It's 1969. The Vietnam war is in full flow. An American GI tentatively enters a North Vietnamese village. The ground is littered with death. He searches the place until he finds the man he's looking for. His sergeant. The man responsible for this massacre. A man who has gone totally insane. In front of the GI he kills a young couple. The GI has had enough and attacks his superior. They both stab and shoot each other until they die. The GI is played by Jean Claude Van Damme and his sergeant is played by Dolph Lundgren. The 2 stars of the film are dead and the film isn't even 10 minutes in. Where can we go from here?? Where indeed!
Cut to 22 years later and we see a hostage situation taking place in the Hoover Dam in Nevada. A group of special ops soldiers inflitrate the dam, kill the baddies and save the day. Leading the soldiers, no other than Jean Claude and Dolph!! I KNOW! All is well until a snooping reporter finds out they are part of a government team of reanimated super soldiers while at the same time Jean and Dolph start remembering that they are enemies. All hell breaks loose and Jean and the reporter go on the run with the rest not far behind.
Yup. How's that for an utterly fucking ridiculous concept. You couldn't take it seriously at all. But here's the thing, the film knows it's totally ridiculous and runs with it. And it turns into a highly entertaining film that if you can go with it is just brilliant fun.
Van Damme & Lundgren are never going to win acting awards but both acquit themselves well here. And the fact that they are both basically zombies who don't say much helps, i can't tell a lie. However they do get a couple of scenes each where they do a bit of proper acting, as their memories start to mess with their training that add a nice bit of heft to the film. Even with limited standout scenes, Lundgren steals the film. Who needs acting skills when you have screen presence like his. His Andrew Scott is the character you'll remember from this film.
The film is well directed by Roland Emmerich ( of Independence Day fame ). It's quite a nice looking film as it's mostly set in the Mojave desert so we get loads of sandy scenery and it's presented in a clear easy to follow fashion. Nicely paced, we get an action scene every few minutes to keep our attention peaked. The action though, thats where this film excels. Shot clearly, no stupid shakeycam, we know exactly what's going on and where. Even the ending of the film which is shot at night, is easy to make out. You deffo get your money's worth with the action here. Brutal, crunchy stuff and both actor's physicality help make the final showdown one to remember. My favourite scene though is a fight in a diner when Jean Claude's character Luc is having his first meal in 2 decades and forgets its not good to steal food from other people's plates. Shot like an old fashioned bar fight from a western, it's great fun seeing big fella's get bounced off tables and horsed through windows.
This film is 25 years old this year and i have to say it has aged pretty well. No godawful early 90's fashion or music to date it. Well worth a revisit for people of a certain age. Don't watch this looking for subtlety, a complex story or any kind of answers though, it's purpose is to entertain and it does that in spades. An intense, vicious, funny, fast moving flick that you can enjoy with a few beers. Which is what i'm going to do later.
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