Ultime Menace

This is pretty run of the mill stuff.

Its a bit more of an understated JCVD and that's not a bad thing.

The action is a bit basic as is the plot.

Would I watch it twice? No

Did I feel like I was suffering when I watched it? No

Jean-Claude Van Damme stars as a soldier who becomes the first in command after the ambassador is murdered by terrorists, along the way Van Damme comes up with a plan to get the soldiers and civilians out before the terrorists take over. Second In Command is one of Van Damme's more one note efforts. One in which reminds one of the vastly superior Sudden Death, however the problem with Second In Command is that it's just plain boring. Van Damme doesn't have really any hand to hand combat sequences and the shootouts are rarely exciting. Fellows tries to go for suspense and fails because the situation is so clichéd and the movie so uninspired. It's as if all the planning went on how to get Van Damme in the position of power and then didn't know what to do with the plot. In other words there just isn't enough plot or momentum in the story to make this all that entertaining. It's a movie that's forgettable and downright dull.

*1/2 out of 4-(Poor)

Jean-Claude Van Damme again as one army man , here he is an US commander assigned as second-in-command to the American Embassy in an Eastern European country called Moldavia . Then , communist rebels try a state coup . The official gets free the President and they take shelter into US Embassy nearly deserted that encounters itself under siege by violent insurgents . Meanwhile , Van Damme saves the damsel in disgrace, an enticing journalist (Julie Cox) and he along with a detachment of soldiers fight against nasty attackers which have surrounded the siege .

The picture packs noisy action , shoot-outs , explosions, politic intrigues and minimum characterization . It's exciting and tense , at time lackluster action film , but the blown ups , struggles , gun-play are well done in this routine actioner . The story is plenty of firepower , action packed , fights though is added an interesting politic suspense . Scott Adkins , who subsequently starred some film with Van Damme , was offered an important role but could not sign for it due to other commitments . Jean Claude Van Damme is fine as action hero in this middling budget film . Long time ago he played big budget movies (Time cop, Universal soldier, Double team , Hard target) , he nowadays makes low budget and directly to video (Derailed, Wake of death, In hell) like in his first films (Black eagle, Cyborg , Bloodsport). The film was well photographed by Douglas Milsone (Dungeons and dragons, Sunchaser, Body of evidence) in natural scenarios of Rumania though the coup détat was happened in Moldavia (ex-Republic of Russia) . The motion picture was professionally directed by Simon Fellows who directed a Wesley Snipes vehicle (7 seconds) and he recently directed ¨Until death¨ again with Jean Claude Van Damme . The film will appeal to action genre enthusiasts . Pointlessly energetic and occasionally fun for only the true devotee of main actor . It's a must see for Van Damme fans .

"Second in Command" is the best movie that I've seen with Jean-Claude Van Damme since his early films, "Bloodsport" of 1985, and "Lionheart" of 1990." As those films, this one has an interesting plot. There's more depth to the story than the usual fare of mayhem and gore in Van Damme films. As with some other of his films in the first decade of the 21st century, this film was made solely for video release. That may say a lot about the lack of ticket sales and profits from theater releases.

This film has a huge dose of the pyro-technics, mayhem and gore. But they don't consume most of the film. Instead, there's a plot with some realism about saving people in an American embassy. The story revolves around a rebellion in Moldova and an attack on the American embassy. The freely elected president of the country is being protected there. So, this film scores much better than the usual mindless mayhem of Van Damme films.

The idea of an embassy siege is not a contrived Hollywood plot. The fact that there have been such incidents in the recent past adds a sense of realism to the film. Of course, this was made before the Sept. 11, 2012 terrorist attack of the U.S. embassy in Benghazi, Libya, in which the American ambassador and others were killed.

The writers may have been inspired by real incidents of the past. The most successful large rescue happened in 1991. That took place in Somalia. Armed rebellion broke out in Mogadishu in January. People from several countries made their way to the U.S. embassy. The rescue was called Operation Eastern Exit. Two huge helicopters delivered a team of 60 Marines and Navy SEALS to the compound on January 5. The choppers returned to Guam with the first 61 evacuees. Then, after midnight on Jan. 6, the main rescue took place. Four waves of five Sea Knight helicopters each evacuated the entire compound. In the end, 281 people from 30 nations were rescued through the American embassy.

The tempo of this film is just all over the place. It pretty much instantly drops into action, but then the audio doesn't change suggesting something exciting should happen, when the following scene is just guys talking in an office. Then when action kicks in again it's brought on in a lurch, so whilst it's not surprising, it's not built up to either. The plot is okay, very 'America saves the world', or to be specific, 'Moldavia'.

The acting isn't particularly inspired and the dialogue nothing special, these again aren't helped by the audio. People talking in an empty room with nothing else to engage you with isn't too riveting. Plus, whilst the budget must have been fairly decent, on account of all the helicopter shots, etc., certain parts just come across as cheap. There are graphics, such as the army's ETA or sight through binoculars, which seem like they're more from a video game of the same period.

JCVD is the major draw here, but I wouldn't particularly say he's utilised or that this is a typical JCVD film. His martial arts aren't used for ages, and when they are, the fight scene looks a little lame due to camera shots. Many edgy shots throughout, poorly done.

Still, the ending is kind of interesting, it at least has an enticing ending (despite being predictable, the false ending is a little obvious). It doesn't do a lot right, but it's not atrocious, although I'd choose many JCVD films before this one.