Okay, so here’s the beginning of the long and tangled history of the "Universal Soldier" franchise: Following the release of the first film Carolco (the splashy production company founded by Mario Kassar and Andrew Vajna that had an infamously meteoric rise and fall) went bankrupt. In an effort to salvage something (anything) from the debacle, they sold the rights to "Universal Soldier" to Skyvision Entertainment.
If you’ve never heard of this company it’s because it is a Canadian television company located in Toronto. They, in turn, produced two "Universal Soldier" sequels that could also be aired as a lengthy miniseries (I wish I was making this up). The second of these movies (and, I guess, the back half of the miniseries), is "Universal Soldier III: Unfinished Business," which is a much cooler name than an actual movie. This movie has a lot of stuff, including (but not limited to) mistaken identities, evil clones, hostage situations, and a performance by Burt Reynolds so lifeless and uninspired that it seems almost impossible that he shot "Boogie Nights" right beforehand. Anyway, skip it.
Leave a Reply