Soldier (1998)
Directed by Paul W. S. Anderson
Sergeant Todd is a veteran soldier for an elite group of the armed forces. After being defeated by a new breed of genetically engineered soldiers, he is dumped on a waste planet and left for dead. He soon interacts with a group of crash survivors who lead out a peaceful existence. The peace is broken as the new soldiers land on the planet to eliminate the colony, which Sergeant Todd must defend.
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What critics compared Soldier to
Aside from a flashback and some typically noir-ish narration, this opening stretch of the film is wordless; visually and tonally, it brings to mind Paul W.S. Anderson’s underrated Kurt Russell space Western Soldier .
In that sense, Rambo was very similar to the soldiers in 1998's Soldier (with Kurt Russell)... a man programmed to be a killing machine who finds himself adrift when he's discarded or no longer needed.
Kevin McDonald ("The Ladies Man," "Kids in the Hall: Brain Candy"), Zoe Caldwell ("The Purple Rose of Cairo") and Jason Scott Lee ("Soldier," "Dragon: The Bruce Lee Story") round out the other major characters and all do fine work.
Perhaps the best way I can put this for the cineastes out there familiar with the already ridiculous filmography of the man who directed the much-maligned Resident Evil, Soldier, Mortal Kombat, and AvP: Alien vs. Predator is this - Death Race is Anderson's worst movie, by far.
His rap sheet includes "Alien vs. Predator," "Resident Evil," "Soldier," "Event Horizon" and "Mortal Kombat."
Alas, the problem with “Death Race” is that it comes to us through Paul W.S. Anderson, whose previous crimes against cinema, including “Mortal Kombat,” “Soldier,” “Event Horizon” and “Alien Vs.
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Even dummied-down slasher films at least attempt to set that up, but Anderson - who previously directed the big screen version of the Mortal Kombat game before helming "Soldier" and the effectively spooky and creepy "Event Horizon" -- is apparently more interested in staging the film's numerous jump scenes than in engaging the viewer.
Known for his work on the laughable "Mortal Kombat," the butchered "Event Horizon" and the horrifying Kurt Russell actioner "Soldier," Anderson has continually been a filmmaker without a vision.
Even the expensive, ill-fated Soldier benefited from an interesting screenplay by Blade Runner scribe David Webb Peoples.