I caught this routine, cliché ridden, action pic that rips off most action movies you have seen before, on TV last night, and in the absence of anything else on, I decided to give it a go since Roy Scheider can always be relied upon for a good performance, even if the movies themselves are not of the highest standard.What makes Chain of Command more interesting than the average action flick is good old Roy's President who seems clearly modelled on Bill Clinton and his womanising. The opening has him eyeing up his friends new wife while she plays tennis, and then it cuts to two Secret Service Men guarding a toilet door as Scheider has sex with her. One of them is Patrick Muldoon and he is the hero of the movie. He is dull, lifeless and is an awful actor. Scheider simply acts him off the screen every scene they share. Michael Beihn pops up as a nasty piece of work and he too does the same!!It has a little bit of a surprise ending, but it's nothing original

this is a nice film, pleasently suprised. far better than rating suggests.although the basic idea of good vs evil, one counrty vs another has been demonstrated time and tuime again (e.g. bond films) the twists in this film certainly set it apart. its wonderful entertainment -probably great chick flick to. nice acting - especially vice president, gerneal and president himself.the film starts out rather strange, lots of things going on - not clear how the film will go. however, everything unfolds very well, very clearly and at the right time. the presidential discussions are very lifelike and beliveable.the concept of this film (won't be revealed here) is very good, haven't seen anything quite like it. the twists are excellent, u think u know whats going on and ofocurse it turns your wrong or something unaccepted happens. the film is gripping, u want to know whats around the corner. time really flies.the action scenes are rather good too, sure not up there with james bond, but decent nevetherless. the sound is good too, perfect foir the type of film. the stunts are excellent - gerat martial arts action as well and guns and missiles.the best thing though, is how the good guys dont get what they want. quite simply all hell breaks loose. finally, a film where the bad guys cause serious permanent havoc.this film has everything. its an all in one for sure. this is every bit a blockbuster as a james bond or idependece day. great entertainment on a saturday with mates, and can be watched over and over agin

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 !

I at first thought this little fantasy excursion would be a little entertaining. I was wrong. A good cast (Roy Scheider as the president) didn't help it any. The story had every conceivable possible worst-case scenario that could take place in a terrorist nuclear disaster. And none of it could PLAUSIBLY happen! True -- the kidnapping of the President could only be accomplished with the inside help of a traitor in the Secret Service (ala Air Force One), but everything they depicted regarding the FOOTBALL and the helplessness of our country if were to fall into enemy hands is ludicrous to the Nth degree. Seriously, not even the President can fully over-ride our missile control. The case is only used to relay orders. In this situation, our system would have completely deleted the codes and the whole thing would go nowhere. The destruction of Beijing couldn't happen -- there would not have been a missile launch because the silo-crews would have been instructed not to (communications include a hardwired system). There are just too many safe-guards to prevent such a thing from happening. True, film's like FAIL-SAFE and STRANGELOVE gave some credibility to the concept of us losing control of THE SYSTEM. But this film goes too far and fails to suspend my concept of the unbelievable. And that makes the experience a waste of the viewer's time. This film is a failure.