Theme: Hacking

Universal Soldier: The Return (1999) – Van Damme, Goldberg and Michael Jai White

This movie offers a novel twist on the already creative concept established in the original, while also featuring strong new co-stars in Bill Goldberg and Michael Jai White. This is actually the fourth movie in the Universal Soldier franchise, but the second & third did not feature Jean-Claude Van Damme or anyone else of note (the main protagonist in both was Matt Battaglia) so you’ll be forgiven for watching the first movie then jumping straight to this one – the fourth.

We don’t see enough of wrestling superstar Goldberg in this kind fast action movie – he makes a very convincing tough guy. Plus, this is easily one of Michael Jai White’s better performances – the robotic superiority-complex role matches his real life demeanour.

Overall I rate this a Decent movie – it’s a bit less of a revelation than the original but still quite creative with a fresh new concept, and features multiple action superstars, but on the downside the plot is a bit one dimensional – the script could have easily been developed more to make it an even better movie. There are multiple females in this movie, including a reporter and a fellow UNISOL, but none of them are particularly worth mentioning – they all deliver bland performances.

Fun fact: this was actually Van Damme’s last widely-released-in-cinemas English-language movie until 2 and a half decades later, when he released Darkness Of Man in 2024 (excluding movies where he wasn’t the main star, such as The Expendables 2 in 2012). Maybe he wasn’t totally playing ball with Hollywood’s sickest shenanigans, but they eventually rewarded him for keeping quiet during the deceptions of the 2020 era? Or maybe his movies had only a small niche audience? The fact that Inferno (1999) had only a limited cinematic released is odd, and the fact that The Order (2001) went direct to video is outrageous.

Further Sequels

If you enjoyed the original Universal Soldier movie from 1992, as well as this one – Universal Soldier: The Return – from 1999, which is the second one starring Van Damme; then you’ll be pleased to know there are a couple more decent Universal Soldier movies to enjoy after this one.

Universal Soldier: Regeneration (2009) rekindles the rivalry between Van Damme and Dolph Lundgren, then they both come back again for Universal Soldier: Day of Reckoning (2012) with the addition of Scott Adkins as the main protagonist in the final movie. Both of these movies from 2009 & 2012 also make a significant role for Andrei Arlovski, the former UFC heavyweight champion who still holds the record for the most wins in UFC heavyweight history to this day.

Under Siege 2: Dark Territory (1995) – Steven Seagal

Under Siege 2: Dark Territory (1995) has a very similar story to the original Under Siege (1992) where Seagal’s character, an ex SEAL working as a chef, found himself on a military battleship that got hijacked by pirates led by a crazy ex-CIA man, except this time it’s a public train he’s on that gets hijacked by a different crazy ex-CIA man.

While some people prefer this sequel, most people agree the original was slightly better in pretty much every way, myself included – I rate this sequel as OK, just one level below the original which I rated as Decent. I feel like the original had a bit more of an atmosphere – a bit more stage setting – a bit more general production value. Still, they’re near enough alike that it’s well worth watching this sequel soon after watching the original. They follow on quite nicely from each other, since the first had a bit more of a backstory and the second gets stuck in sooner with less building or questioning.

This time, Steven Seagal‘s character Casey Ryback is on board the hijacked train with his only remaining relative, his niece (Sarah Ryback, played adequately by Katherine Heigl) – the daughter of his recently deceased brother who was also a decorated military hotshot but not quite as decorated as himself.

The main baddies in this movie are also played adequately by Eric Bogosian (the brains) and Everett McGill (the top braun). Everett McGill in this movie looks remarkably like the Tekken 3 character Brian Fury who I would be willing to bet was based on him since that game was released into arcades just under 18 months after the release of this movie. Everett also has a bit of a Clint Eastwood vibe about him, while Eric Bogosian seems to have shared hairdresser with Elliott Gould.

