Universal Soldier

Directed by: Roland Emmerich

RS: Not Rated

1992 Sci-Fi

Twokaratekids -- Belgium's Jean-Claude Van Damme and Sweden's Dolph Lundgren -- team up to play weird-accented soldiers who kill each other in Vietnam. And that's just the prologue. Cut to the present: The boys have been retooled as combat robots under military control until memories start seeping into their rusty craniums. Though the idea is dumb enough to be fun, director Roland Emmerich does the Terminator thing without much style, and the two stars bash into each other but never connect. The signpost ahead reads video scrapheap.

PETER TRAVERS
RS 636