Kurt Russell is strong and (mostly) silent in this futuristic action-thriller from Paul Anderson (Event Horizon, Resident Evil.) Set on a garbage-dump planet, Soldier plays like a cross between Rambo and Shane, with Russell barely speaking as the title character, an "obsolete" genetic soldier left for dead. The supporting cast of colonists, including Connie Nielsen, Sean Pertwee and a surprisingly hirsute Michael Chiklis, is able. They spend most of the movie being scared of Russell, and the rest of it running for their lives. Russell's performance here is one of the best he's ever given. With almost no words to say, he conveys emotion, feeling and meaning with looks and glances. It is almost a mime performance. When the action sequences kick into gear, he kicks ass--and does so in a strong, silent, matter-of fact way. There are flaws. Jason Scott Lee is brutish as a "superior" genetic soldier. Jason Isaacs does a great impression of Frank Burns from M*A*S*H as a weaselly commanding officer, and Gary Busey busts a gut (and nearly busts his girdle) as Todd's mentor. This is an underrated, and excellent sci-fi flick, and recommended for anyone who wants a second visit to the universe of Blade Runner--David Webb Peoples wrote both screenplays.
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NyghtOwl28 July 2005
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jhclues11 September 2000In a future society, the military component does not have to recruit; rather, their candidates are chosen at birth, culled from nurseries and designated to spend their entire lives in the service of the government. They are given over to the war machine, body and soul, for no reason other than to protect and serve; they have no personal identity other than a name and rank, and no autonomy whatsoever. This is the fate of those whose destiny is predetermined for them in `Soldier,' directed by Paul Anderson and starring Kurt Russell. The scenario is hard and bleak as the movie begins by depicting the training of the soldiers during advancing periods of time, from preadolescence to adulthood. Russell is Sergeant Todd, the best of the best, and we glimpse his career as he discharges his duties in an exemplary manner in campaign after campaign; he is what he was born to be, a soldier. But even the best cannot go on forever, and the day arrives when Todd and his peers are no longer the elite. A new generation of soldiers has been created, products of advanced genetics and technology, and Todd's generation is suddenly obsolete. What follows is the story of a man who must fight for his life, while struggling to discover his own sense of humanity and individuality, traits new to a soldier who has known only two things his entire life: Fear and discipline. Russell gives a commanding performance as Todd, the soldier who above all else must obey orders without question while suppressing all emotion and individual thoughts. He has few lines in this movie, but Russell speaks volumes with his eyes. This role demonstrates that he is, in fact, one of the under-appreciated actors of our times; that he can disappear so entirely into the character of Todd is a credit to his ability, and with this part he has created someone quite different from any he's done before. And he's given Todd a depth and credibility that someone of lesser talent could easily have rendered as nothing more than a pretentious and superficial stereotype. Notable performances are also turned in here by Connie Nielsen (Sandra) and Jason Isaacs (Colonel Mekum). Rounding out the supporting cast are Jason Scott Lee, memorable as Caine 607, one of the new generation of soldiers; Sean Pertwee (Mace); Gary Busey (Captain Church); Michael Chiklis (Jimmy Pig); and Mark Bringleson (Rubrick). Anderson has delivered an action film with a message, a cautionary tale that transcends the genre of science-fiction. `Soldier' reminds us of the importance of keeping the humanity of our lives intact. It's an entertaining way of making us consider the alternatives, like a bleak future and a world in which good movies just wouldn't make a whole lot of difference. Much like `1984,' and `Mad Max,' this movie, which is ultimately uplifting, is going to make you take pause and think about the kind of Universe in which we all must live together and share. I rate this one 7/10.
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chl-68 February 2000The first two sequences of this movie set up the two conflicts: the -thematic- conflict between the soldier Todd and his suppressed humanity, and the -physical- conflict between Todd and his bio-engineered replacement. Both sequences are quite gripping in different ways.
Peoples' screenplay falters somewhat by resolving the first of these arcs half-way through the movie, which means the second half is little more than a straightforward action romp.
Nonetheless, kudos to the makers for creating an genre action piece with heart and even a bit of soul and especially to Kurt Russell who conveys much with very little.
