Soldier dvd movie.|
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List Price: $9.98 Our Price: $9.98 Features • Anamorphic • Closed-captioned • Color • Dolby • Full Screen • Widescreen • NTSC In Theaters : 23 October, 1998 DVD Release : 02 March, 1999 |
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Soldier description Kurt Russell hits new heights in laconic action heroes with his portrayal of Sergeant Todd, born and bred to be a soldier in a futuristic army. Raised to kill mercilessly, living only for battle, he finds himself at the twilight of his career (and so-called life) when a regiment of genetically enhanced warriors threatens to make his brand of soldiering obsolete. Despite his extensive skills, he is no match for the best of breed of the new order, and he's left for dead on a planet that serves only as a junk heap. There he encounters a ragtag group of castaways, and in his own strange and silent way slowly begins to learn how to be less a killer and more a human. All is disrupted, though, when the genetic regiment arrives on the trash planet and decides to eradicate the local human "trespassers." Though Todd had been overmatched before, this time he has more than ever to fight for--a home, and friends. Soldier is one of those rare sci fi movies that relies more on plot and action than special effects (though the trash planet is effectively wrought). The pace of action in the last half of the film is relentless and exciting, and Russell's portrayal of the old warrior as he warms to human emotions relies more on expression than words--in fact, he barely utters more than a half-dozen lines. --Tod Nelson |
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| ♥♥♥♥♥ | Recycled but nominally workable throwback |
| I can't really bring myself to either like or dislike this movie entirely. Another entry in the "future troopers" genre, it uses science fiction to explore the notion of a fierce, unstoppable, but ultimately disposable form of combat soldier. Examples of this notion have ranged from the excellent (Blade Runner, Robocop and the Terminator) to the awful (Universal Soldiers). This one's okay.
On first viewing, it reminds me of a larger-budget version of Enemy Mine, in which we get barely a glimpse of a war-torn future before the hero is dumped on a barely habitable planet, struggles for survival, and ends up in your basic action climax. Like Dennis Quaid and Louis Gossett, Jr. in that movie, Kurt Russell gives a performance better than his material deserves -- which isn't saying much, since a lot of Soldier plays like it was written for Stallone at the height of his Rambo misanthropy. The cast is generally good, particularly Russell's finely understated performance -- his character's lifelong conditioning has made him incapable of expressing emotion, or even speaking conversationally (he robotically addresses everyone but the enemy as "sir"), yet he conveys enough in his body language to make more of his role than one might expect. Another reviewer called this a sequel to Blade Runner and compared Russell's Sgt. Todd to BR's Deckard. Without arguing too much, I'd modify that by saying it's more of a Blade Runner prequel (thematically, if not literally). It's essentially the backstory of Blade Runner's Roy Batty, an enhanced combat soldier bred for offworld service but never regarded as truly human, who rebels against his shortsighted human masters and leads his followers to a prospective home on another world. Of course, Todd's stoic efficiency bears little resemblance to Batty's charismatic dark angel persona, but they're flipsides of the same coin. (The fact that both films were written by the same screenwriter becomes clear long before the credits roll -- listen for the "Tanhauser Gate" reference.) Soldier isn't a great movie by any stretch. If anything, it has the feel of a script written back in the 80's that had gathered dust on a shelf until someone felt like filming it. Take it on that level, and it's watchable. Not great, but good enough to pass a little time. |
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