Universal Soldier: Regeneration (2009)

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 ... See full summary »

Director:

John Hyams

Writers:

Victor Ostrovsky, Richard Rothstein (characters),

Stars:

Jean-Claude Van Damme, Dolph Lundgren, Andrei Arlovski

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Jean-Claude Van Damme	...	Luc Deveraux
Dolph Lundgren	...	Andrew Scott
Andrei Arlovski	...	NGU (as Andrei 'The Pitbull' Arlovski)
Mike Pyle	...	Captain Kevin Burke
Corey Johnson	...	Col. John Coby
Garry Cooper	...	Dr. Porter
Emily Joyce	...	Dr. Sandra Flemming
Zahary Baharov	...	Commander Topov
Aki Avni	...	General Boris
Kerry Shale	...	Dr. Colin
Yonko Dimitrov	...	Dimitri
Violeta Markovska	...	Ivana
Stanislav Pishtalov	...	P.M. Musayev
Marianne Stanicheva	...	Olga
John Laskowski	...	Captain

Storyline

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".

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Plot Keywords:

soldier | terrorist | showdown | car crash | hostage | 

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Taglines:

Van Damme and Lundgren explosive final showdown

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Genres:

Action | Adventure | Sci-Fi | Thriller

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Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

Rated R for pervasive strong brutal violence and some language

Details

Official Sites:

Foresight Unlimited [United States] Official site [Japan]

Country:

USA

Language:

English Bulgarian

Release Date:

7 January 2010 (Israel)

Also Known As:

Universal Soldier 3

Filming Locations:

Bulgaria

Box Office

Budget:

$10,000,000 (estimated)

Company Credits

Production Co:

Foresight Unlimited, Signature Pictures, Baumgarten Management and Productions (BMP)

Technical Specs

Runtime:

97 min

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

Simon Fellows was originally signed to direct but he was replaced during pre-production.

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Goofs

When the terrorists stop the timer on the detonator, the LED readout displays 00.35.47.13. However, in the next shot showing video surveillance of the timer the readout shows 00.35.47.00.

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Quotes

[Last lines]
Luc Deveraux: Come with me.

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Connections

Follows Universal Soldier (1992)

User Reviews

Great Action Flick!!

The opening scene blew me away!! Absolutely amazing action at the beginning. Andrei (Pitbull) Arlovski stole the show with a great action performance. JCVD had a smaller role than the previous film and did a solid performance. I was disappointed that Dolph Lundgren's role was so small but he did a great job. The long fight sequence between Dolph and JCVD had some amazing parts as well.

The action at the beginning is by far the best; yet the film continues to deliver till the very end. I especially appreciate the minimal use of dialog. Extensive dialog was not needed for this film and was not included (useless and excessive dialog drives me nuts in action films).

*************SPECIALIZED CRITIQUE TO FILL SPACE!!****************

My only complaint was the tactics, weapons and armor employed by the US Army forces in the film. The weapons used by the Army forces appear to be the fully automatic M16A1 (with after market banana clips) which was used in the Vietnam War. The Army now uses the M16A4 with a 30 round magazine (slightly curved but not banana style) which is not fully automatic (Burst/Semi/Single) and Infantry are trained to rely primarily on well place single shots leaving the fully auto fire to the 240B or the SAW Gunners.

Additionally the US Army relies heavily on night-time operations thus ALL combat troops are equipped with Night Vision Devices. Mid day attacks are rarely ever performed especially against a heavily embedded enemy force. None of the "good guys" had night vision devices.

The US Army ubiquitously uses the Interceptor System of body armor which utilizes heavy ceramic plates in front and back of the soldier to protect from small arms fire and to minimize wounds from explosions. The soldiers in the film appear to wear simple Kevlar.

Furthermore Recon operations are never performed by a single operator but by small silent teams (2 or 4 men) moving slowly, smoothly and silently together. The lone Recon guy's equipment, weapon, and movements were completely wrong and his equipment made way too much noise.

I guess my main complaint would be the Director didn't do his research when it came to a large portion of his film. This is a common complaint for me in most movies which attempt to show modern US Army tactics and weapons. You would think that with all the unemployed Iraq War veterans out there they could find a few to advise them on their films.

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Ultimately Universal Soldier: Regeneration was an enjoyable film. I read one snobbish review relegating it to "B" movie oblivion yet I found the movie to be better than most "A" action movies coming out of Hollywood.

Congrats to Dolph and JCVD for a great movie I hope to see more films of this quality from both!