Starring: Jean-Claude Van Damme, Scott Adkins, Dolph Lungren

You may like this if you liked: Universal Soldier (Roland Emmerich, 1992), Timecop (Peter Hyams, 1994), Replicant (Ringo Lam, 2001)

John (Adkins) wakes from a coma after witnessing his wife and child brutally murdered by Luc Deveraux (Van Damme). Once he recovers, John predictably swears vengeance and vows to kill the man that killed his family and finds an unlikely ally in a Government agent. Meanwhile Deveraux and fellow UniSol soldier Andrew Scott (Lundgren) begin to form an army of UniSol soldiers who have been able to control the programme in their heads that allows the Government to control them. While John attempts to track down Deveraux he uncovers the truth as to who they are and who he is.

Anyone can be forgiven for thinking that as it is another Universal Soldier film and stars the increasingly wrinkled JCVD and Dolph it has to at least be cheesy fun. If an action film is fun, then poor dialogue, acting, story and predictable plot twists all forgivable. However, when a film takes itself as seriously Day Of Reckoning does then it is immediately on a very painful crash course to dramatic failure. Unfortunately, with a running time of 110 minutes the pain is very much the viewers’. This film takes itself painfully seriously and seems to misguidedly think it has a clever plot, with ‘dramatic’ twists.

No.

It is a dumb film without the dumb fun and has absolutely no redeeming features. Adkins does not appear to cut it as a leading man and the film just gets increasingly boring. I would strongly recommend against anyone ever having to experience this horrifically dull film. The action is brutal and half decent, but by the time it actually happens it is impossible to really care. If you want a cheesy fun action film then avoid this tripe and check out the generous selection in JCVD and Dolph’s back catalogues respectively.

2/10