Chain of Command (2000)

I gave it a 7.5 out of 10

It's fun, it's light, [but] it has a hard time when its tries to get heavy.

Go in cold, and you're likely to emerge with your blood boiling. This has to be seen to be believed.

Not sure how, but this is easily one of the best movies all summer. Multiple levels of funny, never takes itself seriously, super colorful, and creative.

"Chain of Command," hereby referred to as COC, is one of those sleepers that packs a serious punch. Graced by cinematic stars such as Roy Scheider, Maria Conchita Alonso, Michael Biehn, and Patrick Muldoon, COC is full of action, suspense, and excellent acting. Ric Young, who plays the despotic and sinister character "Fung," gives a stellar and credible performance. Michael Biehn makes a major departure from his stereotypical good guy roles, and serves as a mean-spirited, incorrigible traitor. If you liked films such as "Escape From New York" and "Executive Decision," I believe you will really enjoy COC. Although it is not a big-budget blockbuster with perks such as gratuitous sex and violence, it must be appreciated for its action and suspense.

Poorly done political actioner. Badly photographed, acted, and directed. Every single scene is underlighted, including those very few that are shot during the daytime. It doesn't matter what the location is. At an important conference in the White House, no lights are on, and the only available lighting is a gloomy blue that is filtered through a few windows. The primier of China conducts an earth-shattering phone conversation under conditions of such intense chiaroscuro that he should be contemplating a bust of Homer in a Rembrandt painting. Honest. It's as if he had a tiny spotlight on his face and was otherwise in total darkness. The slow motion deaths are by now obligatory in any ill-thought-out movie.Roy Scheider and Maria Conchita Alonzo do well by their roles, but Scheider is rarely on screen. The other performances are dismissable. There is a pretty Oriental woman in a short tight skirt who totes a gun and is right out of a Bond movie who's accent suggests a childhood spent in Basset, Nebraska, and who should have remained the model she probably started out as. Whoever plays the surviving Secret Service agent aboard the cruise ship was probably picked for the part because he looked most like Johnny Depp, not because of any display of talent. The Chinese villains, representing both Taiwan and mainland China, hiss and grin as they threaten the heroes. The script is pretty awful, recycled from other, better films. There is a lot of shooting aboard the ship and practically everyone winds up mincemeat. Two thirds of the way through, the ship explodes into the expected series of fireballs. Then the movie splits into two related parts. Part one, another shootout, this time in a waterfront warehouse. Part two, an exchange between the Vice President, now acting president, and the oily Chinese premiere, lifted out of both "Dr. Strangelove" and "Fail Safe." We unwittingly launch our missiles. They launch theirs in retaliation. We cannot convince them that our launch was accidental, even though we offer to help them destroy our own missiles. There is even the George C. Scott/ Walter Matthau general who argues that their "nucular" armory can't match ours so we should hit them with everything we've got. More fireballs. The end comes none too soon.

Incredibly bad film that got B-movie written all over it. Overlong, boring and most of the cast delivers bad performances. Including Michael Biehn and he is the only reason I rented this piece of crap. Its stealing from Airforce One and its not working. And its completely ridicoulus that the president would ever be allowed to be alone without secret service agents to protect him. That would never happen in real life. Stupid movie!!

I really enjoyed this film. I have always liked Roy Scheider and he was really good in it. Muldoon did allright even though i don't really like him. It was kinda like a B-version of Die hard. If only they would have had a bigger budget then it would have been a 10. See it!