Universal Soldier [Blu-ray]

( 3 1/2 stars for the movie, 5 stars for the 4K UHD blu-ray)"Universal Soldier" was released theatrically back on July 10, 1992 grossing $95 million worldwide against a production budget of $23 million. It was directed by Roland Emmerich and featured a script which was rewritten by his frequent collaborator Dean Devlin. The cast featured Jean-Claude Van Damme & Dolph Lundgren as two U.S. Army soldiers who die in the Vietnam War but are brought back to life with enhanced abilities as part of military's secret Universal Soldier program. Ally Walker, Ed O'Ross and Jerry Orbach round out the supporting cast. Critically were not too kind to the film at the time of its original theatrical release calling it a Terminator 2 knockoff that didn't being any new ideas to the action film genre at the time. I saw the film during its original theatrical run and while I can admit it is far from a great film, it knows exactly what it is and is a great deal of fun. Everybody involved making it also realized how ridiculous the entire premise was and therefore kept their creative tongues just the right amount in cheek which also makes the film quite funny at various points too. While "Universal Soldier" would go on to get 2 terrible television movies in 1998 "Universal Soldier II: Brothers in Arms" & "Universal Soldier III: Unfinished Business" followed by a true theatrical sequel in 1999 "Universal Soldier: The Return" (which is true schlock) & most recently two surprisingly good direct-to-video sequels in the form of "Universal Soldier: Regeneration" in 2009 & the brutal (especially in its uncut form) "Universal Soldier: Day of Reckoning" from 2012. The original film from 1992 though is still a big guilty pleasure of mine and has amassed a sizeable cult following over the years.Lionsgate brought the first "Universal Soldier" to 4K UHD blu-ray in style back in late 2019. The film is presented on a triple layer 100gb disc in its original theatrical aspect ratio of 2.35:1 and featuring both HDR10 & Dolby Vision grading. For the purpose of this review, I viewed the Dolby Vision encode. Featuring a bit rate usually hovering in the low to mid 80's and featuring a new 4K scan from the original camera negative, "Universal Soldier" looks positively amazing on this release. Detail is greatly improved and color saturation looking much more natural over the old blu-ray from many years again. While the film features a lot of neutral tan and grey colors, the Dolby Vision HDR still manages to being out a ton of nice visual nuances in the film that probably looks overall even better than it did originally in theaters. Explosions in particular really pop. The included standard blu-ray with this release also is from the same 4K scan and while looking very nice in its own right, is naturally lacking in the detail & color departments compared to the 4K disc. Fans of the film will be amazed at how fantastic the film looks in true 4K. It is truly like seeing the film again for the first time in my opinion.Audio wise we get the same DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 mix as the old blu-ray, it was a nice sounding audio track way back then and still sounds good today. While this film could have benefited greatly from a Dolby Atmos object based surround track, the original track 5.1 lossless track still does the job admirably. While Dolby Atmos fans will possibly be disappointed in this respect, the massive improvement of visuals on the 4K UHD disc more than makes up for it in my opinion.No new extras are included on this release with all of the old DVD & blu-ray extras being ported to both the 4K UHD disc and the standard blu-ray as follows:- Commentary from Roland Emmerich, Jean-Claude Van Damme, Dolph Lundgren and Dean Devlin- Commentary from Roland Emmerich and Dean Devlin- A Tale of Two Titans (14:12) (SD)- Guns, Genes and Fighting Machines (18:53) (SD)- Alternate Ending (13:08) (SD)- Behind the Scenes (15:28) (SD)- Trailer (2:19) (SD)"Universal Soldier" remains a fun and intentionally silly bit of early 90's action filmmaking. The film looks amazing on 4K UHD blu-ray and is a huge step up visually over the ancient blu-ray. While the lack of a Dolby Atmos audio track could be viewed as a disappointment by some, the huge upgrades visually make it still a worthwhile upgrade for 4K UHD enthusiasts. Highly recommend!

Enjoyed relaxing and watching them

The product arrived quickly and it was in good condition.