The Net (1995) – Sandra Bullock

The Net is another hacking-themed movie from the 90s (alongside the likes of Hackers and The Steal, which incidentally were both also released in 1995). It takes us back to the days of Windows 3.11, 3.5 inch floppy discs, boxy CRT computer screens, stiff-clicking corded mouses and big noisy clunky-keyed keyboards.

Sandra Bullock stars in this movie as a computer expert and innocent hacker called Angela Bennett, who stumbles across something relating to economic sabotage and murder, which some powerful people who have eyes in everything digital are hunting her for. They change her identity and make her life hell as she generally evades them and eventually exposes them, killing some of them and getting her life back.

Sandra was a big star in the 90s, having starred in Speed and Speed II alongside Keanu Reeves. She’s always a convincing actress.

The main antagonist in The Net is Jack Devlin, played quite well by Jeremy Northam, and his sidekick Ruth Marx is played well by Gazelle Ruth.

Dennis Miller also does a decent job as Dr Alan Champion – Angela’s old therapist-turned-lover now estranged, who seems to be the only person she can turn to who knows her in the real (offline) world and may potentially be able to help her (until they kill him also).

This movie commits the common Hollywood faux pas of nerding out about other movies for way too long, as if the non Hollywood audience is into that – in this case it was a cringeworthy 5 or 10 minute session of Sandra and Jeremy both worshipping Breakfast At Tiffany’s (1961) while they’re meant to be on a date.

Strangely, this movie also ends with the Whiter Shade Of Pale by Annie Lennox – the same song that the movie Hackers ends with, which came out in the same year.

Overall, The Net is an OK movie if you haven’t seen it in many years. There’s a lot of mild action and an intense atmosphere, a bit like an old fashioned cop drama. It’s more than Watchable, but is not quite fascinating enough to be ranked anywhere higher than just OK in my opinion. Still, being OK is a respectable achievement here – if it weren’t kind of captivating in both theme and function like it is, I wouldn’t have ranked it OK here. Do check it out if you’ve not seen it before – you might enjoy it on a day when you’re busy with other things.

The Steal (1995) – Helen Slater

The Steal is another hacking movie from 1995 alongside The Net and Hackers. The Steal stars Helen Slater (best known as the star of the Supergirl movie from 1984) and in this movie she is a bank robber by way of hacking.

There’s a healthy dose of old fashioned British humour in this movie, with one of the supporting cast members (Peter Bowles) carrying an accent identical to John Cleese (from Fawlty Towers). Other supporting cast members include British TV personalities Stephen Fry and Jack Dee, as well as Heathcote Williams, and a co-main role played by Alfred Molina. All these guys do a decent job in making this a credible and banterful hacking-oriented bank heist movie with a funny kidnapping and a tracking down of the kidnappers.

While it’s hard to criticise this movie, it is a bit slow paced compared to most action movies reviewed on this site – there’s not much of an adrenaline rush to be had here. But it doesn’t become particularly boring for any significant period of time – it sustains attention quite well if you haven’t seen it in a long time and are generally a fan of this mix of genres. So I rate it an OK movie.

Bloodshot (2020) – Vin Diesel

Bloodshot is a novel concept – creative and action packed – great for anyone who’s never seen it before. It is a bit one dimensional still though. The introduction of the hacker is a nice plot development but aside from that it’s all very simple.

Vin Diesel is his usual self – a fairly entertaining action hero, but a bit dryer and slower than my favourite action movie stars, although he oozes energy from underneath the surface. This role doesn’t perfectly suit him, but he does pretty well in it nevertheless.

Supporting cast includes Eiza González, the lead female – she does quite well in her role as an attractive assassin being controlled by Guy Pearce’s character. Lamorne Morris does quite well as the coding whiz who hacks the controlling technology to set Vin’s and Eiza’s characters free.

Guy Pearce does alright as the main nemesis on the brains side – the guy who controls Vin Diesel’s character until he breaks free – but he is a bit too meek in demeanour for such a power hungry role – a naturally stronger character here could have made this is more convincing movie.

