Universal Soldier: Day of Reckoning (2012)

John looks to take down Luc Deveraux after a home invasion claims his wife and daughter. The fight pits John against Andrew Scott and an army of genetically enhanced warriors; meanwhile, he must contend with a UniSol in relentless pursuit. Universal Soldier: Day of Reckoning the 4th installment in the Universal Soldier Saga is probably the most bizzare of them all and yet fun as it is plus adding Scott Adkins in the mix? was a great plan. Van Damme and Lundgren once again also shine in their parts and the action but also the sci-fi element felt a mix between A and B type of film. I think that this film will definitely entertain fans of both the old and new movies alike. (10/10)

What's that, you've never seen Universal Soldier Seven? Welp, here's the info:Dolph + Van Damage = Dolph DamageSo if we take D+D x VD = DVD then it appears this movie invented DVDs.Plus this is the Soldier of the Universe and he is Reckoning. Reckoning.It is also a day. Of the week? Maybe. You'll have to watch and see. The ending *may* surprise you, because it is actually a day of the month. Octember.Brazillion/Twelv

I can think of many better ways to spend and hour and a half other than watching this. Right from the start I wasn't sure what I was watching. It seemed like scenes out of scare flick rather than an action one. I had to check the channel to make sure Showtime was airing the right movie.This movie is fairly quick to get into action if you can ignore the first 5 minutes. But, action is all it is. The idea behind this movie is that there is a convent of sorts for former uni-sols, run by Scott and Deveraux, with some type of unknown, anarchist agenda. Another former uni-sol, who didn't know he was a uni-sol, is 'awakened' in a somewhat 'Neo vs agent Smith' from the final fight of The Matrix type of plot, and is used to infiltrate this convent.There is little back story to any of the main characters, though you'd recognize some from previous Universal Soldier installments if you've seen them. But the idea behind this edition was not well thought out. Sgt Scott was the protagonist to Luc Deveraux, never an ally, and that's a serious flaw from the start.This story has nothing really to do with the original concept. In fact, if not for the main title, you wouldn't know it was a Universal Soldier movie. The acting is sub-par, there is no character development, and it seems like low quality camera's were used during the filming. It probably consumed most of the budget just paying Lundgren and Van Damme to come back to it, even if for only short parts.The truly sad thing is the end leaves open the possibility for future installments along this storyline, though, hopefully both Lundgren and Van Damme are done with them. A true shame that such iconic action stars would put their names behind this.If you want to see a decent Universal Soldier movie, stay away from this one.

A guy named John (Scoot Adkins) sees three guys invade his home. They grab his wife and daughter and kill them right in front of him and beat him up. He ends up in a hospital in a coma. When he wakes up he keeps having flashbacks of the killings. The killer is Van Damme. A FBI agent visits him and offers to help find the killer.When John leaves the hospital with no recollection of the past, he listens to a phone recording at home. A friend of him was in trouble and called him. John goes to the apartment and finds his friend dead and beaten to a pulp. He finds matches from a strip joint. He goes to the strip joint where a stripper recognizes him but so do the bouncers who kick him out. He meets up with the girl who tells him about a bit about his past, that he beat up some guy at the docks. He goes to the docks and talks to the boss who tells him he has some type of container that was to be shipped.Meanwhile the FBI agent orders to activate "the plumber". And the plumber (Arlovski) stops plumbing and leaves. He goes to a whorehouse and kills everyone. Apparently he is after Lundgren who injects him with something and talks to him about being free. The next time we see Arlovski he is after John and the girl. But something ticks in John's brain and he defeats the plumber in a brutal fight. John too got injected at some point. We see Lundgren later in a cave giving a speech to a bunch of soldiers about freedom. They are part of some cult and the leader is Van Damme.Next, John and the girl go to a cottage somewhere in the swamps and meet up with someone who will tell him more of what is going on. Now John goes to the cave where a dr. grabs him and drills his brain, not before giving an explanation about what really happened to his family. But John escapes and finally he goes after the killer of his family.Universal Soldier: Day of Reckoning has a convoluted story and it doesn't go well about explaining it. It's not a bad story but clearly they tried to keep the audience in the dark and reveal things little by little. Unfortunately it takes too long, and this is a long movie at almost two hours. Two hours that are mostly devoid of dialogue.I really enjoyed the previous entry in the Universal Soldier series and was looking forward to this one, but it turned out to be a letdown unfortunately. US-Day of Reckoning had tremendous potential- a fantastic cast, great locations in Louisiana, a somewhat interesting story that deviates a bit from what we are used to in the series. It has truly fantastic fight scenes, is brutal and gory- even in the censored version. However, what ought to be highlights- fights between Adkins and Lundgren and Adkins and Van Damme turned out to be disappointments as well. It is never clear who the bad guys are, given that everybody is talking about freedom and giving the soldiers free will. The movie is however pretty unique and different. It's trippy and well filmed. But the shortcomings are too evident to overlook- even though Adkins is great, this may not be the role for him and we're not given enough reason to like or care for John. And you're always waiting for Lundgren to show up and cause mayhem or for Van Damme to kick butt- and in both cases it just doesn't happen.I think we can let Day of Reckoning be the experimental entry in the franchise, most of them do have one that where they try to do something fresh and different; here though it didn't work all that well. I hope thought that the next movie will be a return to form.