Second In Command (2006)

Once upon a time, not too long ago, around the late 80′s to mid 90′s, there was a surge in action stars on the big and small screens. There are several folks on the internet who feel, like most of that generation of action stars, the best days are behind them, and the majority of pictures they do nowadays goes right to the video shelves. One such action star, Jean Claude Van Damme, so much as appeared in two pictures a year, back in those good old days. Strangely, unlike Steven Seagal or Dolph Lundgren, Van Damme’s DTV flicks of late turn out to be low budget decent action efforts. Second In Command is no exception.

Van Damme plays Commander Sam Keenan, who is promoted to the number two position during a small Euro country named Moldavia’s political unrest. The rebel forces despise not only President Amiren and his supporters, but also the Americans present in the country, which include soldiers and the like, but right from the start of the fiilm, the journalists get the worst of it. I’m not exactly sure why bad guy Tavarov (played by Velibor Topic) would have his mob gun down the press. After all, their main adversary is Amiren, who is believed to be guilty of war crimes. This guy is the alleged equal to Slobodan Milosovic, and if such a thing were so, the reporters would most likely be your new best friends.

Michelle (Julie Cox) is one of these reporters, and knows Keenan, uh, shall we say ‘rather well’. While Amiren is under asylum in the US Embassy, the Embassy is under siege like the Alamo, and the story has to make it clear Tararov is a bad guy, and not someone else’s patriot: he has Michelle hostage, and isn’t afraid to knock off cameramen. The bulk of the picture is rescues, retreats and gunplay. For a Van Damme pic, that will suffice. For those looking for a few martial arts moves, there isn’t a lot, but there are some good fights, including one with knives, and a painful one as a thug gets in the eyes, after being man-handled not once but twice. For a short while, I wasn’t a big fan of the shutter speed effects- as helmer Simon Fellows also wants to toss in a Black Hawk Down feel early on for good measure. The explosion effects could have been better handled, and the old cliche of secret tunnels under Government buildings are an old staple but are also a hoot. Nor did I care for the romance between Keenan and Michelle, as I felt it wasn’t needed. One of these days someone’s going to make an action picture and have the hero save a pivotal character that they don’t know personally. You know, just helping someone out because it’s their freaking job.

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Second In Command

Directed by: Simon Fellows
Starring : Jean Claude Van Damme, Julie Cox, Velibor Topic and William Tapley.

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