Chain of Command

Unusual for Michael Dudikoff, he plays a foul-mouthed character, an ex-Green Beret who now works for an American oil company in a foreign country. The "F" word flies left and right from the Dudemeister's mouth as he winds up the only survivor of a massacre at the refinery he's there to inspect. He ultimately learns that his superiors are up to no good, lead by Lee Ermey. Not one of my favorite Dudikoff films, but there's some good moments throughout. The opening titles are pretty cool, with the credits set against a montage of oil fields with some cool music playing, Keren Tishman is gorgeous in her (to date) one and only film role, and the long climactic fight between Dudikoff and Todd Curtis is well-executed. But, it doesn't make the list as one of my favorite Dudikoff films.

While I had actually heard about this 1994 action thriller titled "Chain of Command" before, I never had the opportunity to watch it. At least not before now in 2025. And as the chance presented itself, of course I opted to check out what I had been missing out on and to see what director David Worth had to offer.

Writers Christopher Applegate and Ben Jonson Handy put together a fair enough script and storyline. I mean, it wasn't a particularly exciting or thrilling narrative, but it was a watchable enough action thriller, but there were far better movies of the same kind back in the day, so "Chain of Command" wasn't an outstanding movie.

Of the entire cast ensemble, I was only familiar with actors Michael Dudikoff and R. Lee Ermey. The acting performances in the movie were fair.

If you enjoy early 1990s action movies, then there are far better choices than "Chain of Command".

My rating of director David Worth's 1994 movie "Chain of Command" lands on a four out of ten stars.

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.

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.