Review: Second in Command


Jean-Claude Van Damme is a military attaché in Moldova, wherein under a time of unrest, a new President (Serban Celea) has been elected pretty much unanimously. A group of insurgents, led by Velibor Topic are trying to get into the U.S. Embassy to presumably kill the president and take over. The Duke…er…Van Damme leads a group of hard-ass marines holding the fort against seemingly insurmountable pressure from outside. Julie Cox is Van Damme’s journo girlfriend also caught up in it all, with Alan McKenna as her comrade. William Tapley all but froths at the mouth in a ridiculous performance as the resident A-hole government bureaucrat.



2006 Simon Fellows (Van Damme’s genuinely good “Until Death”) film isn’t anywhere near the same prestige as “Black Hawk Down”, but this blend of the aforementioned film and “The Alamo” still shows that Van Damme is trying hard to make good films. This isn’t a good one, but it’s not one of his bad ones either. An efficient Van Damme does the best with what he is given, and the last quarter is fairly tense stuff.



Unfortunately, there are problems. We get poor acting by the rest of the cast and a slow beginning including perhaps the most gratuitous love scene of all-time. Dude, there’s political unrest just outside your door for crying out loud and you’re gettin’ jiggy wit’ the missus? Mind you, I’ve seen worse military behaviour in my time. <cough> Abu Graib <cough>. I also have to say we’re dealt a somewhat familiar story here and the clichéd characters are debits too. Ultimately, it’s far from awful, I just didn’t get very involved in it. The director tries his best to capture the shaky-cam stuff so many other filmmakers have adopted for their military conflict films. Fellows isn’t as good at it, and I’m not a fan of the technique anyway, it shows laziness.



You’ve seen it before, and you’ve seen it better. You’ve also seen it worse. At least Van Damme, unlike the slumming Steven Seagal, is trying his best, though.



Rating: C+

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