Universal Soldier

Universal Soldier pits Van Damme against Dolph Lundgren as reanimated Vietnam War soldiers turned into government super-weapons, and the novelty of seeing two legitimate action stars go at each other carried the film to $102 million worldwide. The premise is B-movie gold: both men were killed in Vietnam, cryogenically frozen, and rebuilt as programmable killing machines. Van Damme’s Luc Deveraux begins recovering his memories and goes rogue; Lundgren’s Andrew Scott recovers his psychopathy instead. Emmerich’s direction is workmanlike, but the Van Damme vs. Lundgren fights deliver, and the grocery store scene where a confused Deveraux tries to be human is unexpectedly touching.