cinemajesty When I watched "Universal Soldier: Regeneration" on German Television with no commercial break with a running time of 85 Minutes (without credits), I have been impressed what a 10 Million production budget can give the spectator as action rewards. The story fairly simple as embedded in a children abduction theme, providing the stunt coordinating team a canvas to bring gritty uncompromising shoot-outs paired with hand-to-hand combat action in one single dark-rainy-metal factory location with less to no CGI enhancements. Even though the television screening might have been cut in certain explicit shots, the movie's pace had been working out for lovers of R-rated action entertainment. "Universal Soldier: Regeneration" is surprisingly keeping its promise of being just an action movie for the DVD market with the minor drawback that the opening abduction theme is not fully concluded in the end.

BA_Harrison With the help of a corrupt scientist (Kerry Shale) and his 'next generation' Universal Soldier (Andrei 'The Pitbull' Arlovski), a group of political terrorists kidnap the Russian prime minister's children and threaten to blow up the Chernobyl power station unless their demands are met. Decommissioned first generation Universal Soldier Luc Deveraux (Jean-Claude Van Damme) is reactivated and tasked with rescuing the hostages, his mission not only pitting him against the new improved 'Uni-Sol', but also his old adversary Andrew Scott (Dolph Lundgren).A pair of old-school action stars whose best days are behind them, a couple of ex-UFC fighters turned 'actors', and a writer/director/editor who has yet to prove his worth in the action field: not exactly impressive credentials, but somehow this reboot for the Universal Soldier franchise isn't as bad as one might expect. Although John Hyam's plot is hardly groundbreaking stuff, his direction and editing is surprisingly good, meaning that the film succeeds where it matters most: in delivering hard-hitting and very brutal action with plenty of blood and gore.The film starts immediately as it means to go on—with an exhilarating kidnap scene in which plenty of people die horribly, lots of stuff gets destroyed, and Andrei 'The Pitbull' Arlovski has plenty of opportunity to glower menacingly and cause much pain (something that he naturally does rather well). Jean Claude just about manages to keep up with the newcomer proving he still has a few cool moves under his body armour, particularly during the inevitable smack-down against Lundgren (it's hard to believe that they have a combined age of over 100!).Admittedly, the simplistic story-line is all a bit predictable and matters do get a tad dull during the non-action scenes, but any film that features Dolph Lundgren getting his head impaled on a metal pipe and then having his brains blown out with a shotgun has got to be worth a look in my book.

daworldismine the original universal soldier is an action classic, the second one is the worst movie van damme ever made, but this third installment, has gone back to the roots, and is a brutal, action packed thrill ride, that gladly ignores the second one, and brings back dolph lundgren for one of the best fight scenes I've seen in a long time, brutal, fast, and with a killer ending, the movie looks dark, and the atmosphere grim, but this movie offers some of the best action cinema to come out of Hollywood for a long time, this is the sort of movie i miss, just pure non stop action, but to be honest i think the script this time was pretty good, and is a very worthy sequel to the original movie, a must see action flick

Paul Andrews Universal Soldier: Regeneration is set in Russia & starts as the son & daughter of President Musayev (Stanislav Pishtalov) are kidnapped in the city streets, they are flown by helicopter to the abandoned town surrounding Chernobyl which Commander Topov (Zahary Baharov) & his army of freedom fighters have taken control of. Topov's men have rigged explosives up to the Chernobyl nuclear reactor which will go off & cause a massive nuclear explosion in seventy two hours unless his demands are met. The US military are called in because former member of the Unisol program Dr. Robert Colin is helping Topov having created an even superior version of the original Unisol, all attempts at disarming the bomb & rescuing Musayev's children fail so former Unisol Luc Deveraux (Jean-Claude Van Damme) is forced out of retirement to take on the mission that could save millions of lives but will have to defeat other Unisol's such as himself...Also known under the working titles Univseral Soldier: A New Beginning & Universal Soldier: The Next Generation this was directed by John Hyams who apparently replaced Simon Fellows who had been signed to direct & is the second proper sequel to the original Universal Soldier (1992) in which it could be argued that both JCVD & Dolph Lundgren were at the peak of their stardom with both slipping into low budget straight to video obscurity over the past few years. While Universal Soldier: Regeneration didn't blow me away & probably isn't as fun as the original I thought it was perfectly watchable with lots of violent action, the main stars of the original returning & a decent enough plot. The first thing to say is that despite featuring both JCVD & Dolph Lundgren as Unisol's there's nothing here that relates to the previous films, when they eventually meet at the end neither JCVD or Lundgren recognise each other & it's never explained why Lundgren is alive or how he is alive or why he goes insane & despite being a normal guy in Universal Soldier: The Return (1999) here JCVD is depressed & undergoing therapy! To be honest neither JCVD or Lundgren are in it that much, Lundgren in particularly feels like an afterthought & never feels like part of the story. The usual genetic experiments & super soldiers nonsense is branded about but none of it really captures the imagination & it's left to the violent action set-pieces to entertain. Everything about Universal Soldier: Regeneration is good but nothing about it is brilliant, it's just a watchable sci-fi action thriller that is more interested in violent action than the sci-fi aspects.Shot with muted colours Universal Soldier: Regeneration looks a bit dreary & overcast which was probably intentional. There's plenty of violence, there's lots of gory shootings, stabbings, guttings, slit throats & a greats end-off for one of the villains as they literally have the back of their head blown off with a shotgun. A lot of the violence is swift & quite sadistic too, the fight scenes are good as well although I was surprised the fight between JCVD & Lundgren wasn't saved for the films climax. Well made the opening sequence is very promising with two children being abducted, a cool car chase & lots of casualties later Universal Soldier: Regeneration is off to a good start which it can't quite live up to. A lack of any noticeable CGI computer effects work also helps, this is real stunt-work with real stunt-men & real fake blood (if that makes sense!).With a supposed budget of about $14,000,000 the production values are good & it's well made if a little bland looking. Filmed in Bulgaria, at least this time the makers weren't trying to pass Bulgaria off as the US. The acting is alright as far as I expected, JCVD is still rather wooden although Lundgren gets a few decent lines & manages to add a little menace to his character.Universal Soldier: Regeneration is a decent enough action film, it hasn't got much in common with the other Universal Soldier films but has enough blood, gore, violence, explosions & action to make this a worth watching. Another sequel' Universal Soldier: A New Dimension (2011) is currently in production.