Commando DVD Review

Before he was a Kindergarden Cop, the first male to give birth, or running California Commando was Schwarzenegger’s first chance to show his softer side. He had played the killer robot and barbarians, but Commando gave Arnold the chance to be a father to a young Alyssa Milano. The opening sequences even go so far as to show him and his daughter feeding deer, eating ice cream and our hero martial arts expert Colonel John Matrix (Schwarzenegger) teaching his daughter to fight. The sensitive act doesn’t last long and soon he is up to his usual action bravado, and what is really strange is the fact that he even has a line saying “I’ll be back”.

The opening sequences of Commando are actually quite brilliant in their ability to set up a mystery for the sophisticated movie-goers. Before Arnold’s bulging biceps are seen carrying a saw and a log through the woods we see a series of seemingly random murders, all performed by the same mysterious man. He kills a suburban husband, a car salesman, and a fisherman without explanation and hardly a word. These mysterious and disturbing scenes prepare us for the onslaught of righteous vengeance those bulging biceps will deliver. When it turns out that the murders are men who used to work with Matrix. They were killed as a way for a South American dictator to get to Matrix and when they find him they kidnap his daughter and blackmail him to kill the President Velasquez. They even put him on the plane, but Matrix is well trained and able to get off in time, knowing he only has the time of the flight, which is eleven hours, to rescue his daughter. His final mission is to save his daughter, which results in a lot of ruthless killing.

Nearly the entire film is simply Arnold blowing people away, using all sorts of weapons. This is a great gun movie, not afraid to go big with a rocket launcher or battle it off with handguns. The director’s cut seems to have even more violence and gunplay, with more emphasis on the gruesome ways in which the soldiers die. The theatrical version is also available on the DVD, a welcome addition considering most director’s cut DVDs require consumer’s to buy a separate package to have both versions.

The Special features include even more deleted scenes, which is basically three quick sequences of no real consequence. Some of the deleted scenes are merely different version of one-liners after the death of the main villain. The featurettes include “Pure Action” which talks about just that with many of the supporting characters. Old footage of Arnold on set is used as well, especially in “Let Off Some Steam” which intercuts much of this footage with co-star Rae Dawn Chong, who can’t stop giggling and talking about Arnold’s physique. These featurettes are bias and mostly useless, especially considering these minor actors really have nothing interesting to say. There are also several galleries with 160 pictures. The full-length director’s commentary by Mark L. Lester should be the best special feature, but Lester’s voice quickly gets old and he has very little of interest to say.