Second in Command (Video 2006)

Second in Command: Directed by Simon Fellows. With Jean-Claude Van Damme, Julie Cox, Alan McKenna, Razaaq Adoti. The new military attache is also second in command at the US embassy in “Moldavia”. The loser at the recent presidential election isn’t letting that stop him. The president seeks protection at the US embassy bringing it under attack.

“The film sees Van Damme star as Sam Keenan who is given the task of protecting the new president of Moldavia (made up? Maybe!) from violent protesters and ardent supporters of the countryu0026#39;s previous regime. Essentially this is a siege movie, and with a plot somewhat resembling Dolph Lundgrenu0026#39;s The Defender. Both movies are very similarly toned, however while Lundgren received mostly positives from that film (and more so from his directorial follow up the Mechanik) Van Damme will probably not earn the plaudits on this one. Now the man himself is not the problem, but the film suffers from amateurish direction and overly ambitious delivery of itu0026#39;s ideas in which the film tries to deliver the requisite amount of atypically military imagery. For instance helicopters make appearances in this film, only mostly they are poorly done CGI helicopters. As such the films attempt to look more expensive results in it looking cheaper. This is where SIC fails and where The Defender did not.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eThe direction from Simon Fellows lacks imagination, cohesion and competence. The trouble is the director is too quick to try and mimic certain styles from other directors. There is also too much compensation made in the editing room. Many of Fellowu0026#39;s stylistic choices do not work and only serve to hinder the film and whereas Dolph Lundgren made the Defender taut and polished, SIC is sometimes a little slipshod. However as the film progresses, Fellows gets a little more controlled. On a technical standpoint the rest of the film is okay, with mostly polished cinematography and an okay musical score.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eThe cast are good with Van Damme ably supported by Raz Adoti, Julie Cox and Alan Mckenna and William Tapley. Jean Claude himself is good in a pretty straight down the middle kind of role. Heu0026#39;s not required to stretch as much as in Wake Of Death, but Van Damme gives his role a humanity and the role some conviction and thus adds depth to the 2 dimensional character as written on the page. Van Damme is certainly developing as an actor and he now adds so much to roles that other action stars would simply do competently. JC has improved so much and in regards to the action stars of the moment Van Damme is the most interesting as an actor. I certainly hope he stretches himself in future roles, cause I think having matured as a person he has a world weariness to him and an inner depth that shows up in his last few roles and there is now something going on behind those eyes.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eThe action in the film is okay. In terms of hand to hand combat there as some nice brief flourishes from JC, and thereu0026#39;s a average length fight scene at the end but that suffers from poor editing and choice of shots. As for the rest itu0026#39;s primarily gunplay and Fellows chooses to go docu style which half walks and half doesnu0026#39;t. However the last half hour of the film is mostly action and the pace picks up nicely and we have a good amount of explosions going on.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eOverall this is not a write off and by no means one of Van Dammes worst. Itu0026#39;s good to have him back after a long wait following Wake Of Death, but understandably some fans may be disappointed. I can only say to them that Hard Corps promises much more and that also this film is far better than Seagalu0026#39;s recent turkeys. **1/2”