Reviewed by Johnny McNair 

Fox Home Entertainment – 90 minutes – 1985 – Rated R – 1080p Widescreen 1.85:1 – DTS Lossless 5.1 Audio Mix

During the mid 80’s in the midst of the Reagan era, a little film titled Rambo: First Blood Part 2 hit theaters and was such a massive hit that it spawned the one-man-army genre of action films. Everybody wanted a piece of the action (literally), including Chuck Norris with the Missing in Action films, and the future Governor of California, who back then was trying to earn a spot in Hollywood land by playing his own military superman in 1985’s Commando. Sure, there have been many wannabe Rambo films, but Commando is one of the best, because if anyone thinks the action Stallone did was over the top, wait until you see how Schwarzenegger does it. Commando will be available April 15, 2008 on Blu-ray from 20^th Century Fox, ready to blow a hole through your HDTV.

THE MOVIE

In Commando Arnold Schwarzenegger plays retired super soldier John Matrix, who now lives a quiet life as a single dad with his daughter Jenny (played by a very young Alyssa Milano). He gets a visit from his mentor, General Kirby (James Olson) informing him that the other men from his unit have all been murdered and he may be the next target. Matrix’s daughter is then kidnapped and held hostage, only to be returned if he does as told and assassinates the South American President who is the enemy of crazed dictator named Arius (Dan Hedaya). With the help of a women who gets caught up in the crossfire, (Rae Dawn Chong) and the clock ticking, Matrix must find a way to rescue his daughter and kill every mo-fo that stands in his way.

Commando works in two ways, one because it’s a time capsule of the classic 80’s action films where muscles and guns were all you needed, and two, it’s a clever spoof of Rambo. Stallone is John Rambo…Schwarzenegger is John Matrix; Rambo is a Green Beret, Matrix is an elite special-op who as he says in the film, “Eats Green Berets for breakfast.” Rambo’s mentor is a Colonel…Matrix’s mentor is a General. Rambo had a big knife, Matrix’s knife is much bigger; Rambo has a rocket launcher than fires a single rocket, Matrix has a mammoth rocket launcher that can carry four rockets at a time. Rambo has a cut and muscular body…Matrix’s pecs alone are larger than Rambo’s entire body. And if you look at the two films back-to-back, the list of similarities goes on and on.

Director Mark L. Lester must have had a great time making this film, because it’s fun to watch letting you know from the start not to take it seriously. It’s not as hardcore as Rambo was with its serious MIA back-story; Commando is just about guns, car chases and blowing stuff up. It’s one big videogame, and Schwarzenegger is Duke Nukem. Just look at the shopping mall scene when Matrix is surrounded by the mall guards, who tackle him all at once and then he breaks loose like he’s the Hulk, sending them all flying in the air like ragdolls. Or when his car flips over in a chase, Matrix simply flips the car back over with his own strength and drives away. And let’s not even go into how Matrix finds a way to get off of a plane that is already jetting down the runway and taking off.

Commando is not for everyone, especially if you take it too seriously; but for anyone who loves a cliché plot, characters right out a comic book, dumb action scenes, great one-liners, guns and explosions galore, this is the film for you. Originally Commando was intended to be the first of many John Matrix adventures, but Schwarzenegger chose to stretch his acting muscles and make the Terminator films instead, so we’ll never know John Matrix’s fate. But maybe one day when the Governator gets tired of wearing a suit and playing a politician, he’ll put on that camo paint one more time and blow some stuff up. Hey, if Stallone can still kick ass in his 60’s, Schwarzenegger must still have some fight left in him.

VIDEO

Commando is presented in 1080p and formatted in a 1.85:1 image. Overall the image quality looks sharp and the colors and skin tones blend well, but this will in no way stand out as a reason to upgrade to Blu-ray. This film is twenty-three years old and does look like it came out of an 80’s vault. There is heavy grain in places, especially during the night scenes, but fortunately most of Commando’s action takes place in daylight, such as the finale. Realistically, this is probably the best as it’s going get for this film, because Fox is not going to treat it like a Star Wars movie and make pristine transfer that would cost a ton of money and effort. It’s actually best that Commando has that dated look, because it fits the function of the film.

SOUND

The sound quality is decent, offering a DTS Lossless 5.1 Audio Mix sound mix. Like the film itself, many of the sound effects are overly exaggerated, so when a handgun is fired it sounds like a cannon, and the car chase is comprised of skidding wheels that sound like someone clawing their nails on a chalkboard. Dialogue is clear even when the action is exploding all around, and James Horner’s score is on the money. Plus, the ending song, ‘Someday, Somehow, Someone’s Gotta Pay’ by Power Station is a classic 80’s sound that will make you want to track down the soundtrack on E-bay.

EXTRA GOODIES

Okay this is going to really piss off fans of this movie. Besides the trailer for Commando, there are absolutely no extra goodies. This is a 25gig disc holding only a 90-minute movie. That’s a hell of a lot a space that is being wasted away. And what makes this worse is that a director’s cut of the film was already released on standard DVD with extra scenes, director’s commentary, and various making of featurettes. WTF are they thinking over at Fox’s Blu-ray division? $39.99 list price for just the theatrical release? Obviously they’re going to double-dip this flick in the near future, because no Commando fan will settle for this.

The only other extra on the disc is the D-Box feature that allows those who have a motion-rigged chair to feel the action as it occurs on screen. Okay, who the f–k has one of these things? This is a completely useless feature that could have been replaced by something that would have been better appreciated.

BOTTOM LINE

Commando is cheesy and dumb, but damn it’s a lot of fun, especially if you’re a fan of Arnold Schwarzenegger movies. In the 80’s he’s made some bad films such as Raw Deal and Conan the Destroyer, but he also made some awesome ones such as The Terminator, Predator, Conan the Barbarian, and Commando is definitely on that list. Too bad this Blu-ray is a let down, offering no extras, but if it’s just the film you care about then this will make you very happy. All others start getting that petition out there to demand that fox gives the real fans of the movie the Commando Blu-ray that we deserve.

SCORES (Out of 5):

The Movie: 3.0

Video: 3.0

Sound: 3.0

Extras: 1.0

Bottom Line: 2.5 (Wait for an ultimate edition)