude could make at this point in his life. The Hyams father-son team impressed me a whole lot. Let me tell you, why. Everything is spot on; the characters, the dialogue delivery, the stunts, and especially the camera-work and editing. Each move and each frame is precise and meticulous. Hyams' camera composition is rich in detail and never shows something that is not needed, never tries to sugarcoat the shortcomings of this production. There are a few, namely the setting of Chernobyl, the digital camera that's no substitute for film, and some of the people involved - the star is not Van Damme, but Pit Bull Arlovsky, which makes it sound like it's another doomed straight-to-DVD Eastern Europe manufactured cheapo. Half the film is in Ukrainian, it's winter and people drink a lot. But from the looks of the film, the producers obviously set out to make a good action film, and what they got on their hands is action gold. US3 might be one of the very best Van Damme films, and undoubtedly THE best DTV action effort I've ever seen.<br/><br/>Give this one a chance. An indecently entertaining trashfest. Yes. "Universal Soldier: Regeneration" (2009) has retconned "The Return" to the point none of the events of the movie ever happened in the main Universal Soldier continuity. "The Return" is now a self-contained alternate universe.<br/><br/><ul><li>For instance, in "Regeneration" it is strongly hinted that Luc Deveraux never reverted to the "human" state, nor such process is ever possible to accomplish.</li></ul><br/><br/><ul><li>In "Regeneration" it is apparent Luc never had a daughter as once depicted in "The Return", nor he seems able to psychologically adjust to human life again and mate as a "normal" people.</li></ul><br/><br/><ul><li>Even more importantly, in "Regeneration" it is officially stated that the N.G.U. project ("The White Tower") is just the second attempt at producing UniSols, not the third one.</li></ul><br/><br/><ul><li>Finally, you can notice in "The Return" Luc displays white/gray streaks in his hair that are nowhere to be seen in "Regeneration".</li></ul><br/><br/>Generally speaking, "Regeneration" totally ignores "The Return" and even contradicts it. Yes, but it is implied in the movie that this is a clone of Andrew Scott, not the original person. When the container he is being transported in is opened, the scientist says, "We've come a long way from regenerating sheep."
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