Second in Command (2006)

To me, this movie is perfection.

hyped garbage

Beautiful, moving film.

It's the kind of movie you'll want to see a second time with someone who hasn't seen it yet, to remember what it was like to watch it for the first time.

Another reviewer commented that this was "the second best JCVD direct to DVD" which I think sums it up nicely.I am "the third most powerful person... in the South Croydon model railway society" don't you know.The first thing that put me off this movie was the obvious political angle, then the shaky camera-work started.. Get this straight all you director types out there, shaky camera work does not 'add tension', it makes it look like you spent a tenth of your $10 budget on cheap equipment and staff with Parkinson's disease.Next up is the 'in your face' plot, I like a bit of a plot but I don't like it in the dialogue. Remember that original cut of Bladerunner? Where they added the commentary? Someone obviously said post production that this movie is too hard to understand, so they added the narration to make it more accessible. Well it seems that these days, some producers assume their audience are idiots up-front and write the narration into the script.Then there is JC's wooden performance, I got so sick of this I actually turned on my radio scanner and listened to the local airport traffic whilst staring into space at my mahogany desk... because between the two of them the script and performance were better.The same reviewer who rated this "the second best JCVD direct to DVD" also proclaimed that people who didn't like it where "haters", its just not like that. This sort of fanatical attitude is going to rot your brain as you force yourself to watch movies which you don't even find entertaining.Yes, I watched it because it had JCVD in it but that is because I remember some of his better films... nothing against JC, someone pays you to do a movie you take the job, you need the money! However just having Van Damme in it does not make it a good movie.The only reason JCVD got away with Universal Soldier was because the part actually called for him to play a corpse.In short, there is a reason this production went straight to DVD. Bad writing, bad direction, poor camera-work, forced plot and the wrong actor for the role. (Or perhaps the wrong role for this actor.)JCVD is great when he high kicks a lot of people in the face and goes "ARRGGHH" for very simple reasons. I spend all day working in laboratories with computers and numbers and watched this because I thought "Ahh, a JCVD movie, I can switch off... its all action and nothing complicated." Instead I found this movie unbearable not for its lack of action but for its lack of absolutely everything else you need to make a good movie.

Second in Command is set in the civil war torn Eastern European country of Moldovia, there the situation is at critical as the newly elected President Yuri Amirev (Serban Celea) tries to Govern his people. However he has a huge insurgent problem, a 500 plus strong group of militia lead by Anton Tavarov (Velibor Topic), while trying to storm the Presidential Palace & seize control of the country several civilians are shot & killed by Palace guards which sends the angry mob into a violent frenzy. At the US Embassy ambassador George Norland (Colin Stinton) & his second in command, ex navy seal Commander Sam Keenan (Jean-Claude Van Damme), organise & carry out rescue mission in which President Amirev is saved from the insurgents & sheltered in the US Embassy. With US relations already low in Moldavia the Embassy becomes the point of attack for the insurgents who are determined to overthrow President Amirev...This American Romanian co-production was directed by Simon Fellows & as far as I am concerned Second in Command is pretty poor even by JCVD standards whose films are usually fun & watchable if nothing else. The script is a sort of poor mans cross between Black Hawk Down (2001) with it's story about US military soldiers trapped in some anti American country up against local militia with the base under siege plot of Assault on Precinct 13 (1976, 2005) & there's even a Zulu (1964) style against all the odds fight at the end where the good guy's are badly outnumbered by the enemy but still carry on under impossible odds. To give Second in Command some credit I thought the story was alright & it certainly moves along at a good pace, there isn't much boring exposition but that obviously comes at the expense of the character's & the marines in particular suffer in this regard as it's very difficult to tell who is who since they all look the same & aren't even given names. The action is quite small scale, JCVD doesn't get to use his moves very often, there's that whole somewhat cheesy American patriotism in the face of overwhelming odds type sentimentality & was it just me or did it seem like no-one else lived in Moldovia apart from US soldiers & heavily armed insurgents? Where were the local population?As usual JCVD gets to be the hero, despite all the evidence pointing to one solution & one way JCVD opposes it for no good reason & then turns out to be totally right & he gets to save the day, save the US civilians, the Moldovian President & therefore the entire country. Just in a days work for JCVD really. The storyline in Second in Command is very topical & could be said to be based on some sort of realistic foundation, or you could say Second in Command uses the current political climate to hang a less than average JCVD action flick on. Whichever way you want to look at it I suppose. The single most annoying & irritating aspect of Second in Command is the cinematography, it's awful shaky hand-held camcorder stuff which I just hate anyway. You know, it's when the camera twitches, jerks, sways & just feels like it's being operated by someone who is drunk. I hate hand-held shaky camcorder cinematography, it's used quite often these days yet I don't know a single person who likes it. Why do filmmakers continue to use this style? Where's the evidence that people actually like it? The action set-pieces aren't great, there's a few shoot-outs, a couple of fights, an exploding bus & that's about it.With a supposed budget of about $12,000,000 Second in Command feels very cheap, the awful hand-held cinematography, the small scale action & some poor CGI work don't help either. Although set in Moldovia this was filmed in Bucharest in Romania. The acting isn't anything to write home about & JCVD seems to be on autopilot here & pretty much phones in his performance.Second in Command is very much second rate JCVD, if this is anything to go by his Universal Solider (1992), Hard Target (1993), Timecop (1994) & Sudden Death (1995) days are long behind him. Still, he has made worse than this although that's certainly no recommendation.

As an action flick "Second in Command" is nothing we haven't seen and it's based on a very unoriginal plot. Featuring an American intelligence or military action in a poverty ridden Eastern European Country. The problem with some of these movies is that the production staff does very little if any research. As if people who make these movies don't expect these movies to be shown in those Eastern European Countries they portray. Things like a Rebel Leader swearing in Serbian or Croatian language while speaking on the phone to Van Damm - from what I know in Moldavia or presently known as Moldova local population speaks Moldavian (romanian dialect) and Russian. I give this movie 2 for the lack of research and unoriginality.

Worth watching? Yes if you want to see how badly a film can be made. Hand held-style filming is jerky, misses subjects. Special effect in this hand held filming is a sudden zoom jump for no apparent reason or artistic benefit. Hammy filming at its worst. Corny? Save the girl, doesn't matter if any one else dies. Then the real corny child shot at the end. A hero film cannot work without a child being saved. Eh? Dialogue? Attempt at army speak to make it sound tough. Not much else. J-C must have been desperate to deviate from his usual blood and honour plots to make this. Just goes to show that you do not need a good script or good filming to get something produced. If you have seen assault on precinct 13, then you might recognise the theme.