Lets kick things off with a tiny bit about me and why like many we love jcvds work.

I have been interested and watching martial arts movies since the Karate Kid (1984), the Best Of The Best (1989). And then caught up with the whole franchise and many other films from artists such as the late great Bruce Lee. Ive also been, all due to the karate kid been either involved or been a fan (practising) of a few martial arts, But just like Bruce, I hate badly dubbed or badly done martial arts movies. With this being said, ive also been a fan of how films/tv are done in general and understood the need for fake walls, wires, stunt doubles, good plots, bad ones. As JCVD will and has stated, his career has been very rocky and it was down to him due to his activities in the mid-late 90s, because of this he was viewed as a joke, a parody if you must, similar to his arch nemeses Steven Seagal. Who he himself was a massive action star in the 90s. The massive difference between the two is that during the 00s ,Jcvd was coming out with straight to dvd films, but what was noticeable was the fact he was trying different emotions and roles from Replicant (2001) award nominated and came to a great achievement where his film J.C.V.D (2008) was nominated 4 times for awards. Now steven seagal had been nominated and even won awards 03 and previous, but they were ALL razzes, ie you dont want to them on your c.v . , and ever since then he hasnt been nominated for the bad or even good awards (likely because the guy doesnt deserve any good wards). Now Im going to bring up Wake of Death (2004) which shows his recent years ability to improve his acting skills with different emotions, but the reason Ive select this one is all down to the

fact you cannot spot for a single second that he had a stunt double in this film, which quite frankly is what you aim for. So what happened with seagal? Well hes produced, written and even directed most of his crap pile of straight to dvd films, and to be honest hes still an idol for me based on martial arts, but as creating quality movies, certainly not. Lets face it the guy has literally 1 expression and 1 role he plays in EVERY film hes in or does and it gets very boring. And then unlike JCVDs great example of not being able to detect his stunt double, seagals fans could easily spot each and every stand in and stunt doubles in most of the films hes done. And as a fan its depressing and is rather off putting knowing a person who has very high qualifications in the arts hes been taught in and teaches, that he doesnt do most of the fights his fans go to see. So we come to the much anticipated next part in the universal franchise, Universal Soldier:Day of Reckoning . Yep thats right, theres been another one. And if you had forgotten or even noticed there was a previous instalment called Universal Soldier: Regeneration , Regeneration itself didnt break the $1million at the boxoffice and gained $7million during its rentals (film cost around $14milion to make) this was directed by John Hyams, his dad Peter Hyams had worked with JCVD in some of his previously successful 90s films like 94s Timecop (budget near $30million, worldwide cinematic gross $101 million with rentals worldwide near $40million) and 95s Sudden Death (budget near $35million,worldwide cinematic gross $65 million) . Now like myself, you may have gotten rather confused with the franchise, WHY? Well it was taken over, as the rights were bought due to the company that did the very first Universal Solider ran out of money. So JCVD wasnt in the following 2 films called Universal Soldier II: Brothers in Arms & Universal Soldier III Unfinished Business which starred matt battaglia and both filmed and released in the same year of 98. Well surely these 2 in between films couldnt have been that bad, erm? Ill put it this way, the actor is seemingly so ashamed of being the lead role let alone being part of the 2 films that on his personal website theres not a single mention of the films, and as another example, these two films are just like The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift

(2006) where nearly every fan of the franchise has ignored the fact its even been made. We then come to the rebirth of the real franchise when JCVD came back onboard and was directed by Mic Rodgers making it his directorial debut. Unlike many sequels especially ones that have had previous films go straight to dvd the return made a successful come back and felt right at home with its blockbuster feel, decent enough plot and great martial arts action. Its budget was around $14 million, by the end of 2000 it did a cinematic worldwide gross of $20million, and over $14 million in rentals just in the USA, so likely over $30 million worldwide by now. the following 09 regeneration AKA new beginning wasnt great by any stretch by many fans, it was rather a let down from what many fans were begging to see especially when Luc Deveraux (JCVD) arch nemeses Andrew Scott (Dolph Lundgren) was BACK, fans were excited to see these two battle it out, imagining the scenes of havoc and chaos, remembering the literal bloody times between the two back in 92. However fans were met with a rather empty non blockbuster atmosphere about the whole film, and the scenes with both original unisols battling it out were rather limp wristed, and didnt amount to much. Dont get me wrong, the martial arts has always been fantastic and jcvds broader range in acting and experimenting in his emotions were still great, just sadly the vision, direction wasnt what we had hoped for and it clearly showed in the severe lack lustier that was the empty seats leading to around $800k box office. We now come to the next instalment called Universal Soldier: Day of Reckoning, The plot being the following: John (Scott Adkins) awakens from a coma to discover his wife and daughter were slaughtered in a brutal home invasion. Haunted by images of the attack, he vows to kill the man responsible: Luc Deveraux (JeanClaude Van Damme). While John tries to piece his reality back together, things get more complicated when he is pursued by a relentless UniSol named Magnus (Andrei Arlovski). Meanwhile, Deveraux and surviving UniSol Andrew Scott (Dolph Lundgren) are preparing to battle anarchy and build a new order ruled by Unisols without government oversight.

