Customer Reviews

Universal Soldier [DVD]

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

This is going to be alot of people's guilty pleasure. If you like your action fast and violent then this movie is definately for you. Admittedly not the best script or acting but in action terms there are few films that will surpass this one.

Muscles from Brussels Jean Claude Van Damme and Dolph Lundgren (doomed to be eternally regarded as the poor man's Arnold Schwarzenegger) are well cast here as virtually robotic supersoldiers, in a script that plays up to their strengths (violence and destruction) whilst covering up their weaknesses (acting). It's a suitably big and loud film with lots and lots of well staged action, as two soldiers who died in Vietnam are revived 25 years later as supermen, only to restart their old enmity. It's a totally bonkers premise, but hey, when it's this much fun who cares? Directed with some style by Roland Emmerich, money has obviously been spent on the picture with lots of expensive stuff being blown up or dropped off cliffs, making for a thrilling ride to the big and impressively staged showdown. It's held up well, 5 stars.

Im not going into the details about the film this is about the different Blu ray versions available. The Lionsgate region free release from the US is much better than this version released in the UK. Lionsgates Blu ray has better picture quality and has special features, the UK blu ray has no special features. Fans should go for the US version and you can buy it on Amazon from marketplace traders.

Great movie I remember it when I was a kid and I love it still now. Not much I can add apart from it is right up there with Van Damme's best (it's the movie that inspired me to take up bodybuilding, lol) and the fight scenes are awesome, as is the action/explosions/comedy moments (check out the diner scene).

Looks stunning in HD on Blu-ray, no extras (would've wanted the trailer) but at the price for Blu-ray it's a steal. BUY!!!!!!!!!! THAT IS AN ORDER!!!!

Nice one Amazon, 12 reviews for Universal Soldier on Blu Ray and 11 of them are old reviews for the DVD!!!

I have to completely disagree with the only other Blu Ray review on here which makes this release sound terrible.

First off the picture. Yes its not up their with the quality of most modern release films but I found the picture to be nice and crisp throughout with vibrant colours and subtle flesh tones. The picture quality is consistant throughout the film with only a few minor flecs of dirt showing for a few seconds during the opening credits and on one other scene for again a second or two. Overal I found the picture quality to be of a high standard with only a hint of grain in some of the darker scenes.

The sound is a very nice DTS HD Master audio. During action scenes it is clear that the sound has been mixed very well and gives a good work out to all the speakers with a pleasing amount proportioned to the rear speakers.

Disappointed that their is no bonus features as even the DVD release had a documentry and this is why I knocked this down to 4 stars.

Overall at the low price this is being sold at I say its a worthy addition to anyones blu ray collection. Decent picture, good sound mix and a cracking slice of early nineties action with a superb performance from dolph lundgren.

it was good to see an old film and has worked well and has brought back some very good memories

Brilliant film have been trying to get a copy for a while but when so saw the price of the film on amazon, couldn't resist buying it at the price it was up for..thank you

Top action man movie for its time at the height of Van Damme's and Dolph Lundgren's popularity. It has everything you would expect from an early 90's action movie with Van Damme's and Lundgren's fighting style on display. It has some good humour and a solid enough storyline. Has a good beginning, middle and end to make it good viewing and does not disappoint.

How you view this film may depend on expectations. Compared straight up to other films, it is highly derivative (very reminiscent of RoboCop and the Terminator films, for starters), and its attempt to meld action with some humour, a la Schwarzenegger, tends to fall flat, especially since Van Damme is so completely lacking in charisma (somewhat surprisingly, Lundgren does a little better in this regard).

However, if you compare it to many B-level action films, it's really not that bad, maybe even better than most in that category. Van Damme can only be helped being cast (basically) as a robot, even though he still can't hold a candle to Schwarzenegger in that regard. If you're looking to kill time, you could do much worse.

Allthough the price for this blue ray version is quite decent, i would just buy the triple pack on dvd.

This first movie in the "Universal Soldier" movie series is probably the best one of the first three. But buy this for the action, not for the picture quality. Not that the quality is bad, its just not the kind of movie that gain much by better picture quality in my opinion.