Finally, a decent Universal Soldier sequel. After a number of false starts, John Hyams (son of long-time Van Damme collaborator Peter Hyams) has managed to revive this stunted sci-fi franchise as a bleak, industrial, pseudo-scientific action yarn for the modern age, or something resembling The Bourne Identity‘s idiotic cousin. A rebel militia kidnap the Russian President’s kids and haul up at Chernobyl (it’s actually Bulgaria) strapping bombs to the nuclear reactor and demanding the release of political prisoners. Their secret weapon: a supercharged, indestructible, genetically modified UniSol (played by UFC fighter Andrei “The Pit Bull” Arlovski). Actually, they have two secret weapons. About halfway through, Dolph Lundgren is defrosted to revive his homicidal maniac Andrew Scott, who looks remarkably well considering the last time we saw him he was being put through a wood chipper. The US army’s first instinct is to interrupt the rehabilitation program set out for their original UniSol, Luc Deveraux (Van Damme), by kidnapping him, pumping him full of drugs and throwing him back into the field. The scene is set for Luc to go on a one-man rampage of the rebel stronghold, culminating in two brilliantly crunchy fight scenes. Luc and Andrew’s fabulous rematch sees the aging immortals smash each other through brick walls, before Luc takes on the MMA might of the terrorist’s very own Frankenstein’s monster. So, quite miraculously, Hyams has steered this wayward series back on track.

AKA: Universal Soldier: A New Beginning; Universal Soldier 3; Universal Soldiers: The Next Generation.