Subject: Review: Soldier (1998)

From: Michael Dequina <[email-masked]>
Date: 28 Oct 1998 05:44:50 GMT

_Soldier_ (R) *

Literally blink, and you'll miss _Soldier_'s lone flash of wit: a fleeting
glimpse of a computer screen listing futuristic supersoldier Todd's (Kurt
Russell) numerous war commendations, among them the "Plissken
Patch"--referring, of course, to Russell's character in John Carpenter's
_Escape_from..._ movies.  The rest of this sci-fi actioner is brainless
junk though writer David Webb Peoples and director Paul Anderson serve up
an interesting basic premise.  In the future, a select few males are chosen
at birth to be trained their whole life as soldiers, nothing more; veteran
soldier Todd is among the best, if not _the_ best.  But when a new
genetically engineered brand of soldier is developed, Todd and his ilk are
rendered obsolete.

From here, the story takes a most uninspired turn.  Presumed dead, Todd is
dumped onto a trash dump planet, where he meets up with a peaceful
community of people who look and act like extras from _The_Postman_.  For
reasons that are never clear, the new soldiers attack this trash planet,
and the film becomes an outer space _Rambo_, boldly declaring, "I'm gonna
kill 'em all, sir!"  Thus ensues much machine gun action and laughable
"emotional" content where Todd finds the humanity within his tough
exterior.  It plays even worse than it sounds.

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Michael Dequina
[email-masked]   |  [email-masked]
Mr. Brown's Movie Site: http://welcome.to/mrbrown
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