Jason: The latest entry in the Universal
Soldiers series left me with mixed emotions. Who'd of thunk that from
a B-grade action movie!?!
On the plus side: the action sequences
in this movie OWN! These are
brutal, rough and tumble throwdowns that don't disappoint. The final
20 minutes are bad to the ass! And kudos to Scott Adkins for giving
the fight scenes his all.
The bad: Jean-Claude Van Damme and
Dolph Lundgren are but bit players in this, yet they are sold as the
stars. Not their fault. I blame marketing. Still, It'd of been nice
to see more of these guys. Their scenes are great, as are the fights
with Adkins, but there's not enough of them.
All said and done, I dug this
Universal Soldier. It was different than the entries that have come
before, and that's what I appreciate most about it. And it's great to
see a venue for Adkins to shine. I'd watch this again, which means it
gets a Good.
Shawn: Didn’t like it as much as the last
one. Gotta say that right off the bat. Needs more Van Damme. More
Dolph. If you are going to have them in the movie, goddamn use
them! Both those motherfuckers can act, AND kick ass.
Some pretty rad fight scenes in this
movie. Well, one for sure. In the sporting goods store. It was
just a weird story. They didn’t pull any punches in terms of
violence either. Kid and wife got shot. They showed the
kid multiple times as flashback memories with a bullet in her head. Sadly, I think they are a little late
on the line-crossing bandwagon too.
While I could find a lot I didn’t
like, there was a lot I did. I’ll watch it again, so that rates it
a Good. But barely. I would only watch specific scenes. In the
old days, this would be a fastforward watch for a second or third
time.
Jason: For the most part this is a
psychological thriller, with the whole Jersey Devil story serving as
the backdrop for one man's descent into madness. Think The Shining
set in the Pine Barrens and you kinda get the idea of Darren Lynn
Bousman's The Barrens.
The acting really saved this for me.
Stephen Moyer, Mia Kirschner and the kids do a really good job. And I
love the whole urban legend of the Jersey Devil. Bousman does a good
job of keeping us guessing too. Is Moyer losing it? Or is the Devil
really after him and his family?
It's the final few minutes
that helped me determine my rating. And I loved the way this movie
ends. Makes the rest of the trip worthwhile. I'd show this flick to
fellow horror fans, as it's worth the watch. A Good from me.
Shawn: Here is a strange little movie. Effective at using the “woods” to
creep me out, and that is a chore, since I grew up in the woods. OK,
so it wasn’t the woods, it’s the psychotic people in them.
Rabies infected bastards.
I didn’t like
that the movie toted along and made me believe insanity was the
answer…when it clearly could have been…then hit me with a monster.
It was a strange formula for me, and it didn’t work, from where I
sat.
I won’t watch it again, because the story wasn’t great
either. I found my self easily distracted by the Doritos bag, or
shiny stuff… Not horrible, not great. I give' er a Bad.
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