Not a great film, but one worth seeing. -
BroadswordCallinDannyBoy20 September 2004David Webb Peoples meets Paul Anderson...if it already sounds weird to you, then you are right, because it is.
Peoples is known for his scripts with moral implications of what is right and wrong, the value of life, etc... He covered these issues in Bladerunner, Unforgiven, and pretty much in all of his screenplays there is something along those lines.
Paul Anderson's first successful movie was a violent thriller. Not surprisingly so have all of his other movies! And here is a violent thriller with moral implications!
Peoples' script is quite apparent in the first half of the movie. Soldiers trained from birth, taught to kill, and never had a normal life. They are replaced by better, genetically engineered soldiers and Todd, one of the original soldiers, is left on a planet and left for dead. There he must cope with a group of refugees, some want him to stay others hate him and there is an interesting drama here. BUT THEN...
...The bullets start to fly as the new soldiers move onto the planet for a military exercise and try to kill all the people. Big, violent, loud action ensues and Peoples' script turns into an Anderson action-fest. It is hard to believe that the script was originally written that way, but the end product is better then I expected. Entertaining, somewhat, though admittedly not very, thought-provoking, and exciting once the action starts. 7/10
Rated R: a lot of violence -
lllama21 January 2004I watched this movie expecting what I got: good sci-fi cowboy stuff. What really surprised me was that Kurt Russell did such a great job with an extremely limited role.
Imagine trying to act under these two restraints: you have hardly any dialogue, and because you are playing a hardass, military robot, you are not allowed to show emotions using facial expressions! Howzat? Kinda like asking a diva to perform a great aria while gagged and duct-taped. In spite of being verbally and expressionally handcuffed, Russell pulls off an incredible characterization. His robot becomes human, in spite of the constraints. Great job!
As usual, Jason Isaacs insures that he will go down in history as a great portrayer of the consummate villain--the one you'd love to see drawn and quartered. Connie Nielsen was sweet, soft, motherly, and gorgeous. I'm not sure how much of my impression is based on her acting and how much on her physical beauty, but it was hard to take one's eyes off her. Unfortunately, Gary Busey's role was too small and limited.
Much of the plot is quite standard, with a fair amount of weaknesses, but as it does have a sci-fi comic book feeling, I don't see what's wrong with a few weaknesses. By the end of the story the good guy wins, and the appreciative audience receives a great deal of emotional satisfaction. Yes!
The sort of feeb who thinks that Russell didn't do a good job of acting is the same sort of feeb who missed the whole point. -
codym24 February 2000It's odd. Surfing the net, I find almost nothing but bad reviews for this film, despite being one of the best Sci-Fi films to be released by Warner Bros. in the last couple of years. It features an award-caliber performance from Kurt Russell (himself an underrated actor,)a smart script and stylish direction. Yet people insist it's a pile of cow pat. This character-driven movie is certainly better than, say, "The Matrix," which suffered from plot and logic holes, and had one of the worst endings ever. Although, admittedly, "Matrix" was meant to be a "Dumb" film, while "Soldier" is smarter than you think. The script never flinches, never compromises it's purpose or characters, and director Anderson (of "Event Horizon," the best horror-in-space movie since "Alien") shows sci-fi works better as a setting than a genre. And as for Russell, he shows more emotion and character in his performance than most Oscar winners, being extremely sympathetic even when doing unsympathetic things.
So I say ignore the gup about this being a bad movie. If you are a real sci-fi film lover, throw out "The Matrix" and get "Soldier" instead. -
lukem-527603 June 2022The underrated & pretty much forgotten late 90's sci-fi action movie "Soldier" is Awesome!!!
Movie legend Kurt Russell's performance here is actually excellent & why? Because Kurt basically plays a soldier suffering from PTSD & is trying to fit into the world, but he's only known violence & death. Kurt's character "Todd" was the best of the best within his regiment of space warriors but in a different environment, surrounded by harmless civilians he's lost & lonely. Todd is basically soul searching whilst living amongst a peaceful colony. Todd is trying to find his place in the galaxy & Kurt is excellent. A real depth to character in a great slice of sci-fi action Cinema. Truly an underrated GEM!!!
