I cannot think of one single thing that I would change about this film. The acting is incomparable, the directing deft, and the writing poignantly brilliant.

The best films of this genre always show a path and provide a takeaway for being a better person.

All of these films share one commonality, that being a kind of emotional center that humanizes a cast of monsters.

A terrific literary drama and character piece that shows how the process of creating art can be seen differently by those doing it and those looking at it from the outside.

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.

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.

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 fairly entertaining time waster,with a decent enough story and an amazing performance from Michael Dudikoff!. Most of the characters were good, and it had some cool action scenes, plus Michael Dudikoff is simply amazing in this!.Dudikoff carries this film, in my opinion, and he plays a really cool foul mouthed bad ass character, plus R Lee. Emery was great in his role!. The opening is somewhat disturbing, and the main fight at the end between Dudikoff and Todd Curtis is pretty decent, plus i thought Dudikoff's acting was fantastic!. However while Keren Tishman is stunningly gorgeous, she can't act, and her character was extremely grating, plus her and Dudikoff did not have any chemistry together what so ever in my opinion!. One scene that was unintentionally hilarious is when Rawlings (Tony Vurtis, main villain), ties up Maya (Keren Tishman), to a pool table, and some of the dialog was pretty bad however i kind of enjoyed it. This is a fairly entertaining time waster, with a decent enough story and an amazing performance from Michael Dudikoff!, worth the watch. The Direction is decent. David Worth does a decent job here, with some good camera work, good angles and keeping the film watchable throughout!. There is a tiny bit of blood and gore. We get quite a few bloody gunshot wounds, minor wounds and a very bloody impaling!. The Acting is pretty good. Michael Dudikoff is AMAZING as always, and is amazing here, he is very funny, played a really cool character, was fantastic in the acting department, was clearly enjoying himself, had some cool lines, and just did an amazing job overall! (Dudikoff Rules!!). Todd Curtis plays a bland villain here, and over acted, he wasn't that menacing, however he did seem to be enjoying himself. Keren Tishman is absolutely terrible here, she is stunningly gorgeous, but didn't convince me and had no chemistry with Duikoff, she also annoying, however she is very sexy!. R. Lee Ermey is great in his role, he had a cool character, however i wished he had more screen time, he's awesome!. Rest of the cast do okay. Overall worth the watch. **1/2 out of 5