Scott LeBrun 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.

Comeuppance Reviews 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.

sol1218 ***SPOILERS*** Boring and ridicules action adventure straight to video flick with ex-green beret Merrill Ross, David Dudikoff, getting involved with this anti-government group in the oil rich Arab country of Oumir who's objectives are as confusing as the movies storyline. Ross gets involved with all this insanity by being the only one to survive an attack on the oil rig that he works for where all he American workers like himself were killed or taken hostage by the the terrorists who destroyed it.Lead by the ultra and super hairy, with more hair on his head then the hair on the singing group "The Beatles" combined, gun toting Rawings, Todd Curtis, these terrorist are making it look like the revolutionary Oumir Liberation Front did their dirty work in order to discredit it. And it's now up to Ross to make things straight in the movie. Ross and together with the ultra sultry and alluring Mossad Israeli secret agent Myra Robenowitz played by sexy Keren Tishman, in her first and only film appearance, ends up doing just that.The hot and heavy action is what makes the film "Chain of Command" watchable with Ross despite all the close calls he has never has his neatly styled hair mussed up or his immaculately clean and pressed clothes as much as wrinkled. There's also the villain in the film big US oil man Ben Brewster,R.Lee Emery, who's behind all this killing and destruction in order to get control of Oumir's rich oil reserves. There's also a side story about the nation of Oumir secretly negotiation a peace treaty and favored nation status with the state of Israel, the Muslim worlds sworn and eternal enemy, that seemed to go nowhere and is dropped halfway though the film never to be brought up again.***SPOILERS*** Life and death slug fest between Ross and Rawings at the conclusion of the movie which was about as hilarious as any three stooges short. With Ross on the brink of death suddenly pulling an ace from up his sleeve and cue-balling Rawings, in the side pocket, with his trusty pool stick.

lao zing The 80s was over, as the Reagen inspired shoot em ups where all but extincted. However Cannon film company continued to crank out these actioners with there leading main man Michael Dudikoff.However this little feature i nor Dudikoff's or cannon's finest hour. Just for starters, i would like to tell you a little about the plot, but i'am prevented as its a mess. All what i could get out of it, was the fact that ex American special forces officer Merril Ross (Dudikoff) is forced to save some hostages taken by a band of mercenaries led by Rawlings (Todd Curtis on a bad hair day) in the fictional country of Qumir. However then the plot thickens and becomes more complex as suddenly the head of a oil company over there Benjamin Brewster ( R. Lee Ermey) decides to try and steal the countries money or something like that. Throw into the mix love interest Maya Robenowitz (Karen Tishman) and you have one boring film.The complicated plot just seems to slow the film down and there is very little action in it. Only two short piecies of Merril firing two Ak's at once which is quiet refreshing, so i'd say only about 40 people die during the course of this film.