Yep, Kurt Russell (one of my favourite actors ever) really shines as the extremely tough future Soldier of the title. His name is Todd, a soldier from a dark & bleak future that has been trained since a baby to be an ultimate killing machine that obeys orders & never speaks up but when he's no longer needed for galactic wars, he's found obsolete & dumped like trash on a trash planet. It's on this wasteland planet that Todd finds his soul & tries to become a good man as he battles his killer instinct as he tries to fit in with a colony of survivors. Kurt Russell is excellent in this emotionless role & because he's so emotionless, when his softer side comes through it's all the more powerful. Kurt Russell was a big star during the 90's as much as he was during the 80's. Kurt gave us 90's greats like Unlawful Entry, Breakdown, Escape from LA & Executive Decision, just to name a few!!! And Soldier is one of his most enjoyable & most underrated of his 90's output. We also have a good supporting cast surrounding Kurt, with the great British actor Sean Pertwee as Mace (Doomsday, Dog Soldiers, Event Horizon) & Gary Busey (Lethal Weapon, Under Siege, Predator 2) & a scarily Lethal Jason Scott Lee as the improved super Soldier.
Soldier is directed by sci-fi action director Paul W. S Anderson (Mortal Kombat, Event Horizon, Resident Evil) & created an action packed sci-fi movie with alot of heart. Paul is a damn good Director, especially in the sci-fi action genre. Paul's 2002 Resident Evil is still my favourite of the franchise.
The action scenes are excellent & the fist fights are brutal & the explosions are big!!! This is mid to fairly big budget action popcorn fun with a terrific Kurt Russell as it's beating heart. Also this is the most beefed up Kurt Russell has ever been, he looks the absolute part of a kick-ass futuristic warrior. Here Todd fights back against his creators & wants to end the galactic army run by the always wild Gary Busey.
Jason Scott Lee is a terrifying brute of a warrior that wants to wipe out Todd once & for all.
Soldier i owned on video (like hundreds of others titles) & it's one i watched many times & makes for a good double bill with Universal Soldier or even Kurt's Escape from LA.
Also the dark scruffy look of the bleak future is done well & the music score is exciting.
I miss 90's action films & i miss the 90's action stars in their prime.
Great times for movies especially the action thriller genres.
Soldier is underrated action-packed entertainment. -
WHY DON'T YOU EVER TALK!?!?! If there was one thing that made this movie so bad, was that he DIDN'T TALK!!!! Especially at times when talking was required!! This movie might have had at least SOME redeemable qualities if I wasn't so stuck on him NOT TALKING!!!
-Example of a necessary place to talk: Todd's with the kid in the bed room and a snake is on the floor near the kid. Todd picks up a boot and hits the ground a bunch of times. What?! Then he grabs the snake out of mid air just in time. TALKING WOULD BE NICE, PLEASE!!!
But you know, other than that, the movie was not all that bad. I mean the plot was totally predicable, especially the fight between Todd and the bald guy (whoever didn't see that coming needs to seriously consider taking courses in looking for the blatantly obvious). But other than that, the gun outs were pretty cool. The only thing that kinda confused me was when the natives shot at one of the soldier guys, the bullets bounced right off, yet when Todd shot at him, the bullets ripped them to shreds. It was the same gun too. Does his advanced skill in combat tell him how to pull the trigger stronger to make bullets fly faster? I don't know...
2:10 stars just because of talking (or lack there of). If you can make a movie that has the main character not talk much, and make it good, I respect you. I DON'T respect the director of this movie. -
mikatrainer25 July 2019One of most underrated movies,im sci fi lover also i love good movies,i love good stories,bit drama ,this movie is amazing,i enjoy every time i watch it,scene when they told him to leave village and scene where soldier warrior who was raised to kill,just sitting and cry man i get goosebumps from that scene,so powerful,also that song Night Ride across the Caucus so powerful love tgis movie
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Blumanowar23 October 2020Much. Ether than the Van Damme and stupid action movies of today! And better than all of Schwarzenegger's stupid films... I liked it. I loved Mary Poppins , The wizard of Oz and Sense and Sensibility too. I love all kinds of movies. My only requirements for a decent rating is: was it Fun? Was it interesting and was it better than avg for its genre. This met all 3 requirements. I get sick of all the fools on here trying to act like a Lorcano Critics Academy member. Bunch of geeks! And even the elite critics get at least half their reviews wrong. If you enjoyed yourself and forgot about your troubles for a couple hours.. any movies worth a 6 you geeks!
