Product: President's Man 2
Rating: 3.0
"Allah protects the righteous"
The President's Manwasn't a very good movie. It more or less seemed like the filmmakers slapped together a lazy script with Americana overtones and then begged Chuck Norris on bended knee to co-star. "A Line in the Sand" here isn't a great movie, either, but it gets points just for being better than its predecessor. It's a post-9/11 film with an agenda, but at least it *has* an agenda: it feels more directed and in the vein of classic B-movie action than its aimless prequel. For this alone, it deserves recognition as one of the last few decent Chuck Norris pictures...but how much this says about a movie is up to your discretion.The story: when an Islamic Jihadist (Joel Swetow,Charmed) threatens to detonate a nuclear device in Texas, it's up to "the president's men" - a returning Deke Slater and Joshua McCord (Judson Mills and Norris,Walker, Texas Ranger) to capture him before his plan is set in motion.I prefer Judson Mills as Chuck Norris' sidekick over Dylan Neal from the first film: Neals' depiction of the same character was moodier and more layered, but Mills actually makes Deke likable and gives a better martial performance when it comes to the fight scenes. These too have improved over their predecessors from two years prior - now incorporating acrobatic maneuvers like a somersault axe kick and a Hong Kong-esque move wherein Deke grabs an opponent's arms and corkscrews him into the air - but sadly are still fairly infrequent. Jennifer Tung ("Masked Rider") as Joshua's daughter and team strategist sees her role being dumbed down a bit, but she makes up for it with a worthy sparring session with Mills, including a competent demonstration of the steel whip. Chuck Norris still more or less just plays himself, and that's good enough at this stage of his career.As far as the film's thematic elements go, I have to admit that I'm kind of surprised. I'm not sure how much - if anything - of this film's plot or production was changed after 9/11, but even though the story is more or less a nationalistic fantasy of how the United States will capture Osama bin Laden (it involves a jetpack), the famously conservative Norris plays it startlingly middle-of-the-road, going out of his way to discourage violence against Islamists in general and pointing out the smallness of religious extremism among the population. Keep in mind that this is the same man who spent his golden years of film beating up people who refer to Allah and/or proclaim hate for America, and you'll be as surprised as me. Nevertheless, the movie is pretty one-sided as to how it presents Arabs, including naturalized citizens of America (save for one very mean lawyer), and in general feels like a propaganda piece. Endurable propaganda, on account of the action, but propaganda nonetheless.The film is a bit more ambitious than its predecessor in what it wants to show, and therein stumbles production-wise. Aircraft and ship scenes are 100% stock or news footage, and an onscreen explosion looks particularly fake. Geographical snafus are abound for those who know what to look for. Less important but equally embarrassing is a poster introducing an in-movie museum exhibition which features a rather glaring grammatical error. Things like this tax this nonsensical movie more than they perhaps should, but they're probably not going to break the film if you've already made up your mind about it. Moderate Chuck Norris fans can choose to be picky, but the hardcore faithful ought to appreciate it despite its faults. It scrapes a passing grade on account of its enthusiasm, not its philosophy or technical achievements.