They are weeding out the weak and constantly testing their strongest warriors in brutal, life-and-death combat. Luc has emerged operating the Unisol Church of Eventualism, taking in wayward Unisols whom the government has been secretly operating as remote-controlled sleeper agents. His mission is to liberate these Unisols from the implanted memories and the lies the government has inserted in them. As John gets closer to Deveraux and the rogue army of genetically enhanced warriors, he discovers more about himself and begins to call into question everything he believed to be true. Now , if you a fan of the franchise, specially JCVD instalments, then this instalment is sure as hell going to through you off by a few miles. Not only has Luc gone from kind hearted protector that had turned into a human, hes now without ANY explanation turned into what can only be described as a cult Leader, psychotic emotionless soldier who has gained the trust and devoted attention from his minions (unisols or just renta a day soldiers, not really sure). How this has happened I guess we will never find out unless this is one of those films that just like the recent fast and furious franchise instalments we have prequels to sequels to prequels confusing rubbish. We then have Sgt. Andrew Scott (Dolph) who is seemingly Lucs 2nd in command and the spiritual leader of a new order of government-manipulated soldiers who now are back in control of their minds and heading for world domination the voice to the minions and preaches the normal cult mind washing rubbish. We come across Andrew in what seems to be a no holds barred brothel where ANYTHING goes and thats clear from the first few things you see. Now I dont want to explain things to the extent that it actually takes away the last 10% of enjoyment that you may have get from this film, but what I will say is that if you are a fan or have watched ALPHAS and the episode about being kept in jail via mind control, you will understand how everyone is kept in this cult, but also explains with whats happening in the first half of the film. With this being said I feel the need to warn viewers of a highly annoying and possibly dangerous repetitive flashing of bright white light that fills the whole area and goes on for quite a bit

during some scenes, thankfully I dont suffer from epilepsy but I have a feeling it may give some headaches. This film is without doubt placed into the direction of being VERY dark, very adult orientated with a load of nudity, graphic shots to the body, bones being broken and mind messing with Luc coming out of bathroom mirrors or appearing from nowhere (similar to Candyman (1992) however because of the mind control that John (scott adkins) is unaware of, instead of the 3 calls of the mythical demons name, Luc appears at any point trying to take control of Johns thoughts. During the initial part of the film, John is on his journey to gain revenge but is constantly seeked by Magnus (Andrei Arlovski) after he is activated for duty during his normal daily life (just like many action thrillers before it where agents get a call or piece of paper with a code which activates them. and Now without again spoiling what enjoyment you will get from these scenes I will state that much of the action is similar to John Hyams previous rubbish attempts, giving the atmosphere as I stated before a non-blockbuster feel. So much so that (and this is the starting point as to why I started this review bringing up Steven seagals very badly done movies). After John finds his female friend from a strip club , he comes across Magnus who shows up as a toilet attendee, this is where he gets tagged and then JCVD appears again as a message, although seemingly like a horror flick the way this is being shown, the message he gives is in hopes a wakeup to John. After spending time with his female friend, we start getting into some fight action Due to an unexpected attack by Magnus, its gritty, fully on but a severe lack of martial arts that many fans expect. Some time goes by, many scenes but this leads to a long vehicle chase sequence which ends with them getting each other through a window. Now as a fan of Adkins, I was wondering where all his skills would be used as its barely seen as of yet, but as a unisol he suddenly

