SOLDIER
RATING: 6 / 10 --> Barely recommendable
Review Date:
October 27, 1998
Director:
Paul Anderson
Writer:
David Webb Peoples
Producer:
Jerry Weintraub
Actors:
Kurt Russell as Todd
Jason Scott Lee as Caine
Gary Busey
as Captain Church
Genre:
Science-Fiction
Year of Release: 1998
RAMBO meets
MAD MAX in this follow-up to director Paul Anderson's derivative
science-fiction exercise, EVENT
HORIZON (6.5/10), with Kurt Russell collecting
one of his biggest paychecks yet, and
the studios passing it off as the first official
"sci-fi Western".
Anderson claims that compared to Kurt's character in this film,
"Clint Eastwood is f-king
Hamlet!"
PLOT:
A boy is born and bred to become a cold-hearted, man-killing
machine with only fear and discipline as his emotions. When a new
breed of man-killers are created, his kind are obsolete. He is
eventually dumped into a wasteland of garbage, and left for dead.
Discovered by a host of "homeless people in space",
this soldier attempts to grasp newer concepts such as love and
affection. Eventually, the newer mankillers arrive on said
wasteland, and the battle between this once obsolete soldier and
his replacements begins.
CRITIQUE:
Short, easy to digest, science-fiction Western, that does very
little to innovate anything in either genre, and ends up fogging
your mind with memories of gunfire and explosions, and not much
of anything else. If you like to see a lot of people get shot up,
then you should check out this movie. If you like to see a lot of
fire and explosions go off, then go see this movie. If you want
to see TV's "The Commish", Michael Chiklis play eighth
banana in a mediocre science-fiction pic, then go see this movie!
Otherwise, skip it, and rent it on video one night when you have
absolutely nothing better to do, and you want to shut your brain
off for a while.
On the positive tip, Kurt Russell does play his cold,
feeling-less character to a tee. He apparently only had a handful
of words to enunciate during the entire film, but he sure made up
for it in unemotional stares. Wow, what a man! All that and he
was built like a lighthouse on steroids. Pretty good for a
forty-something, if I don't say so myself. Scott Lee also had
very little dialogue (probably even less words than Russell), but
did provide for some sense of rivalry, I suppose. All in all, the
film never bored me at any point, but it also never blew me away
at any time. It basically just punched in its time card when it
was supposed to, and called it a night.
Russell's character kept reminding me of that classic line from
John Carpenter's THEY LIVE (7.5/10), where Roddy Piper says,
"I came here to chew bubble gum, and kick some ass--- and
I'm all outta bubblegum!". That's basically what Russell was
like for the entire movie! He was just there to kick ass and not
much else. I had more fun that I anticipated because I was with
my friend, and we had some fun with the crappy lines and campy
hommages (I noticed at least one to RAMBO and one to APOCALYPSE
NOW). See it if you like brainless guns and explosions, and a
good performance by Russell. Skip it, if you don't like guns,
explosions or Kurt Russell.
Little Known Facts about this film and its stars:
The writer of this film, David
Webb Peoples also co-wrote BLADE RUNNER
(7.5/10), and wrote 12 MONKEYS (8/10) and the Oscar-winning
UNFORGIVEN. Isn't that so very, very odd?!
Kurt Russell has 69 words of dialogue in this entire picture. He was
reportedly paid $20million to do this movie, which rounds that
off to about $290,000/ per word. Kurt...you're a great, great
man!! With a middle name like Vogel, how could you go wrong?
Kurt played professional baseball (2nd base, AA club- California
Angels) until a torn shoulder muscle forced him into retirement
in 1973. He was hitting .563 at the time of his withdrawal. His
friend, Ron Shelton wrote the Crash Davis role in BULL DURHAM (7.5/10) for
him, but the studio insisted on Kevin Costner instead.
During one particularly realistic fight scene with Jason Scott Lee,
Kurt Russell broke his ankle.
Kurt apparently only landed his role in TANGO & CASH after Patrick Swayze
dropped out. Also, he apparently only landed his role in
BACKDRAFT (8/10), after Dennis
Quaid nixed it.
Kurt Russell's real-life son with partner and fellow actress Goldie Hawn, Wyatt
(Note: Kurt played the character of Wyatt Earp in 1993's
TOMBSTONE), plays Russell's character as a 12-year old at the
beginning of this film.
Jason Scott Lee most famous part before this film was his
portrayal of Bruce Lee, in DRAGON: THE BRUCE LEE STORY (8/10)-(no relation).
Note: Kurt Russell has apparently announced this film to be his
last action movie. Stay tuned!
(c) 1998 Berge Garabedian
Movie Reviews by Berge Garabedian