Commando

General Kirby: "Leave anything for us?"
Matrix: "Just bodies."

release year: 1985
genre: classic 1980s action
viewing setting: home Bluray 12/26/21 and 10/7/19 and home DVD 2/14/16 and 5/28/14 and numerous times before

synopsis: A retired soldier is recruited for a mission by some bad guys, with his daughter held hostage, but he breaks away from their plan and comes after them.

impressions: This is classic 1980s-style action: bulging muscles, over-the-top action, a high body count, and lots of one-liners. They don't make movies like this anymore. The plot is established in the first ten minutes: these bad guys kidnap his daughter and will kill her unless he does their mission, and they put him on a plane with a goon. In short order, the goon is dead and the hero has leaped out of the plane and is on a single-minded mission of his own: find the bad guys and kill them all. To accomplish that goal, Arnold uses guns, knives, grenades, rocket launchers, and his bare hands. So entertaining.

confirmed body count: 85 (78 of them thanks to Arnold)

asses kicked by Arnold: 22

early appearance alert: Bill Paxton, pre-Aliens, has a brief appearance as a crewman aboard a warship, as he advises Arnold's small plane to turn back or risk being shot down

something this movie has that no other movie has: Death by hurled saw-blade.

acting: This was Schwazenegger in his prime: gigantic, cut, and supremely confident. A young Alyssa Milano is his daughter. Vernon Wells, who was the #1 mohawked henchman in The Road Warrior, is the main evil henchman here. The other bad guys are played by Dan Hedaya, David Patrick Kelly, and Bill Duke. Rae Dawn Chong is a stewardess who gets dragged into Arnold's plight and ends up being very useful.

final word: Superior example of the lost action genre from three decades ago.

back to the main review page