Andy's Archive: Commando (1985)

Credit: 20th Century Fox

Commando falls into a sub-genre of action movies that follows a father who's out for revenge. Before Commando there was Death Wish, and decades later was a movie called Taken, that has since revitalized Liam Neeson's career as an action movie star. What sets this movie apart from the pack is it's over-the-top violence and one-liners from Arnold Schwarzenegger, starring as John Matrix, a retired Delta Force operative. Viewers instantly know they are in for a treat as a hitman appears disguised as a garbage man, then he steals a car, and later he blows up a boat with a push of a button without even blinking an eye.

Matrix's daughter is held captive and in order to see her again, Matrix must kill a dictator, but if those bad guys think he's going to play nicely, they're "wrong." That's one of the many lines from Arnold before he kills one of the movie's goons. Later he promised to kill one last because he liked him, only to tell the poor sap he lied before he's dropped off a cliff. He's really a man of few words; instead he's a man of many bullets. In fact, it feels like Arnold kills nearly 500 guys in every conceivable way in the last half hour. He uses guns, a rocket launcher, grenades, even gardening tools!

Every Arnold movie also has the big guy playing off another character in a comedic role. This time it's Rae Dawn Chong. She might be the weakest part of an otherwise awesome movie, but she doesn't weigh it down much. Her character of Cindy does help Matrix, and if she hadn't followed one of the bad guys to a local mall, we'd never have witnessed Arnold doing a Tarzan swing. So her presence has its benefits.

Arnold Schwarzenegger had several huge action movies in the 1980's but I am going to say this is arguably his best of the bunch. Its a great action movie if you need to blow off some steam for 90 minutes.