This latest and utterly bizarre contribution into the Universal Soldier franchise should completely bemuse genre fans, as it comes across as an art-house-action-thriller created and directed by David Lynch. The opening five minutes are a superbly executed gruelling POV sequence that sets up the motivation for new super-soldier 'John' (Scott Adkins, who as an actor is clearly a very good martial artist), and ten minutes in one wonders if the disc is accidentally playing a surrealist film in error. Day Of Reckoning is ambitious (lofty themes of identity, memory and revenge abound), styles change without warning and the soundtrack is like a particularly trippy episode of Space: 1999. Director John Hyams returns as director from 2010's Regeneration, and amongst the strangeness shows that he can create strong action set-pieces as well, including a knock-out smackdown in a sports store and another seemingly single-take sequence in which John systematically takes out a succession of soldiers. Van Damme (looking increasingly like Bruce Willis's dad) and Lundgren are used sparingly but purposefully. Echoes of Apocalypse Now and Memento are significant, making this an intriguing, unpredictable and totally unexpected direct-to-DVD franchise entry.
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