Chain of Command (1994) User Reviews

Par for the direct-to-video course

[briantrash · 4/10 · 27 March 2014]

My rating: 4 out of 10 (didn't care for it)

'Chain of Command' is a direct-to-video actioner, the last film and dying breath of The Cannon Group.

Well, for those who watch these kind of films regularly I hardly need to describe it. It's merely a variation on the same movie you've seen many times before, par for the course. The script doesn't make much sense a lot of the time and the acting is flimsy with very little if any character development, but that's okay because those things only exist to provide a framework for lots and lots of low budget shooting, stabbing, and exploding.

Watching the action sequences, I started feeling kind of nostalgic because they are sooo 70's and 80's in style – lots of slo-mo. Slo-mo of guys flying through the air when a grenade goes off, slo-mo of guys falling from ledges after getting shot, slo-mo of bombs exploding…so dramatic! Anyone who grew up watching television in that era knows the style I'm talking about; I guess at the time we all thought it was very theatrical. I suppose that technique hasn't been totally abandoned today, but still...the way it's done in films of that time has a look all its own.

Another element of the style that I got a kick out of was the way the main character can stand right out in the open in a gunfight without a care in the world. Despite there being a group of at least 10 guys blasting away at him he never gets a scratch, and, of course, manages to easily shoot every one them. Silly...oh well, you can't complain too much because even great movies like Star Wars pulled that kind of stuff.

Funny, too, are such wonderful scenes as when the villain has our weaponless hero on the run and forces him to take cover behind a hotel bar. Does the villain, emboldened by the fact that he has two submachine guns and our hero has nothing, walk behind the bar and shoot our hero at point blank range? No! He proceeds to use up every last bullet firing at the bar, the drinks, the stools, the mirror behind the bar, and the ceiling, finally stopping when he runs out of ammo so that our hero can make a run for it.

What we have here is a case of little boys who like to play with little firecrackers growing up into big boys who like to make movies where they play with big firecrackers. Films like this are really for one purpose...destruction porn. The thrill of watching all kinds of stuff get smashed or blown up. Now don't get me wrong, I'm no different than the next guy. I love a good action movie. But I also like an interesting script and engaging characters.

I said before that the acting's pretty flimsy but I guess I can't totally rip all of the performers in this movie. Michael Dudikoff, a legend of this genre, is really not all that bad at times. R. Lee Ermey is in this! Now there's an instantly recognizable character actor. Ermey's main henchman, Todd Curtis, has some surprisingly good acting chops; I actually found him to be the most natural and believable. Looking on IMDb I see that his resume ends not long after this movie, though. I wonder what happened.

Anyway, to sum up...movies like this are made for people who LIKE movies like this, and who am I to judge? It's not my cup of tea, but if you love tongue-in-cheek action flicks then you'll probably get a kick out of this. It has all the right ingredients: the unstoppable hero, the hot girl, the cheesy dialogue, and a healthy dose of mayhem and destruction.

Boringly slow Dudikoff flick

[williamsd-3 · 5/10 · 10 January 2006]

The 80s was over, as the Reagen inspired shoot em ups where all but extincted. However Cannon film company continued to crank out these actioners with there leading main man Michael Dudikoff.

However this little feature i nor Dudikoff's or cannon's finest hour. Just for starters, i would like to tell you a little about the plot, but i'am prevented as its a mess. All what i could get out of it, was the fact that ex American special forces officer Merril Ross (Dudikoff) is forced to save some hostages taken by a band of mercenaries led by Rawlings (Todd Curtis on a bad hair day) in the fictional country of Qumir. However then the plot thickens and becomes more complex as suddenly the head of a oil company over there Benjamin Brewster ( R. Lee Ermey) decides to try and steal the countries money or something like that. Throw into the mix love interest Maya Robenowitz (Karen Tishman) and you have one boring film.

The complicated plot just seems to slow the film down and there is very little action in it. Only two short piecies of Merril firing two Ak's at once which is quiet refreshing, so i'd say only about 40 people die during the course of this film.

Chain of Confusion

[sol1218 · 4/10 · 8 October 2012]

***SPOILERS*** Boring and ridicules action adventure straight to video flick with ex-green beret Merrill Ross, David Dudikoff, getting involved with this anti-government group in the oil rich Arab country of Oumir who's objectives are as confusing as the movies storyline. Ross gets involved with all this insanity by being the only one to survive an attack on the oil rig that he works for where all he American workers like himself were killed or taken hostage by the the terrorists who destroyed it.

Lead by the ultra and super hairy, with more hair on his head then the hair on the singing group "The Beatles" combined, gun toting Rawings, Todd Curtis, these terrorist are making it look like the revolutionary Oumir Liberation Front did their dirty work in order to discredit it. And it's now up to Ross to make things straight in the movie. Ross and together with the ultra sultry and alluring Mossad Israeli secret agent Myra Robenowitz played by sexy Keren Tishman, in her first and only film appearance, ends up doing just that.

