Movie Review: Commando (1985)

This is perhaps the quintessential Arnold Schwarzenegger. If you want big dumb action and some great comic relief and one-liners, this is the movie for you.

There isn’t much plot, but it’s enough. Colonel John Matrix’s (Arnold) daughter, Jenny (Alyssa Milano), is kidnapped, in an effort to blackmail him into assassinating a South American dictator. But really he just wants his daughter back, so he goes after all the men who have wronged him.

It’s not complicated by any means, but this isn’t a movie about the plot. It’s about the action, and it’s about the one-liners, of which there are many. Arnold’s are great, of course, but they also pair him with Cindy (Rae Dawn Chong), who works as additional comic relief and almost satire on the action genre as a whole.

She goes a bit too far in a few instances, but she’s still very funny overall. The pairing of the two works very well.

This is a movie that has a few very memorable and exciting action setpieces, and that’s really all it needs. It’s not a masterpiece like either of the first two Terminator movies, but it’s probably as fun as Predator.

Rating: 7/10