Plot: Retired Special Forces soldier John Matrix (Arnold Schwarzenegger) lives with daughter Jenny (Alyssa Milano) in isolation, but his privacy is disturbed by former commander Franklin Kirby (James Olson), who warns him that his fellow soldiers are getting killed one by one. After Kirby leaves, Jenny is kidnapped by former Latin American dictator Arius (Dan Hedaya), who wants Matrix to restore him to power. Instead, Matrix sets out to take down the rogue leader and rescue his daughter.
If ever a movie defined an era of action it’s Commando starring Arnold Schwarzenegger. The 1985 action classic from director Mark L. Lester was the perfect blend of big muscles, bigger guns and larger than life characters.
Who can forget the entrance of John Matrix as he walks about carrying what is essentially a tree in an epic show of physical strength during the opening credits? It’s something we rarely get to see in modern movies which is a shame as it was the perfect example of the alpha male at his badass best.
We are also introduced to what should be his (emotional) weakness which is his little girl (Alyssa Milano) who is kidnapped by an old army comrade of Matrix called Bennett (Vernon Wells). What Bennett and his cronies don’t understand is that they’ve just pissed off the ultimate one many army who will stop at nothing to rescue his daughter.
Bennett himself is one of the best villains of the 1980’s with his “Freddie Mercury on Steroids” look and he is the perfect example of the smug bad guy of the time. There are some great henchmen too like David Patrick Kelly as Sully who is as sleazy as you can get (he also enjoys hunting slash) and one of the best characters. Then you’ve also got the great Bill Duke and his awesome “Fuck You Asshole!” line which incidentally I have a T-shirt of.
I used to find Rae Dawn Chong’s character a little annoying but she is far more tolerable in the director’s cut.
Commando has some of the best Arnie zingers to date with lines like “I let him go”, “I’ll kill you last” and “let off some steam” becoming some of the most quotable one-liners in the genre.
The action scenes especially during the finale are just a fan’s dream come true as Matrix takes on hundreds of goons and barely gets a scratch. I particularly love the director’s cut with the shed scene where he uses garden tools to dispose of some people that just need killing.
Then you’ve got James Horner’s calypso style music score with a touch of 80’s saxophone which for some reason just works perfectly for the movie.
The One Many Army movie was at its absolute peak in the 80’s with a new one released on home video every few weeks but for me Commando remains one of the absolute best as it just got everything right and it’s kind of movie I can watch on repeat to this day.