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SnoopyStyle9 February 2015It's 1996 year zero of Adam Project. Orphans are raised from babies to soldiers. Sgt. Todd 3465 (Kurt Russell) leads his men in various wars. Years afterward, Col. Mekum (Jason Isaacs) has created genetically engineered superior soldiers. Capt. Church (Gary Busey) insists on a real fight. Caine 607 (Jason Scott Lee) wins a three on one combat but Todd is able to gouge out one of Caine's eye. The older soldiers are reduced to menial jobs while Todd's body is abandoned in a wind-swept waste dump planet. He is taken in by the inhabitants Sandra (Connie Nielsen) and Mace (Sean Pertwee). The inhabitants are crash survivors ignored by the dump ships. The community decides to push out Todd. When Mekum comes to clear the planet, Todd comes to the rescue.
I really like the concept and the start of this movie. However the society on the planet adds very little. Todd's development is clunky at best. His relationship with Sandra and her husband Mace is somewhat of a mystery. I can't tell if the movie is trying to gin up a romance. It would be much better to concentrate on their son and Todd. Todd could be a Frankenstein monster to the boy. It would probably be easier to not make the mom so hot. They shot a lot and blow up a lot of stuff for the final act. It's passable action but felt relatively repetitive. -
kimmishy527 July 2019I liked the movie it was engaging from beginning to end. I thought Kurt Russell was wonderful. This one really showed the brutality of war and Men who start Wars.
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I'm not going to try to make this out to be something it isn't. This is not a great movie. The special effects are mostly crap, and some are hilariously bad. Kurt Russell says 104 words in the whole movie, or almost $200,000 per word for his 20 million dollar payday for this train wreck. And it doesn't matter. I've probably seen it over a dozen times, and I love it. It's entertaining, and has enough action and violence to make it worth your time. Shut your brain off and ignore the naysayers, this is worthy. Kurt is completely jacked and definitely looks the part. And even though he says next to nothing during the whole thing, his brief halftime speech before he goes and kills everyone gives me a chill, every time. Like I said, it's not a great movie though. It is, however, a really good time.
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pwahl14 October 2001Give the lead character more than 100 words of dialogue. A personality would be a nice addition too. I get the point they are making, maybe they could have actually tried to tell the story in an interesting manner, injected a little vitality and energy into the story. And I'm sorry, I don't buy the ending - the gross misjudgement of the opposition by the commander, the martinet officer, etc.
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Dr. Gore10 January 2004*SPOILER ALERT* SPOILER ALERT*
Westerns don't get made much anymore. Filmmakers need to use other genres to fulfill their western fantasies. Just like "Vampires" with James Woods was a "Western with vampires" so "Soldier" is a "Western in space". One man against many. You meet in a deserted town and settle it all. Like real men. High Noon. Soldiers deserve to fight other soldiers.
This is a very simple movie. That's why it's good. Kurt Russell is the old soldier vs. the new and improved soldiers to see who is the king. #1. The Boss. He gets thrown away on a garbage planet because he became out of date. One day the new soldiers find his planet and come down to wipe out everyone. One of those amazing coincidences that Russell was there. Soon Kurt shows them who's in charge.
There's a good beginning scene involving the competition between Russell and the new soldiers. Then there is a long, slow stretch where Russell assimilates to his new planet and people and then the final showdown scene. The middle part was a tad slow but once the fresh meat arrives the action picks up. It was a decent action flick. Russell was the new sheriff in town and booted out the bad guys. I liked it. -
darapjohnson26 April 2023A childhood movie of mine which I cherish a lot and had a lot of good memories with. This is also the first time I personally got introduced to Kurt Russell. My bias aside, this was a great movie with a lot of fun and action and story poured into it. A little dark at the start with some child violence and stuff but it's all cool. It's a very fun movie to watch. It's very hard for me to look at "Soldier" with an outside perspective because my bias won't allow me, I honestly loved this movie from start to finish. What I will however admit though, is that it's by no means perfect or anything, hence the 7/10 rating.