First of all, if the viewer is looking for a deep, sensitive film, keep looking . . . this is pure action with a dose of sensitivity thrown in to make the main character more appealing. The premise is clever: Technology creates a new breed of supermen to be soldiers to spare the lives of the regular populace. These Unisols are powerful, tireless and self-healing, with neither conscience nor free will to get in the way of being the perfect fighting machines . . . until something goes wrong. Two soldiers who died as mortal enemies---Van Damme's Luc and Dolph Lundgren's Scott---regain their supposedly purged memories and go haywire. Luc simply wants to go home, and enlists a reporter to help him. Scott wants Luc dead, and he'll destroy anyone or anything that gets in his way.This is a surprisingly good movie, given the genre. Its major weakness, amazingly enough, is not the acting; it's the writing, which leaves some holes in the plot big enough to drive a truck through. The process for creating the Unisols from dead men is glossed over and technically quite weak, especially since this is supposed to be a science-fiction movie. Things are a little too simplistic, with the military predictably the bad guys and the crusading reporter a bit too self-serving and self-righteous.However, its flaws are minor and are easy to overlook in light of the movie's good qualities. The action sequences are well-choreographed and the special effects are solidly done. One such effect was the removal of body hair from the men playing the artificially enhanced soldiers, which gave them a plastic appearance. The blood, wounds and explosions are all quite realistic and definitely not for the squeamish. By far, the best aspects of this flick are both the special effects and the acting. Ally Walker is both tough and funny as the reporter who helps Luc in his quest for information and his journey home. Dolph Lundgren is creepy and convincing as the psychotic Andrew Scott, with a healthy dose of black humor thrown in with his cruelty. Quite surprisingly, Jean-Claude Van Damme does an excellent job of conveying Luc Devereaux as a vulnerable, almost childlike man emerging from a long nightmare. Since there isn't much dialogue, he uses his facial expressions, particularly his large eyes, and his body language much more effectively than his words. The rest of the cast is also effective and believable in their roles, even the other big hulks they cast as the rest of the soldiers. Like in Terminator, the amount of dialogue is kept to a minimum and therefore the actors' shortcomings are not put on display.We aren't big Van Damme fans, but found this movie very enjoyable and quite entertaining. It had some humorous moments, and was more intelligent than most of his movies. This DVD was well worth its money in entertainment value.

Another great gift from Amazon, I was grateful to find it on Amazon, normal copy was hard to find in local stores. Anyway the movie was awesome. Thank you again Amazon.

This is a classic dream action movie that pits two of the greatest action heroes: Jean-Claude Van Damme & Dolph Lundgren against each other. In 1987, Jean-Claude Van Damme's star-making movie "Bloodsport" was released in the same year as Dolph Lundgren's action film "Masters of the Universe". Both of these movies was released by Cannon Films and both of these films gain a cult following. And since then, everybody was thinking that these two should do a movie together. Anyway, "Universal Soldier" was the first time Van Damme & Lundgren works together. In this cult classic, Van Damme & Lundgren are soldiers who killed each other in Vietnam and woke up 25 years later as UniSols. Then they regains their memories and all hell broke loose. The only friend Van Damme have in the movie was a beautiful cigarette-smoking reporter who want to expose the UniSols program to the public. Lundgren was like Kane's character Jacob Goodnight from "See No Evil" when he cut off the ears of his dead victims and make them into a necklace.This is a great action movie and it was my first time watching it on DVD. I got it on VHS too. And I like the fact Van Damme get to use his martial arts in the final confrontation against Lundgren. Great!

Two action heroes at thier best. Not a lot of dialog from the leads, and the movie doesn't need it.

This movie I ordered for my son and he loved it.

ist pünktlich angekommen und der film ist einfach super.

great film from the past

Pude apreciar como a investigação científica pode vir a ficar desenvolvida no futuro mas não significa que se venham a apresentar dificuldades assim tão proeminentes quanto ao desafio competitivo. Não quer dizer que não deixe de estar bem representada a intriga.

De verdad, esta película tiene mejor calidad de video que Endgame, POR MUCHO!!!!!