It’s rare that a sequel tops the original. It does happen on occasion, but it’s rare. It’s even more rare that the 4th entry in a series, made 20 years later, is better than the original, but that’s exactly the case with Universal Soldier: Day of Reckoning, the fourth and as of now final entry in the Universal Soldier franchise. This was an extremely unexpected and pleasant surprise. I couldn’t understand why roughly three years after it’s release Day of Reckoning was getting a beautiful European mediabook release from Illusions UNLTD. Now I know. It’s because Universal Soldier: Day of Reckoning is awesome!

The plot is fairly basic on the surface. John (Scott Adkins) is the victim of a home invasion one evening that leaves him in a coma and his wife and young daughter dead. Months later when John awakens from his coma he sets out to track down the man responsible – Luc Deveraux (Jean-Claude Van Damme). It’s during this pursuit of Deveraux that we learn he has started a resistance of sorts with the UniSols. Basically Deveraux is tired of being controlled by the government and doing their dirty work so he has begun to remove the chips of sleeper agent UniSols in order to set them “free.” Of course Deveraux is hardly setting these UniSols free, but instead is reprogramming them to do his dirty work. Deveraux’s second in command is the one and only Andrew Scott (Dolph Lundgren). As John continues to search for Deveraux, he realizes he’s being hunted himself by Magnus (Andrei Arlovski), who himself is a UniSol who is now working for Deveraux.

From the get-go Day of Reckoning is non-stop extremely violent and extremely bloody madness. Director John Hyams has put together some of the most insane, off-the-wall fight sequences I have ever witnessed. The opening sequence has John being beaten repeatedly over the head with a crow bar. Then just before John is knocked unconscious, he gets to see his wife’s brains get splattered all over the wall. This entire scene is done from John’s point of view. So you’re right there in the heart of the action. Essentially the audience is taking the crow bar shots. It’s quite intense and that’s only the beginning.

Then we head on over to what appears to be a modern day brothel specifically for UniSols. Here we have various rooms each with UniSols have some type of violent sex. Things are going pretty well for all involved until Magnus decides to pop in and proceed to rip the brothel to shreds. In what is probably along the lines of a three minute scene Magnus manages to kill somewhere around 10 people, maybe more. And these are gruesome deaths. Not a single death in Day of Reckoning is along the lines of somewhere getting shot and then maybe a little squib goes off. No, everything here involves gallons of blood spraying everywhere and heads exploding. It’s glorious.

Since John has just come out of a coma his memory is a bit shaky. The only thing he really remembers is that his wife and daughter were killed by Deveraux. Slowly and over the course of time, he begins to realize he is quite the skilled fighter himself. Eventually he fully realizes this and it leads to what is my favorite scene in the movie – an epic fight in the middle of a sporting goods store between John and Magnus. This is probably the greatest scene in a sporting goods store since Gremlins. These two muscle bound dudes go at, making great use of the props available to them. This ends up being one bloody affair.

One thing did bum me out about Day of Reckoning and that was Dolph and JCVD failing to get a scene together. In the context of the movie it made sense, but you still want to see those legends share the screen together. Fortunately both get pretty awesome fight scenes with Adkins that are well worth the price of admission. In fact both are used quite efficiently. Combined they have about 5 scenes total, but great scenes they are. In addition to his battle with Atkins, Dolph also gets a second fight with Arlovski that is equally enjoyable. The best moment from Lundgren however, comes when he gives a speech to all the UniSols about the revolution they are planning. All movies should feature a speech from Dolph Lundgren.

The plot does get a little complicated in the later stages of the movie. It’s a little tough to know what’s real and what’s just a planted memory. There’s a lot of little pieces that need to be put together for the whole story to come together. I feel like this just comes with the territory of the Universal Soldier world. This doesn’t hinder the overall enjoyment of the movie, but it does muddle things up a bit and create a few questions.

Scott Adkins deserves some serious mention. I know he’s been around for a while but this was my first time seeing him, or at least seeing him in such a prominent role. How is he not one of the biggest action stars in the world? He has all the tools to be a first-rate, top billed action star. His acting skills are above average. He’s not likely to win an Oscar or anything, but he did a good job handling the material and was able to convey emotion. Plus he hits a home run when it comes to providing the action. His fights scenes are superb and he does his own stunts. He could easily be as big as Jason Statham. Let’s start moving this man up the action star ladder!

The mediabook release from Illusions UNLTD is awesome. You’ve got a DVD and a Blu-ray, that happens to have a 3D option if that’s your thing. The disc is labeled as Region B but it played just fine in both my Region B and Region A players, so that should come as a big plus for those of us in the US. Also this is the uncut version, which is very important. I haven’t seen the cut release, but apparently it takes away some of the blood and gore. The book itself is nice, even though the artwork is a little cheesy. As far as what’s in the pages of the booklet I can’t comment on that because I don’t speak German. I’m sure after I pick up enough of these mediabooks I’ll start to pick up on the language though.

As far as special features are concerned there is a variety of interviews with Atkins, Van Damme, Lundgren and Hyams. The interviews with the stars are a little on the short side but are very interesting. Lundgren was probably my favorite to listen to. He talked about how he loved the movie because the effects were all practical and didn’t feature a ton of CGI. He mentioned how the movie is “hardcore, balls-to-the-wall action” and that’s exactly the type of movie he likes. Basically Dolph Lundgren is exactly who we want him to be and I find that quite comforting.

Universal Soldier: Day of Reckoning is over-the-top action that is never afraid to kick it up to 11. This is the type of gory action I remember watching as a kid. Really this is what I want all action movies to be. Going forward this should serve as the blue print for all future action movies.

Universal Soldier: Day of Reckoning is now available in two limited edition mediabook releases from Illusions UNLTD.