Soldado universal 2. Hermanos de armas

[Just in case you don't know, this is an 'un-official' sequel to Universal Soldier. The 'proper' sequel is Universal Soldier: The Return.]

To make a decent, or semi-decent action film, a budget is somewhat obligatory. With Universal Soldier II, someone clearly forgot this rule or squandered the whole thing on getting Gary Busey, Jeff Wincott and Burt Reynolds to humiliate themselves. (The lack-of-budget theory is backed up by the end credits which say 'sponsored by Canada' or something equally silly.)

To be fair on the film, some people do look like they're trying. Matt Battaglia looks desperate to pretend he's acting, and the woman has a good go at delivering her dodgy lines. The director appears to have made the most effort by using numerous camera gimmicks to liven up the non-action. Sadly, these gimmicks are off-putting, look stupid and just highlight the boredom of the boring bits (i.e. 90% of the film).

The most enjoyable aspects of the film, were a) Gary Busey (who seems to be developing a very strange vocal problem) acting badly and b) Burt Reynolds (unseen most of the time) putting on the WORST irish accent of all time and also acting very badly.

Seen as a double-bill with Universal Soldier III, and with a healthy dose of alcohol, this could be a good evening's entertainment, but only in a so-bad-it's-actually-bad-but-funny way.

Perhaps a triple-pack of Universal Soldier II, III and 'The Return' could be marketed as some sort of torture weapon.

I watched this last night on Sci-Fi, and i felt obligated to write a review of how terrible it was.

The first point i make is advice to all casting and idiots who get involved with TV movies like this, Don't change the original cast, Matt Battaglia is in no comparison to Jean-Claude Van Damme both in martial arts and acting performance, and it is the same circumstance with Andrew Jackson who replaces Dolph Lundgren. Chandra West as Reporter Veronica Roberts gives a bad performance and nothing in comparison to Ally Walker who actually had talent in playing the part. I'm slightly concerned and confused as to why Burt Reynolds and Gary Busey sink this low, having said that Busey has never been big time i just miss the decent movies like lethal Weapon and Under Siege, Reynolds however has no excuse to be in this movie having done several classics before he should be able to pick roles well.

Overall the acting, stunts and fights are terrible, don't waste you're time.

1 out of 10, Bull crap!

Universal Soldier was a pretty good Van Damme.flick with Dolph Lundgren. That film would be one of Van Damme's biggest successes as far as vehicles he starred in. That they could not get him to be in this thing eight years after the original and where his star power was basically gone should have let the filmmakers know that this would be bad. It is also bad in the fact that the first film was an action movie, but the makers of this film did not get that memo. Virtually no action the entire first hour of the movie unless you call driving car and riding in train action sequences! Not sure how they roped Burt Reynolds into doing this, Busey though, yeah, he was made for movies like this!

The story, well it tries to pick up where the first movie left off; however, the fact that they show the fight from that one with two new guys takes you right out of the movie. Probably best just to omit that part...well, new soldiers are made, Gary Busey is crazed with power and the reporter is going to save her man and not clear her name! I am guessing that will occur in the sequel to this. Meanwhile, Burt Reynolds does a horrible Irish accent. This all leads up to a mediocre duel in a bar where the hero has no real trouble taking out the bad guys...

The lead here is quite bland and speaks in such a boring tone. I mean Van Damme did too, but it sounded less disinterested than this guy does! Gary Busey is just insane and adds a really nice scarf while Burt remains hidden through much of the film. Seriously, this film looks worse than some of the SyFy shark films made by Asylum!

So if you have come to see your favorite undead soldier return...look for the movie with Van Damme as there was another sequel starring him out the following year. If you wanna see action, probably best if you watched the original. If you wanna see a bizarre looking dude play guitar and our hero sing along...this is the film for you!!!

(1998) Universal Soldier II: Brothers In Arms SCIENCE-FICTION ACTION DRAMA/ COMEDY

Continued where the last "Universal Soldier" made for TV left off, with cyborg Luc Devereaux / GR44 (Matt Battaglia) where he's beating another cyborg to death, saving female reporter, Veronica (Chandra West). Meanwhile, discharged soldier, Otto Mazur (Gary Busey) double cross some North Korean officials, killing them off and collecting some diamonds after making them think they were going to be used to buy some 'Universal Soldiers'. We later find out that Luc has an older brother that's being held captive by the facility, to be turned into a Universal soldier, and will eventually going to reunite. Low budget and quite bad with terrible orchestrated action scenes.

I was excited to see there was a Universal Soldier sequel, but I was shocked to see how badly this film was made. Where to start? First of all the acting. Simple Awful. Bad Jokes and poorly acted out characters. Luc's fill in character is nothing compared to Van Damme, and speaks like a country bumpkin. I think the writers of this movie forgot an important part of continuity from the original film - Luc and his parents are French. Second the fight scenes and action. I felt like I was watching a Stone Cold Steve Austin Wrestling match. It's that bloody and it seems like the violence is there just for the sake of being there. The music that accompanies the fight scenes isn't so great either, which leads onto my next point. The selection of music for this film is quite diverse. One minute you think you're watching Forrest Gump and the next you'll think of Nice Inch Nails. Some of the music took away from the suspense and seriousness of certain scenes as well, and was just out of place. All in all, the music was inappropriate for this movie.

Finally, I'd like to close and say that the storyline had a couple of things going for it, such as Luc's older brother returning - this was a very good twist, but as for the rest of the film, it was simply woeful. You best be spending money on the DVD of the original Van Damme film that hit the cinemas.