Sam Heughan does a good job as the main nemesis on the (tech assisted) muscles side – he has a very convincing attitude for the role.

Alex Hernandez also does alright as one of the main team members. Good attitude for the requirement of the role.

Toby Kebbell also does quite well, as the first victim of the mind-controlled main character played by Vin Diesel. He displays an impressive contrast of acting styles here, from a savage psycho killer with a screw-loose wacky side, to an innocent and vulnerable victim with strong understanding and quick reactions.

Talulah Riley plays Vin Diesel’s wife – her performance was fair enough, although it was a bit washed & wafery – a more attractive & powerful woman like Eiza González could have done a better job in this role and helped make the movie more convincing since the plot is so heavily based on Vin Diesel’s character being so attached to his wife and so moved and vengeance-seeking when she’s killed.

Overall it’s a busy action packed movie and quite creative in its core concept, but is a bit one dimensional in terms of extended plot detail. It’s especially interesting for those who haven’t seen it before or in many years. Due to the strong special effects, fairly rich action, generally decent cast, and quirky concept, but with a dodgy nanite theme in-keeping with so many movies released around 2020; I rate Bloodshot about equal to its rival Hobbs & Shaw, or Black Panther 1 and 2. Indeed it’s disappointing to see so much pushing of the idea that technology in our body is a beneficial and even cool thing, especially when it comes to nanobots messing around in our blood according to their own discretion or an outside controller. Bloodshot is an awesome movie the first time you see it, if you can forgive its dodgy theme features, but significant tedium sets in and significant flaws become much more apparent if you rewatch it too often.

Hackers (1995) – Jonny Lee Miller and Angelina Jolie

Hackers movie poster

This was a classic in its day and is still a pretty good movie today. The core plot is simple but the script contains many cool features that are still fun to watch three decades later.

This movie follows the fictional story of a young hacker called Dade Murphy – alias Zero Cool aka Crash Override – played by Jonny Lee Miller. He moves with his mother to New York, and meets other hackers there including Kate Libby – alias Acid Burn – played by Angelina Jolie. They have fun, compete with each other, and uncover a malicious plot by the head of security for a large corporation – initially the hackers are blamed, but eventually they vindicate themselves and are recognised as heroes.

There are no physical martial arts in this movie, but there are plenty of tactical concepts demonstrated. There’s plenty of computer hacking going on, plus social engineering, building infiltration, police evasion, etc. Of course it’s not totally legit, it’s just a dramatised depiction for the big screen, but some of the ideas & tactics portrayed here hold true.

Shortly after 50 mins in, is when it turns from a barely OK movie into a pretty good movie, as Dade gets closer to Kate and they agree to a friendly competition.

Fun Fact 1: When this movie was released, MGM made a website to help promote it, and that website allegedly got hacked and defaced. MGM decided to leave the defaced version up throughout the time this movie was shown in cinemas. During the hack, some words were changed in an attempt to light-heartedly mock the movie – nothing terribly offensive or shocking was said or shown. So was it really hacked or was this just a promotional stunt? The media says it was a legit hack, but I suspect it wasn’t.

Fun Fact 2: Jonny Lee Miller (who plays Dade Murphy) and Angelina Jolie (who plays Kate Libby) got married the year after this movie was released. This confirms their on-screen chemistry was real, although their marriage only lasted 18 months. Angelina went on to marry Billy Bob Thornton in the year 2000 – that’s 1 year after the movie they worked on together (called Pushing Tin) was released. Their marriage lasted 3 years. Incidentally, Thornton has married a total of 6 different women in his lifetime! Then Angelina went on to marry Brad Pitt from 2014 till 2019, but was dating him since they co-starred in Mr & Mrs Smith in 2005, which was when he divorced Jennifer Aniston. So Angelina has a strong track record of dating if not marrying her co-stars, and Jonny Lee Miller was her first marriage. She was aged 20 and he was turning 23 when Hackers premiered on 15 September 1995 in America.

Hackers (1995) starring Angelina Jolie and Jonny Lee Miller