Most people always wrote off Jean Claude van Damme as just another generic action guy with zero acting chops. But last year, he flipped the script and proved everyone wrong with "JCVD," a movie that raked in massive praise from both audiences and critics alike. After that win, and after JCVD basically said
"tras/bam thank you Mr. Van Damme" regarding his old cheesy flicks—stating he was ready to move toward more serious, meaningful projects—everyone expected a shift in his career. He even turned down a role in Sylvester Stallone's upcoming blockbuster "The Expendables" because he felt the character lacked any real depth.
Unfortunately, Van Damme can't seem to outrun his own past or some pretty questionable calls. Because of those bad decisions, he ended up stuck making "Universal Soldier: Regeneration," the second sequel to his big 90s hit "Universal Soldier." The first sequel, "Universal Soldier: The Return," came out in 1999 and was total garbage (plus there were two unofficial TV sequels back in '98).
People have been asking why he passed on "The Expendables" just to do this, but here’s the real story. It turns out he was legally cornered into doing this if he wanted to avoid a lawsuit that would cost him a fortune. See, a few years back, Van Damme signed a deal with producer Moshe Diamant ("Hard Target", "TimeCop") to do a martial arts drama called "The Smashing Machine"... but Van Damme bailed at the last minute, killing the project. However, the contract stayed active, so Moshe basically grabbed Van Damme by the balls (LOL), and "Universal Soldier 3" is the result. Van Damme has admitted several times that he wasn't feeling this movie at all; he shot it in just 20 days and refused to help promote it.
On the flip side, Dolph Lundgren—who the producers also managed to drag into the mix—actually had a choice. Unlike Van Damme, he didn't initially want in, but after talking to the director and seeing a few script tweaks, he agreed to a small, almost cameo-style role that he knocked out in just five days. He’s playing Andrew Scott again, just like in the original, even though his character died at the end of the first one. The writers handled it the classic way: cloning. LOL. Along with Dolph and Van Damme, the cast features Andrei "The Pit" Arlovski, a former UFC heavyweight champ, UFC fighter Mike Pyle, and Jon Foo, the young martial arts talent you might recognize from "Taj Yum Goong" who's also heading into "Tekken."
The film is directed by John Hyams, the son of the old legend Peter ("Outland", "Timecop", "Sudden Death", "End of Days"), while Peter himself handles production and cinematography. This is clearly a low-budget affair, sitting around $14 million, and they filmed in Bulgaria to stand in for the US setting where the story takes place. John mentioned wanting to give it a documentary feel, which makes sense given his background in documentaries, including one about MMA fighters—"The Smashing Machine"—which provides a solid foundation for this kind of movie.
The film had its premiere at Fantastic Fest in Texas on October 1st, and surprisingly, the crowd response was pretty decent and positive (
"entertaining reunion of Lundgren and Van Damme" was just one of many comments). There was even some buzz about a limited theatrical run, but Sony Pictures ultimately decided to dump it straight to video. It hits DVD and Blu-ray on February 2, 2010.
Anyway... action fans should be happy enough...
IMDBTRAILERPLOTAfter hijacking some top-secret tech, terrorists build a next-gen Universal Soldier—basically a genetically modified killing machine you can program. Led by this "UniSol" (Arlovski), they take over a broken-down nuclear plant in the US, threatening to let loose a massive radioactive cloud. The only guy capable of stopping this mess is Luc Deveraux (JCVD), a retired UniSol who's been out of the game for years.
Once he's back in action and retrained, Deveraux has to storm the heavily fortified site. But once he's inside, he realizes he's facing not just one, but two of these unstoppable freaks. Andrew Scott (Lundgren), the brutal UniSol rival from the original Universal Soldier, has been brought back and upgraded in secret. These elite soldiers are primed and ready to kill, and millions of lives are riding on this massive showdown.
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