figures his body is capable of incredible things and this is when the real fun in the film starts (for a martial arts and action fan anyway), when this starts to happen, I start to forget about the confusing plot, the bad driving and continuity errors and start enjoying the spot on fight chorography. And knowing Andrei Arlovski UFC career your heart does start to pound knowing whats about to happen and what is happening is simply brilliant. The fact as to why every time Magnus is beaten he keeps coming back is baffling, because as Ive said not much is really explained in the film. As if the plot is missing something, such as why this why that,, why is Luc a moody bastard not saying much and basically not doing much near half way into the film. So we come to this shack as the female calls it and we are presented with another level of confusion, however some may put the tagged event and the item John comes across and start putting things together. However its these events that shows more of the darker side to this franchise than before. We then travel to a distant area to which I guess is where most go to get themselves treated by the doctor and his sidekick is played by JCVDs son (Kristopher Van Varenberg) as Miles , this dark thriller feel, shows in the both Miles and the doctors lack of emotion towards John. However as the doctor continues to talk, the general plot to the film becomes more clearly as to what the hell is going on, however should it really have taken nearly of the total length of film to get this far. After a few moments, scenes turn ugly once again but this time resembles scenes from SAW, so certainly not for the squeamish. Memories start flashing that from Johns expressions during this event, he has never seen or experienced. We then see John just as before go into unisol mode and start to go mental and kick ass once again. Now whilst the fight scenes are well thought out, the surrounding set for the scenes has little to be desired as it mostly feels and certainly looks fake as if it was a low budget movie, with the set designers on their first day out.

So we are somewhat through the fight sequence and either unisols who were to be highly trained soldiers have become rather slow and quite frankly unknowledgeable on how to use a gun, either this or its part of the directors vision which wasnt thought out, I mean with a straight through area where the unisols clearly sees John, has his firearm at the front of his chest and doesnt remotely aim at John even when hes less than 5ft away? REALLY! So after smashing through many unisols, you can see him walking to find the next one, but as hes doing this you can now see how badly the set is designed, or for their lack of attention, simply because the placement of a light, shows up a very badly covered up fake hole in the wall which is obviously ready for something to happen, which it does. We then come to yet another fantastic martial arts close combat piece of chorography between John and Sgt. Andrew Scott We are then served with a decent fight between John and Luc, and still as we near the end Im still racking my brain as to why Luc is like how he is, what his thoughts were to send these cryptic messages to John, yet at the same time Be the one that killed Johns family? Now whilst im having all these questions im missing some of the fight, that or it really has occurred it doesnt matter anymore. the scene goes on and again leaves me a bit baffled to ask what the director was thinking when John is showing all his grimacing to try push the blade into Luc, which normally means that person is pushing as hard as they can, yet when Luc lets go, John is still there in the exact same position if Luc hadnt let go. Was this part of Luc that shows he now somehow has telepathic powers that stop people from harming him? it just feels a bit empty not only because as a fan I can clearly see JCVD isnt doing some of this sequence, the other bit of me still baffled as to why this film took this route considering Regeneration saw Luc be the hero again and not only because this film actually has more holes and continuity errors than some of the worst films done by seagal. But simply because as a viewer you not meant to be sent into your own thoughts wonder what the hell is going on, Im watching but I

dont feel im watching what I can only describe as complete movie done properly. This leads me to scream and beg JCVD to not let John Hyams touch anymore of this franchise, I beg John Hyams to step away, its clear as day as a fan, not only of the franchise but JCVDs career and movies in general that you are not cut out for delivering what used to be a major blockbuster franchise, you are not cut out to deliver the clarity of script of have any decent direction. If anything shows you are bad at this, if not for the other films u did before, maybe its just these ones, then maybe take a look at the worldwide box office gross over the films in this franchise that you have sunk to the depths of hell (seriously I cant really express my anger more politely when the return did feel blockbuster and brought in the millions and he wasnt anywhere near it) The only remote saving graces of this film and the only reason I would buy the dvd, is the fact the acting was pretty good even though I must say Im rather disappointed how and why JCVD is taking on this mad role, not only does it through the viewer off for this film since it never was explained but in general I would think as a fan we prefer a combination of emotions. The martial arts combat sequences (apart from JCVD final one) which was odd, thats pretty much the only things good I can say about the film. The sets were bad, plot was bad, and whoever was hired to check for errors, either needs to be taught how to do it or not brought back to another film. If there are any more to this franchise I dearly hope somebody has Mic Rodgers number as maybe he can bring it back from the death . Review by Mathew Lisett www.twitter.com/mathew30 www.facebook.com/mathewlisett

Warning may contain spoilers

Continuity errors:

As both John and Magnus fight for the first time, John is attacked with an axe of which sees them struggle against the wall with the axed on each others hands. First shot just before they are against the wall the axe head is shown facing down, following shot show it facing up, following shot then shows it facing down and the last shot of this sequence shows it up.
1.

