Second in Command is set in the civil war torn Eastern European country of Moldovia, there the situation is at critical as the newly elected President Yuri Amirev (Serban Celea) tries to Govern his people. However he has a huge insurgent problem, a 500 plus strong group of militia lead by Anton Tavarov (Velibor Topic),while trying to storm the Presidential Palace & seize control of the country several civilians are shot & killed by Palace guards which sends the angry mob into a violent frenzy. At the US Embassy ambassador George Norland (Colin Stinton) & his second in command, ex navy seal Commander Sam Keenan (Jean-Claude Van Damme),organise & carry out rescue mission in which President Amirev is saved from the insurgents & sheltered in the US Embassy. With US relations already low in Moldavia the Embassy becomes the point of attack for the insurgents who are determined to overthrow President Amirev...

This American Romanian co-production was directed by Simon Fellows & as far as I am concerned Second in Command is pretty poor even by JCVD standards whose films are usually fun & watchable if nothing else. The script is a sort of poor mans cross between Black Hawk Down (2001) with it's story about US military soldiers trapped in some anti American country up against local militia with the base under siege plot of Assault on Precinct 13 (1976, 2005) & there's even a Zulu (1964) style against all the odds fight at the end where the good guy's are badly outnumbered by the enemy but still carry on under impossible odds. To give Second in Command some credit I thought the story was alright & it certainly moves along at a good pace, there isn't much boring exposition but that obviously comes at the expense of the character's & the marines in particular suffer in this regard as it's very difficult to tell who is who since they all look the same & aren't even given names. The action is quite small scale, JCVD doesn't get to use his moves very often, there's that whole somewhat cheesy American patriotism in the face of overwhelming odds type sentimentality & was it just me or did it seem like no-one else lived in Moldovia apart from US soldiers & heavily armed insurgents? Where were the local population?

As usual JCVD gets to be the hero, despite all the evidence pointing to one solution & one way JCVD opposes it for no good reason & then turns out to be totally right & he gets to save the day, save the US civilians, the Moldovian President & therefore the entire country. Just in a days work for JCVD really. The storyline in Second in Command is very topical & could be said to be based on some sort of realistic foundation, or you could say Second in Command uses the current political climate to hang a less than average JCVD action flick on. Whichever way you want to look at it I suppose. The single most annoying & irritating aspect of Second in Command is the cinematography, it's awful shaky hand-held camcorder stuff which I just hate anyway. You know, it's when the camera twitches, jerks, sways & just feels like it's being operated by someone who is drunk. I hate hand-held shaky camcorder cinematography, it's used quite often these days yet I don't know a single person who likes it. Why do filmmakers continue to use this style? Where's the evidence that people actually like it? The action set-pieces aren't great, there's a few shoot-outs, a couple of fights, an exploding bus & that's about it.

With a supposed budget of about $12,000,000 Second in Command feels very cheap, the awful hand-held cinematography, the small scale action & some poor CGI work don't help either. Although set in Moldovia this was filmed in Bucharest in Romania. The acting isn't anything to write home about & JCVD seems to be on autopilot here & pretty much phones in his performance.

Second in Command is very much second rate JCVD, if this is anything to go by his Universal Solider (1992),Hard Target (1993),Timecop (1994) & Sudden Death (1995) days are long behind him. Still, he has made worse than this although that's certainly no recommendation.

Yes another best direct-to-video Jean-Claude Van Damme political action war flick. Another solid decent excellent performance from Jean-Claude Van Damme I really, really love the film a lot. I know a lot of people don't like this film, they more prefer "Wake of Death" I understand them I like Wake of Death but Second in Command is in my top 5 favorites direct to video movies from Van Damme he dis. Replicant, The Order, Enemies Closer, In Hell and this one I love, they are in my top 5 movies from direct-to-video Van Damme he has done.

I am a huge number 1 Jean-Claude Van Damme fan to death I love the guy I grew up with his movies. He is an animal lover like me and I also love dogs to death. Van Damme has 9 dogs and a kitty he is really a nice guy. I like these kind of characters Van Damme plays. Cmdr. Samuel Keenan I like his character a lot Van Damme also uses spin kicks. He plays a Navy Seal just like Seagal did he played Navy Seal in Under Siege but Van Damme played this role more convincing than Seagal. This movie to me is MILES way better than Legionnaire and Street Fighter those movies were also war films in which Van Damme did. Second in Command was more convincing too me more action packed. I like Julie Cox in this movie she is more convincing and I love that she is Van Damme's love interest and the movie has a happy ending.

The movie is about a group of U.S. Marines in U.S. embassy Eastern European nation of Moldova. U.S. Marines has to protect Moldova's President Yuri Amirev (Serban Celea) from Militia under lead by Anton Tavarov (Velibor Topic) who want's to kill Amirev at any cost and takes the power over his country. Only Commander Samuel Keenan a decorated U.S. Navy SEAL who becomes deputy ambassador "Second in Command" stands on his way. The movie is a politic action war in which the U.S. Embassy is under fire and under siege. Militia want's at any cost torn American Marines apart. Civilian people try to escape with the bus with the evacuation but the bomb explodes.

Jean-Claude Van Damme show's one of his martial arts. I love the finale fight between Van Damme and Tavarov. They are in the tunnels under ground of Embassy people trying to escape and the Militia is hunting them. Van Damme uses Beretta 92FS I really like that in the film. There is a lot of fire power in here from the Militia and American Marines. Van Damme did a convincing job playing his character than Steven Seagal did. Simon Fellows did a competent job directing the film and I really thought he did a great job directing the film.

Steven Seagal's Mercenary for Justice come out the same year on direct-to-video as this movie come out and Second in Command was miles way better movie too me than Mercenary for Justice. Jean-Claude Van Damme is a better action star than Steven Seagal ever will be.

Second in Command is a solid action packed political direct-to-video flick mixed with war from Jean-Claude Van Damme. I always loved the film, it think it is Van Damme's best direct-to-video film.

Van Damme's latest thriller is a low-budget riff on BLACK HAWK DOWN, complete with a foreign locale (this time it's the cheap-to-make-films-in Romania) and lots of scenes of arms-waving militia walking the streets and engaging in shoot-outs with the defending Americans. Essentially this is yet another siege film, as the heroes protect innocent people holed up in a single location and attempt to hold out against overwhelming numbers until help arrives. Except one of the problems with the low budget is that there aren't actually that many bad guys on screen at one, probably a dozen, and it's pretty obvious at times that extras are playing multiple parts.

In the film's favour, this boasts another decent performance from Van Damme, something that's become quite comment in his recent films. Van Damme is a likable, friendly type of guy throughout, and you find yourself rooting for him from the beginning. The supporting cast members (most of whom have 'graduated' from UK soaps) are okay, with the standouts being Velibor Topic's imposing rebel leader and Julie Cox's fragile reporter. The locations are passable and there are some decent big-bucks explosions at the film's climax, in which the CGI helicopters are the only things that don't convince. There is less action than you'd imagine, and Van Damme only gets to engage in a couple of fist fights. My main problem with the film is that director Simon Fellows seems to find it necessary to shoot his scenes in a juddery, hand-held camera style that always cuts away from the impact. This is particularly bad in the fight scenes, which are little more than blurred messes where you spend half the time trying to figure out who's hitting who.

Still, the film deserves kudos for the gory eye-gouging that Van Damme inflicts on one particularly unpleasant villain. If it wasn't for Fellows dropping the ball with some truly bad camera-work, SECOND IN COMMAND would have been a highly decent B-movie. As it stands, it's a watchable film with plenty of problems but one that somehow proves to be just as likable as its leading man.