The hot and heavy action is what makes the film "Chain of Command" watchable with Ross despite all the close calls he has never has his neatly styled hair mussed up or his immaculately clean and pressed clothes as much as wrinkled. There's also the villain in the film big US oil man Ben Brewster,R.Lee Emery, who's behind all this killing and destruction in order to get control of Oumir's rich oil reserves. There's also a side story about the nation of Oumir secretly negotiation a peace treaty and favored nation status with the state of Israel, the Muslim worlds sworn and eternal enemy, that seemed to go nowhere and is dropped halfway though the film never to be brought up again.

***SPOILERS*** Life and death slug fest between Ross and Rawings at the conclusion of the movie which was about as hilarious as any three stooges short. With Ross on the brink of death suddenly pulling an ace from up his sleeve and cue-balling Rawings, in the side pocket, with his trusty pool stick.

not Dudikoff's best

[MichaelM24 · 11 April 2002]

Unusual for Michael Dudikoff, he plays a foul-mouthed character, an ex-Green Beret who now works for an American oil company in a foreign country. The "F" word flies left and right from the Dudemeister's mouth as he winds up the only survivor of a massacre at the refinery he's there to inspect. He ultimately learns that his superiors are up to no good, lead by Lee Ermey. Not one of my favorite Dudikoff films, but there's some good moments throughout. The opening titles are pretty cool, with the credits set against a montage of oil fields with some cool music playing, Keren Tishman is gorgeous in her (to date) one and only film role, and the long climactic fight between Dudikoff and Todd Curtis is well-executed. But, it doesn't make the list as one of my favorite Dudikoff films.

Wild!

[BandSAboutMovies · 5/10 · 11 August 2022]

Merrill Ross (Michael Dudikoff) was once a Green Beret but now he's the employee of an company in the Middle Eastern nation of Qumiri. The company gets attacked, his co-workers are taken hostage and Ross must battle through rebels and the CIA to make sure that his friends get out alive.

The bad guy is Rawlings (Todd Curtis), who you will love as much as you will hate. His permed up hair is astoudning, as is his devotion to his craft, explaining to those he's torturing or fighting just how he plans on using their nerve endings to kill them. The scene where he explains the pleasure and torture zones to Keren Tishman is just...deranged. In the best of ways.

Meanwhile, R. Lee Ermey is the Texas oil tycoon causing so much of this insanity to happen.

Dudikoff is way against type in this. Smoking, drinking, swearing. But then he mows down twenty people without reloading and you realize, yeah, this is the movie you turned up for.

This is the kind of movie where Dudikoff stabs a dude with a pool cue and the villain responds with, "My mama said there'd be days like this."

Though Chain of Command was released in other countries in 1994, its U. S. video release wasn't until January of 1996, making it the final Cannon movie released in America.

The dying breath of Cannon Group

[Maziun · 1/10 · 22 August 2015]

Another bad straight to video action movie with Michael Dudikoff , whose career (well ,at least in the B-class action cinema) went downhill after the end of 80's. This is another low budget movie that only action junkies should enjoy. I like action movies , but they should have engaging story and interesting characters for me to work.

The story is so convoluted that I don't even think it makes sense. The plot is just so hard to follow that it's impossible to care about anything what's happening in the movie. I appreciate action movies with complex plots ( for example The Bourne movies) , but this is not the case here. This is just some nonsense.

There is very little action here and when it happens… Well , the action is VERY poor. There is lot of slow motion shootouts and unfortunately they aren't done with John Woo class. The bad guys have such bad aim that it is embarrassing. They are just as bad as Storm troopers from "Star wars" trilogy. Lot's of low budget shooting , explosions and stabbing. Nothing stands out , everything is generic.

Michael Dudikoff ("American ninja") gives an adequate performance here. R. Lee Ermey ("Full metal jacket") seems to be lost and doesn't do anything memorable. Todd Curtis is quite solid as the villain , but it's impossible to take him seriously because of his RIDICULOUS hairstyle. Karen Tishman is a obligatory love interest, This is her first and only movie and it's not hard to understand why. She is ABSOLUTELY HORRIBLE here , but she is so SMOKIN HOT that you can forgive her.

This is one boring film. Avoid it. It was made by Cannon , so it should tell how much quality is here. The best part of the movie are the opening credits which look and sound cool. Watch them and don't watch the rest of the movie. I give it 1/10.

"Company's calling and it don't look happy"

[hwg1957-102-265704 · 4/10 · 12 November 2022]

A western oil company tries to take over an eastern oil country but is thwarted by our hero, Merrill Ross, played by Michael Dudikoff, somehow. Am not sure what went on really but on the whole it's a dull film. Dudikoff plays a role beyond his range as an actor, Keren Tishman is hilariously awful and even R. Lee Ermey is underwhelming in the few scenes he is in. The only character that was interesting was Rawlings played entertainingly evilly by Todd Curtis. Mr. Curtis has strangely sparse film credits to his name which is a shame as he was definitely the best thing in this movie. There are some nice explosions and the action is adequate, It's a low budget actioner from Cannon Films in its twilight years so one shouldn't expect much I suppose.

