Bullet Points: Universal Soldier II: Brothers in Arms

When it comes to sequels to 1992’s Universal Soldier starring Jean-Claude Van Damme and Dolph Lundgren there is a fork in the road.

If you took a right you’d go down the path of 1999’s Universal Soldier: The Return starring Jean-Claude Van Damme and Michael Jai White, then 2009’s Universal Soldier: Regeneration where Dolph Lundgren returned to the franchise and finally 2012’s Universal Soldier: Day of Reckoning which added Scott Adkins into the mix.

But if you a took a left, you’d find that in 1998 The Movie Channel and Showtime got a jump on the UniSol sequels with two made for premium cable TV movies that they were hoping could be spun off into a series.

The first of these made for TV movies is the subject of this review, 1998’s Universal Soldier II: Brothers in Arms….

• Deja Vu: Universal Soldier II: Brothers in Arms features a low budget reenactment of the final fight between Luc Devreaux (aka GR44) and Andrew Scott (aka GR13) from 1992’s Universal Soldier. But instead of Jean-Claude Van Damme and Dolph Lundgren, we get Matt Battaglia (Army of One) as Devreaux and Canadian actor Andrew Jackson as Scott.
• WWJCVDD: After the credits we find out that the UniSol program is frantically looking for GR44 but has no idea where he is… cut to Luc sitting in a tub full of ice in the Devreaux family barn. Luc’s partner in crime/reporter Veronica Roberts (Chandra West taking over for Ally Walker) is trying to teach Luc how to kiss… obviously she has developed some strong feelings for this dead soldier especially after he saved her life. Pa Devereaux interrupts and tells the budding romantics that supper is ready. This leads to a moment where Matt Battaglia and the producers of the film must have asked themselves “What Would Jean-Claude Van Damme Do?” so Matt’s Luc Devreaux gets out of the tub and shows off his bare ass Van Damme style.

• Oh Brother, Where Art Thou?: At this point Universal Soldier II had done a good job of honoring the original film, but it was time to introduce a new wrinkle for the sequel. After supper, Veronica spots a picture of young Luc standing next to a soldier and she asks Ma Devreaux who was in the picture with Luc. The answer, Luc’s older brother Eric (Jeff Wincott, Mission of Justice), who died on a mission with the Army that predated the United States official involvement in the Vietnam War. When you combine the fact that Eric’s body was never recovered and that it was highly unlikely that the producers decided to use a picture of Jeff Wincott and not actually use Jeff Wincott in the movie, chances were high we would be seeing Eric before the movie was over.

• Luc Devreaux Won’t You Please Come Home: The events of Universal Soldier have taken their toll on the UniSol program… in fact, the United States government has opted to stop funding the program. This is when we are introduced to security expert Otto Mazur (Gary Busey, Eye of the Tiger). Mazur’s job is three fold… recover GR44, recruit some new soldiers for the program and use what limited funds and skeleton crew that is left to make the UniSol program appealing to a private buyer. Mazur has the tech guys activate GR44’s recovery program… and in the middle of the night, GR44 leaves his parents’ home and makes his way to a rendezvous point. The next morning when Veronica notices Luc is missing, she goes into full investigative reporter mode and is on a mission to track Luc down.
• My Kind of Town: Veronica finds out Luc got on a train headed to Chicago and that’s where she eventually spots him… but the UniSol guys get to Luc first and they quickly escort him to their vehicle. GR44 is going home, but Veronica is still in hot pursuit. Veronica manages to sneak into the UniSol facility, thanks in part to the fact that there’s a lack of personnel and that the one sentry they had on patrol was a female that was approximately the same size as Veronica and more importantly easily knocked out. Once inside, Veronica sees that Luc has been re-assimilated into the UniSol ranks… but she also finds ERIC inside some sort of suspended animation chamber… a chamber she promptly smashes with a chair and frees him… apparently Eric was set to be the first UniSol way back when but due to complications it was a failed experiment… that begs the question as to why the government decided to keep Eric around all these years. Anyway, Eric and Veronica manage to get to Luc, who remembers Eric but not Veronica despite having his memory completely erased. And thus the battle lines are officially drawn between our heroes and the unscrupulous Otto Mazur.

• Brothers in Arms: After some back and forth with Mazur, The Brothers Devreaux and Veronica end up at some sort of boot scootin’ saloon, where Luc and Eric shoot pool and drink beers while Veronica smokes and looks at them all warm and fuzzy. But the happy reunion is over quickly when a pissed off Mazur shows up with the rest of the UniSols and all hell breaks loose!

Universal Soldier II: Brothers in Arms gets an E for effort, but the letter grade it truly deserves is a D+.

The movie was not a complete failure, and I applaud them for using the events of the original film as a jumping off point. Bad guy Busey was a plus and Jeff Wincott is always welcome on my TV screen and at least this sequel didn’t have Bill Goldberg in it. But it was hard to ignore the giant plot holes, the low budget and sluggish pace of the movie.

With all that said, if Universal Soldier III: Unfinished Business rears its ugly head on a streaming service, you can be certain I will watch it and review it, right here on BulletproofAction.com.

You can also be certain that this review will end with some Bonus Bullet Points…

• Mystery Man: The man who hired Mazur to salvage the UniSol program is left in the shadows for most of the film, but is eventually revealed to be *SPOILER ALERT* Burt Reynolds. Reynolds plays the Deputy Director of the CIA (Central Intelligence Agency for those in the know).
• Canadian Product Placement: Prior to entering the saloon the Brothers Devreaux need to cool off so they hop into an ice cold Labatt Blue truck.
• Directed By: Jeff Woolnough directed Universal Soldier II: Brothers in Arms (as well as Universal Solider III: Unfinished Business). Among Woolnough’s other directorial credits are episodes of Silk Stalkings, Cobra, Renegade and The Expanse.