| Review:
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Universal Soldier: The Return is directed by Mic Rogers,
and stars Jean-Claude Van-Damme, Daniel Von Bargen, Bill
Goldberg, Kiana Tom, Michael Jai White, and Karis Paige
Bryant. ***
Universal Soldier: The Return is the 1999 sequel to
the 1992 film Universal Soldier. Jean-Claude Van-Damme reprises
his role from the first film, having to take matters into
his own hands when he learned that budget cuts have threatened
the future of the Universal Soldier program. It isn’t long
before he is whisked back into a world of danger. ***
All in all, this is actually a pretty good sequel.
It isn’t has good as the original (Dolph Lundgren is sorely
missed), but it still has more than its share of moments.
Like the original, this is more-or-less a “surface” film,
which has plenty of actions and explosions, but little depth.
Still, if it’s straight-up action you desire, no one delivers
the goods like Jean-Claude Van-Damme – and he proves it
time and time again throughout the course of the film. ---
Image and Sound:
This is one of those “middle of the roa d” Blu-Ray transfers.
It looks like they made this transfer from the same one
that was used for the most recent DVD release, and boosted
it up to 1080p. There’s an increase in depth and clarity,
and it’s definitely a slight step up from its SD counterpart.
The audio gets a boost as well, which is also a slight upgrade
from standard def. All in all, this isn’t a bad back catalogue
transfer, and there are no major visual issues to speak
of.
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| Special
Features: |
Not a whole lot here, just three behind-the-scenes featurettes.
A commentary with Van-Damme would have been nice, but no
such luck. These featurettes, however, will be of interest
to any fan of the film.
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