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dworldeater22 September 2015Director Paul Anderson's Soldier is a really under rated and misunderstood action movie starring the legendary Kurt Russell. The screenplay was written by David Webb Peoples who is best known for penning classics like Blade Runner and Unforgiven. Set in a dystopian, futuristic sci fi setting. Kurt Russell is Sgt. Todd, a super soldier killing machine who has since birth only known fear and discipline. In this function, Todd excels. Todd was bred to be a soldier and by age 40 he has spent his entire life fighting and training. He ends up getting replaced by a new genetically engineered soldier that is faster and stronger. He is left for dead under high command and resides on a waste disposal planet in a community of outcasts. Todd has trouble coping with domestic life and throughout the course of the film finds some humanity. The new soldiers lack experience and end up on the waste disposal planet. The commander(Jason Issacs) has declared any survivors are hostiles and are to be used as target practice. What the military does not know is they are occupying Todd's new home and he has a score to settle. Soldier is mostly a straight up action movie, but there is a whole lot of subtext here that the critics of this film miss. As much as Todd excels at warfare, he can't function in normal civilian situations and has no idea how to function like a normal human being. Kurt embodies this character well and spent a year and a half training to prepare for the role. Most action actors are also dedicated to that part of the job. However, Kurt is equally effective in playing Todd's flaws as well. Todd is very effective in battle, but is very awkward and inept in a social setting. Kurt also conveys much of Todd's feelings with minimal dialogue, which Kurt makes look easy but is very difficult for most actors to do. This film bombed at the box office at the time of its release and probably has too much amped up testosterone for the wimpy 90's. Action fans however, should enjoy this. Plus Soldier has a bit of substance as well once you scratch the surface.
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Nick-3913 March 1999I bought the Laser Disk of this movie and watched it for the first time last night. I thought it was pretty cool, and the audio commentary by the director, producer and co-star was first rate. Highly recommended purchase on LD, or DVD. And if you have a Pro-logic or Ac3 amp it sounds brilliant.
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JerseyCity25 October 1998All I heard about this movie is that it was nothing but pure trash. Every review killed the movie. Well, I tend to disagree. The movie moved along at a good pace & as stupid as the plot sounds it actually works. Don't believe everything you hear, see it for yourself. Kurt not only played the part he was given but looked it too. At age 47 he looks absolutely incredible! I'm not saying that I loved the movie, but it's definitely worth seeing if you're a fan of action/sci-fi flicks.
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MissTRious26 July 2004OK, so Soldier isn't deep and meaningful like Blade Runner or as big budget as Terminator 2 but on the whole I found it quite enjoyable.
The fact that Kurt Russell stayed in character not speaking and being virtually emotionless made the moments when his humanity broke through all the more poignant. I found his portrayal of restricted emotional development more touching than Arnie's in the T films (and before I get comments yes I know that Arnie was a cyborg and Kurt was human but the premise put forward by both films was the same).
So to the film itself, a reasonable US/Brit cast are able to flesh out this little story. Not really sure if Gary Busey and his two deputies were baddies or goodies, so was unable to decide whether I liked them or not. The colony was a little more realistic neither a misguided bunch of peace loving/gullible/cowardly hicks who get wiped out from the get go nor a group of subversive aggressive terrorists paranoid about offworlders and each other.
Kurt Russell is good and unlike other comments I do not feel this will have a negative impact on his career (unlike maybe Escape from LA - sequels are such fickle creatures!). Sean Pertwee has really done his late father proud by continuing the families noble Sci-Fi lineage. And the rest of the cast helped flesh out this pathetic band of people making the most of a bad situation and not doing too badly.
If you see this on your TV schedule I would recommend giving it a chance. I don't think you will be disappointed. -
neil-4765 June 2011This variation of The Magnificent Seven In Space is tweaked from the routine to the slightly above routine by Kurt Russell's impressive and impassive performance. In fact, I felt that the action sequences (involving explosions, slow motion, faceless spear-carriers being slaughtered by the hundreds, and Russell doing all of this single handed) actually detracted from the much more interesting story to be told about Russell's character.
