March 1999

Soldier
Reviewed by Doug Schneider
DVD Format

Overall Enjoyment:
Picture Quality:
Sound Quality:
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Starring Kurt Russell, Gary Busey, Jason Scott Lee

Directed by Paul Anderson

Theatrical Release: 1998
DVD Release: 1999
Dolby Digital 5.1
Widescreen/Full Screen

Had Kurt Russell been paid by the word for this movie, he would have made out much better by working part-time at the local 7-11. You'll be hard-pressed to count more than a hundred words that come from his lips, with the majority of those under two syllables. And of the prized sub-one hundred that he does speak, not one is spoken before the 27-minute mark. So it goes with Soldier, a science fiction/action film that crosses The Road Warrior with Mortal Kombat (also directed by Paul Anderson) and comes up with less suspense than dialogue, but has a lot of unintentional laughs.

The film begins in 1996 when Todd 3465 (Kurt Russell) is born. He is part of an elite crew of "baby soldiers" bred to be the ultimate fighting machines. Forget about making them multilingual, get them to go straight for the throat is the motto of the army. And so they are trained and end up killing and cleaning up everywhere they go for the next 30 years or so, when suddenly, a new batch of better-trained soldiers enters the arena. Todd 3465, the best of the older bunch, and the rest of his cohorts are rendered obsolete. As a result, Todd 3465, after fighting to prove his inferiority, is mistaken for dead (the lack of speaking perhaps?) and, quite literally, shipped off to a distant planet and dumped in the Arcadia 234 Waste Disposal Plant. If nothing else, this movie certainly likes its numbers -- it seems everyone and everywhere has them. After trying to make sense of the plot, I then tried to make sense of the numbering scheme the filmmakers seem so proud of, but came up short on both accounts.

It's not long before Russell happens upon a rag-tag community of humans who welcome him in and show him love and compassion -- something he's never experienced before. They also show him gorgeous women and breasts! Again, things he's never had before. Suddenly our out-of-date soldier has a new lease on life -- until, inexplicably, the army comes to this same planet to seek and destroy everyone in sight. Why? We're not quite sure, but after they encounter a little difficulty conquering, they deem it important to blow the whole darn planet up! Of course, Russell puts one of the two F's aside for the time being and dons his guns for his round-two comeback. If only he'd turned into Snake Pliskin Soldier would have been a far better time.

In fairness to Russell, he does a pretty good job creating a comic-like soldier that sees and acts but hardly speaks. In this type of film, it actually works. He is also approaching 50 and in remarkably good shape. Forget Stallone, this guy may be the future. However, the plot is contrived, the action predictable, and the special effects only so-so. As in John Carpenter's excellent Escape From New York, Russell seems to be winking at the camera, knowing full well that this is no epic. However, the director here seems to be on another planet himself and is more intent on delivering something more serious. It's a B-rated movie that attempts, mistakenly, to be serious drama. Another futuristic disaster, Kevin Costner's The Postman, suffers the same fate. Even when good actors like Gary Busey and Jason Scott Lee are in the action, they are relegated to the sidelines with almost insignificant results.

On the other hand, the technical qualities of the DVD are quite good, with a lush, slightly soft picture that both looks good and nicely hides the fact that the special effects are somewhat cheesy. The sound is clear with good impact, clarity and separation. It's not harsh or bright like the sound of some movies can be. During a couple of the hand-to-hand-fighting scenes, I replayed the action a number of times because of the most unusual sound used for a punching fist. It sounded to me like very close miking of a hammer thumping a nail into a soft two-by-four, but I can't be sure. It intrigued me because it was just so different from the traditional beef-slapping sound I hear so often or the small explosions that the Rocky series likes so much. The DVD also contains short cast and crew bios (on-screen text), the obligatory theatrical trailer and some very good commentary. I say good because the director and producer go into some interesting detail about each scene, including how it was created and the results they were trying to attain. On the other hand, you can hear for yourself that they took the subject far too seriously.

I can't completely dismiss Soldier. It's bad, that's for sure, and you will certainly not want to own it. But it is just a hair over 90 minutes in length and somewhat entertaining -- if only in a brainless, blow-‘em-up kind of way. For that it gets an extra half star.

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