The Dudikoff abides.

[Hey_Sweden · 5/10 · 7 December 2015]

Action genre star Michael Dudikoff here gets a chance to stretch himself ever so slightly, playing a more potty mouthed character than usual. He's a former military man now working as an oil refinery inspector in the Middle East. He almost immediately gets caught up in a conspiracy to take over the oil rich country of "Qumir", and is thought to be an American operative gone bad. He works his way up the chain of command as he attempts to find out who is behind the plot, and in the meantime banters with a sexy American agent (Keren Tishman) whose name *might* be Maya.

The Cannon Group was making its last gasp with programmers such as this one. Directed by David Worth, it lacks distinction for the most part. The action scenes are passable, the opening credits sequence is stylish, and the photography is reasonably impressive. The story is absolutely nothing special. This doesn't mean, however, that the movie isn't without some pleasures. It's got a flamboyant villain in the form of Todd Curtis' mercenary Rawlings, who has a hilariously bad hair day throughout. The final fight between Dudikoff and Curtis is pretty fun. "Chain of Command" gets another shot in the arm thanks to reliable veteran R. Lee Ermey, who's a pleasure to watch as a slick oil company kingpin. Dudikoff himself delivers a fairly engaging performance, and has some mild chemistry with Tishman.

Mostly recommended just to die hard Cannon Group completists and Dudikoff fans.

Five out of 10.

Generally entertaining Dudikoff outing.

[tarbosh22000 · 7/10 · 9 May 2014]

Merrill Ross (Dudikoff) is an ex-Green Beret who now works as a consultant for an oil refining company in the country of Qumir in the Middle East. When terrorists take over the facility, this starts a chain of events that lead Ross through a complex series of double crosses and entanglements involving the CIA, the Qumir government, the terrorists, oil barons, and the militia groups fighting the terrorists. Can he trust the mysterious Maya Robenowitz (Tishman)? See if Ross can negotiate his way through this quagmire tonight! Dudikoff is at his most personable and happy-go-lucky here, and this sort of upbeat performance undoubtedly carries the movie. At 97 minutes, Chain of Command drags at times. This could easily have been remedied by chopping 7 minutes, but Dudikoff's performance buoys the movie nevertheless. Because the main baddie, Rawlings (Curtis), strongly resembles Michael Angelo from Nitro (and has the laugh-out-loud hairstyle that that would imply), and Dudikoff has his trademark cool hair, it's truly a case of cool hair vs. evil hair in true 80's style, even though this movie is from the 90's.

We also see R. Lee Ermey with glasses, a mustache and a bolo tie, and Keren Tishman, who plays Maya, is a horrid actress, but, interestingly, gets hotter as the movie goes on. The jaunty music matches Dudikoff's personality this time around, but still there are some classic clichés such as guard-tower falls/blow-ups, and the prerequisite wacky taxi driver. Speaking of that, this seems to have been shot in some of the same locations as previous Cannon vehicle Deadly Heroes. As far as room decor, there are multiple pictures of Bill Clinton on the walls. Not just presidential portraits, mind you, but one is a painting lovingly recreating his moment on the Arsenio Hall show where he wore sunglasses and played the saxophone! Director David Worth, of Air Strike fame (?), does a competent, if silly job, and underrated actor/director/stunt-coordinator Guy Norris is also on hand. Norris directed Rage and Honor 2: Hostile Takeover, and also worked in various capacities on Day of the Panther and Hurricane Smith, among many other things. His profile as someone in the film industry should be higher.

And we can't possibly overlook the brilliant, hard-rockin' tunes by Canadian band Slash Puppet: "When the Whip Comes Down", and "Rippin' on a Wishbone". These songs are pure hair metal, coming rather late in the day for that sort of music. But they are enjoyable and basically disposable, much like Chain of Command itself. Slash Puppet I tell you. Slash Puppet.

So is Chain of Command one of the best Dudikoffs or one of the best Cannons? No, not really, but you gotta love how 80's-style action continued to thrive into the 90's with this generally entertaining outing.

This is a very descent and family comment

[nleyap · 8/10 · 7 April 2006]

I have also watched this movie several times. Something tells me to watch it over and over again .

This shows that it was well planned and acted. Everything has room for improvement otherwise I would have awarded Michael 100%.

Ihave also watched most of Michael's movies and never at any time did I regret going to the movie house or buying the movies themselves. I do have a collection of his movies which shows how interesting they are.One thing I also like is that when he is supposed to be violent he does that and if he decides to be cool , he does not have a problem with adjusting.

But my question though is , why don't the movie stars combined just for one or two movies and see what they come up with. The may produce a gem.

Keep up the good work Mr Duddikoff

Praise Nleya Box 8112 Belmont Bulawayo Zimbabwe Africa