Much of the set design was very good, but the fact that a lot of the action took place during the large set of aircraft ribs protruding from the ground ended up making the movie feeling more claustrophobic than it needed to. -
Cervaise26 October 1998Anderson is the director of "Soldier." His previous films include "Event Horizon" and "Mortal Kombat." Based on those, and now especially on the incompetent, amateurish mess that is "Soldier," it's pretty clear that he doesn't have the first idea how to tell a story, or even how to make a good movie.
He wastes an interesting premise, from screenwriter David Webb Peoples (the writer of "Blade Runner" and "Unforgiven," the latter an Oscar-winner). He wastes a surprisingly effective performance by Kurt Russell, who does a remarkable job showing the human feeling awakening beneath the stoic, near-robotic surface of the trained-from-birth title character. (What he's doing in this turkey, we'll never know.) He wastes the talents of a highly experiences artistic and technical crew, all of whom of have done much better work in previous films.
He wastes them by making an inept and frequently even laughable grade-Z action snoozer. The plotting is clumsy, the subtext obvious -- and I don't know when I've seen a movie so clearly expensive that looks so cheap. Visually, it's like an ultra-low-budget made-for-cable flick, something on the level of a late-80's Jean Claude Van Damme vehicle you might see on Showtime at 3am. This cheap look is difficult to reconcile with the fact that they obviously spent gobs of money on the thing, but somehow Anderson pulls it off.
A big, stupid, post-Apocalyptic action movie is one of the easiest genres to pull off. "Waterworld" was bad, but at least it was marginally watchable. "Soldier" is absolutely awful, and Paul Anderson demonstrates he can't even do a brainless testosterone movie. Catch it when it shows up on MST3K in a couple of years, but for now, avoid, avoid, avoid. -
C'mon! 6.0...really??? Unique in every way. Yet another powerful performance by Kurt Russell. Entertaining from start to finish. Very underrated in my opinion. Jason Scott Lee's character Cain scared me as a kid! Effects were great for there time. Brilliant story. Hope it doesn't get a remake/reboot. My daddy had a saying, "If it ain't broke don't fix it!" 9/10
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gburnx24 March 2006Far better than average Sci-fi movie, although dialogue is minimal there is a great deal of character development in the visual details if you are paying attention. Action is great with good special effects. The theme of paradise amongst garbage lost, is captivating in its own right.
IMHO, Kurt Russell was superb, and this movie deserves far more acclaim than it received. Look for Michael Chiklis as Jimmy Pig, who is nearly killed by Sgt. Todd during a flashback sequence that gives the viewer greater insight into the military conditioning that he was subjected too.
Overall, "Solider" is one of the few action movies that continues to entertain and remains one of my favorites in the Sci-fi genre. -
I'm not a Paul W.S. Anderson basher - that is, I think he's a generally poor director but I don't devote my life to criticizing him endlessly on Internet message boards - and I think he's at least handled the visual aspects of most of his movies quite well (hate it or not, "AvP" - which I didn't care for - was atmospherically in-touch with the other movies, and "Event Horizon" felt like an "Alien" sequel itself).
But really. This movie is absolutely terrible. It's easily Paul's worst movie, which is saying quite a lot. I'm even a decent fan of Kurt Russell so for me to say his performance sucks beyond belief here would be like a Jim Carrey fan admitting Carrey is too over the top in his earlier comedies - it's not going to happen.
The movie basically rips off every futuristic/apocalyptic action movie you can think of, including "Alien," "Blade Runner," "The Terminator" and of course Kurt's "Escape from New York." The problem is there's no substance here.
The direction is slipshod and lazy - the action scenes are boring and none of the characters stand out at all. The hero is a dull, emotionless waste of space who has one facial expression preserved throughout the movie: The Kurt Russell "Cold Stare." (tm) You'll know what I mean if you've seen a Kurt Russell movie before.
Anyway, if you're a Paul basher then you'll hate this. If you're not a Paul basher you'll still hate it. I don't have a problem with simplistic action movies - but at least make them ENTERTAINING! I was dead bored watching this.