Review of Commando

Introduction

Another day, another Schwarzenegger DVD. One of Arnie`s earliest action films, packed with guns, grenades, violence, torture and very corny one-liners.

Another simple plot, with Arnie playing a retired commando who lives out in the middle of nowhere with his daughter. Bad guys go round shooting up his former squad members and then come to kidnap his daughter. He faces a race against time to get her back by outwitting her captors with a blend of violence and some more violence.

Video

A non-anamorphic 1.85:1 transfer is presented here, which is unsurprising given the age of the film. It actually looks ok for a non-anamorphic transfer, and the print itself has aged reasonably well. There are no artefacts lying around and there`s a bit of grain here and there but it`s generally not bad.

There are plenty of action set-pieces and you`ll also be able to spot plenty of bad 1980s clothes and haircuts.

Audio

A DD2.0 soundtrack which also gives away the age of the film. There are some surround effects now and then but for the most part it`s just bullets, explosions, more bullets and more explosions. The sound does sound muddy and muffled at various points. And is that really a James Horner score underneath all this noise? Not one of his best pieces of work.

Features

Just the trailer here. I can`t imagine anything else exists, and if it did would you really want to watch it?

Conclusion

A very cheesy piece of Arnie. There`s loads of violence, hails and hails of bullets, comical fights, rubbish acting and some really bad dialogue. As Chris notes in his review, the main villain looks like a member of the Village People, and certainly not a member of an elite commando group.

This is a bad film, but it`s enjoyable because of that. I can`t imagine that you would want to buy this, but if you do you might want to check out the region 4 version (likely to be cheaper) or a European region 2 version (I believe that there`s a French one kicking around with an anamorphic transfer). You`ll get the full quota of violence too, since the BBFC made quite a few cuts to the film.

If you really want to see it, try and borrow it from someone - it`s much better that way!