Load of rubbish!!

Gripping story with well-crafted characters

A brilliant film that helped define a genre

One of the worst ways to make a cult movie is to set out to make a cult movie.

This is one of those timeless classics from Arnold Schwarzenegger that you do not get tired of watching, despite knowing the storyline so well already.The movie is from 1985 and is definitely one of the defining movies in the early stages of Schwarzenegger's action movie career."Commando" has a heap of action, and actually has a good story and of course it is crammed with one-liners.Arnold Schwarzenegger and Rae Dawn Chong carry the movie quite nicely, while Vernon Wells in the role of the main bad guy was just laughable because of the way the character was written and the fact that he wore a chainmail shirt throughout the entire movie.There are lots of mistakes in the movie, with the obvious ones being Sully's yellow Porsche that alternates between having a severely damaged chassis to being in mint condition and then going back to being severely damaged. But also the numerous scenes where it is painstakingly obvious that it is a stunt double for Schwarzenegger performing the action sequences.But all in all, a very entertaining action movie filled with nostalgia.

This movie just oozes of muscles, explosions, one-liners, shootouts and awesomeness! Arnie is in absolute top form playing John Matrix(even his name is badass!), who is an unstoppable killing machine and a loving father, funny how these things go hand in hand! Definitely one of, if not the best action movie where the emphasis is purely on action ever made!

I consider this the most Arnold of all Arnold Schwarzenegger action films, meaning it's a wildly cartoony 1980s style action film. However, if you actually take a close look at Arnold's filmography, he really did not make very many of these types of these overblown actions films that Stallone seemed to endlessly make. Arnold was just coming off his massive success with "The Terminator" (this film does have Arnold say "F— you, a—hole." and "I'll be back.") and he no longer had to swing a sword and wear a loincloth to earn his paycheck. In this film he plays John Matrix, a retired special forces commando who's daughter (Alyssa Milano) is kidnapped by South American despot, the great (and badly miscast), Dan Hedaya, so he can blackmail Arnold into working for him. Also working for Hedaya is the terrifically smarmy David Patrick Kelly and Vernon "The Road Warrior" Wells as a former commando buddy of Arnold's who's now changed sides. The film was written by Steven E. de Souza, who's 80s action films were always complete comic book fantasies and never made any attempt at realism. He also was probably the worst offender of cheesy one liners after someone is killed or injured by the film's hero. One line from this film, "Let off some steam." is probably my all-time favorite bad one-liner in an action film. Another action film cliché is mis-matched partners, which in this film is Arnold being helped by airline stewardess Rae Dawn Chong, who actually does a very good job of being funny and charming and more of a real person trapped in an overblown action film. You also get Bill Duke as a thug, and very small early role for Chelsea Field and Bill Paxton. Produced by Joel Silver ("Lethal Weapon," "Die Hard," "The Matrix," etc.), photographed by Matthew F. Leonetti ("Red Heat," "Strange Days," "Dawn of the Dead"), and edited by Mark Goldblatt ("Rambo: First Blood Park II," "The Terminator 1 & 2," "The Last Boy Scout"), this film has quite an action film pedigree that's hard to beat. You also get a classic muscular 80s style score from composer James Horner, who first cut his teeth in the business composing scores for action, horror, and sci-fi films, and later went on to work on more prestige of projects like "Field of Dreams," "Titanic," "Braveheart," "Apollo 13," and "Glory." If I'm not mistaken, I think I've heard this score re-used in a number of Hong Kong action films. I think my main complaint about this film is that director Mark L. Lester does not really bring a lot to the picture. The action is lacking any kind of excitement or suspense. There are some good hand- to-hand fight sequences, but I think that's more to the credit of the fight choreographers than Lester. I will give Lester credit for some ironic laughs, such as Arnold's initial reveal, which is done by a close-up shot of big boots, a close-up of a big chainsaw, a close-up of a big bicep, back to the boots again, and then the other big bicep, and finally Arnold's big head carrying a big log on his shoulder. I was also amused by a charmingly dated pre-cell phone scene where a David Patrick Kelly has to steal a quarter and race to a phone booth to make a call before before Arnold can stop him. Overall, this is a complete cheesy action film, but Arnold is good in the lead and outside of bland direction is a well crafted action film.

Continuing my plan to watch every movie in Arnold Schwarzenneger's filmography in order I came to Commando.Plot In A Paragraph: John Matrix (Arnie) A retired elite Black Ops Commando, launches a one man war against a group of South American criminals who have kidnapped his daughter to blackmail him into committing a murder.Arnies attempt at a Rambo style movie is more in the vain of Rambo: First Blood Part 2 than First Blood as Arnie's one man army wipes out an army that is about 100 strong. A cheap and cheesy B movie at its best. It never for one moment has one foot in reality, It's over the top and ridiculous but with Arnie at his charismatic best, it's amazingly quotable and at least entertaining. Despite having his moments, Vernon Wells is awfully miscast and looks ridiculous fighting Arnie. He didn't even come across as crazy enough to be dangerous. I developed quite the crush on Rae Dawn Chong watching this as a kid, and not much has changed. Alyssa Milano is cute enough as Arnie's daughter, but Dan Hedaya is awful. It pains me to say that, as I like him.I'm not sure how lazy James Horner was feeling when he composed the score for this, but it's the same score he used for 48 Hrs. Arnie surprisingly doesn't talk much about Commando in his autobiography Total Recall. He mentions how Joel Silver paid him $1.5 million dollars for the role, and after this movie, he always asked to have one liners put in his movies. And that is about it. Commando ended the year the 25th highest grossing movie of 1985, with a domestic gross of $35 million.