Al servicio del Presidente

"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.

Browsing idly among the movie list on satellite TV I happened on this gem, of which I had no previous knowledge. I watched it through to the bitter end, wondering all the time whether it would lapse into reality, or continue to provide yet another surprise. Suffice it to say that, with the labyrinthine windings of the plot, the intercutting of scenes, the wonderful stereotypes effortlessly portrayed together with the sheer improbability of the story, placed this film in a class of its own for entertainment value (in the fullest sense of the word) and I would recommend it as a good way to pass an hour or two. One mystery, however, remains unsolved - why are all these highly trained people such bad shots and why do they have weapons which rarely, if ever, require reloading ? I was, incidentally,much taken with Iris, the Chinese undercover agent (Korean actress, actually)- she deserves better parts in better films !

This is one seriously absurd movie. I don't mind watching B movies and usually I know what I'm going to see when I do, but this definitely surprised me - and not in a good way.

The cast was quite impressive, Roy Scheider (from the classic 'Jaws'), Michael Biehn (from the classic 'The Terminator'), Maria Conchita Alonso (from the classic 'The Running Man') and Patrick Muldoon (from the not-so-classic 'Starship Troopers'). It is hard to believe that the first two actors mentioned have been reduced to this. Michael Biehn's talents are again wasted as a two-bit henchman and he seems to be acting with his eyes closed, while Roy Scheider seems as if he would rather be back on Seaquest DSV rather than being this hapless president. Muldoon is what you expect from a B movie hero and his acting couldn't be any more boring.

It was like the script wanted to go against everything in the book by killing off several characters who should of lived and having major cities actually bombed (when usually they are just threatened), but I guess to balance things out, they made most of the characters typically stereo-typed. My main problem with this film though was that they portrayed the Chinese as inept and unreasonable, and they weren't even the bad guys! It was as if the makers thought that if they do something really outrageous it may work, but no viewer would ever believe that anything in this film could happen. You may want to watch this just to see how bad and how contrived this is.

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!!

A by-the-numbers action thriller elevated by some intriguing situations and nice surprises. There are some unlikely plot contrivances, but these are balanced by (to me) convincing portrayals of the tense scenes that would arise from the 'football' falling into the wrong hands. I also liked the way that the standard shoot-em-up action is balanced with the negotiation scenes. And casting a Hispanic woman as the Vice President - hats off!