Same scene, a painting comes off from the right wall and falls away from the frame and its backing board and relaxes against it, but then on an overhead shot, it shows the picture has clearly moved about 2 ft laying on the floor with part of the frame wood on it
2.

3. Just before Magnus slams into a normal car, he turns the steering wheel left as well as his body. However on the following shot the wheels are fully straight as well as himself. 4. As both vehicles drift around a corner, the vehicle Magnus is driving has clearly got its backside further across than the front, but on the next shot its the front that is further (just as if he hadnt lost control at all)

Same goes for Johns vehicle, his vehicle clearly shows the front right tyre full lock towards the left whilst the back end would be taking up Magnus s space, following shot sees his car and front wheel straight and then another following shot sees the vehicle yet again seeing the vehicle drift around the same exact corner but showing the back end (which would show the first and 3rd shots were filmed at the same time and the 2nd following shot having been re done for some reason.
5.

Just after the turn, John slams into Magnuss vehicle and causes his own back right window to smash, which is clearly visible on the follow through drive, however just as the tyre is blown and they go onto the next few shots, its clear that the same window has now repaired itself, its also clear when the vehicle crashes the window still has in tacked glass
6.

As Magnus aims the shotgun at the female passenger and fires the 2nd time, instead of the female getting shot the right front tyre gets shot out
7.

8. Just as John and hi female friend are about to flip the vehicle, as it flips you can clearly see bursting to the left the blow canister which aids the flip. As they go for the flip shot, you can see the front bumper has somehow repaired itself completely.
9. 10. As

John and Magnus are about to do battle, John is painfully obvious about 3ft away from a shop window, has his foot on the pavement and 1 on the grass verge, yet as Magnus is only just midriff lift and pushing him through so that the both would go through the window, its painfully obvious they are only maximum of 5 inches away as John has only just started to be attacked.
11. As

they fall onto the floor with Magnus the attacker, Magnus backside is facing away from the camera and towards the counter and also laying on his side towards John, yet on the following shot his back and legs and facing the left side of the camera and hes fully ontop of John 12. On existing towards the window and out of the window after a fight, even though they had previously smashed through a pain of glass, the whole frame is totally clear of any glass, no sharp edges nothing. 13. During the start of a conversation between another doctor, Miles and John, Miles is leaning forward asking who killed them, the following shot shows Miles is bolt upright away from Jon and is next to the doctor that created the tag
14. During

the long fight sequence with the unisols in the cave John comes up against a small unisol with a bandana next to a long light on a wall, John deals with the unisol by fireing right point blank to the guys head facing towards the wall and right next to the light. However when the shot is fire, all you get is a

very small splatter of blood on the wall and seemingly an exist wound to the left side of the unisol, yet NO bullet holes on the wall or light even though his head is mere inches away?
15. Onto
nd

the following stage of unisols, John roles to get to the 2 guy, this guy fires upwards for no reason at all whilst John is rolling upwards, On jons attack, John fires directly into the unisols stomach with its own rifle yet when the shots are fired, theres not a single exist wound from the back.
16. Near

the end of the Sgt Andrew scott vs John its clear that the Sgts head is slightly down, yet on the follow up shot, the face is near upright with bloody dripping everywhere and a knife being shoved up his lower jaw into his mouth.

17. During

the entire battle between Luc and John, for big fans of JCVD you know how he walks, how his voice sounds when he yells and the fact his face crinkles. Well this is where you can then see around 60% of this fight sequence is done by his stunt double/stand in. why god only knows.
18. Why

since the whole film shows the unisols can bleed, both Luc and John are bleeding with every single fully deep cut to everybody part with the sword that cut into the body but when the cut is revealed the blood suddenly stops and the cut looks like a badly done make up cut?

19. During

the Luc and John fight the sword is seemingly trapped on the wall of the cave, in one shot you can see the blade wobble slightly, on the following shot Luc takes the blade away from the wall and sparks flight from the wall. However the sparks dont happen until the blade is at least 5 inches away?