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I've known about this movie ever since I was a kid looking through a Hollywood Video catalog. I had already known Schwarzeneggar from one thing or another, probably mostly from movie references, so I was naturally curious. But as I grew up I got more into him, and found that this movie's popularity really pails in comparison to other classic Schwarzenegger movies, reducing awareness of the film to a short-lived running gag about going outside without underwear. So today that all changed.
Schwarzenegger plays a soldier called Matrix, an ex-operative who raises his daughter alone in the mountains. A couple of his army buds meet him to tell him that someone is killing off the members of his team. Well, after his house is attacked and his daughter is kidnapped, it turns out to be one of the soldiers. Matrix is being forced to assassinate someone or else his daughter's life will end. Is he really gonna believe that she won't die anyway? Concerning the blood and explosions, I'm gonna have to saaaaaaaay "No chance."
About our director, I'm not really a fan of this obscure "Mark L. Lester," and I never hear anyone talk about him. BUT, he has some cult classics attached to his name, notably Class of 1984 and its spinoff, Class of 1999, Gold of Amazon Women, Showdown in Little Tokyo, and Firestarter. The guy's one of the B-movie kings of the 80's, and Commando is said to be his one rare diamond in the rough, or maybe a ruby. So I was looking forward to this after being fairly satisfied with his movie Class of 1984, which I found wanting a remake of (and more Perry King knowledge). SO I was hyped.
... For all the wrong reasons.
OK, I've never seen Taken, but from what I can gather, Taken has more plot and action. Obviously, Taken was not the first "gritty ex-whatever rescues kid from kidnappers" movie, and neither was Commando I'll bet. By the time I saw this, I had already seen so many lone-wolf rescue movies from the 80's that I could probably compose a top 40 list. I knew the movie STARTED typically, but it didn't steer from that at all. We get our token female sidekick who does nothing but what Arnold tells her to, besides complain, and a villain who only does one villainous thing in the first 20 minutes before the climax. In other words, this is not a movie for characters.
Commando is a cult-classic but Chuck Norris movies are reduced to being exclusively for action nerds? I can check how many Norris movies are about Commando on my chart of all movies I've seen ranked from best to worst, and I guarantee you there will be at least 5. And none of them are his more notably ones with say Bruce Lee or even Expendables 2. What a joke. It's so generic that I don't have any reason to return to it again. '84 and '99 might've been cheesy, but they had OK plots and they focused on story delivery. This only focuses on Arnold's pecs bouncing for no reason whenever his shirt's off.
= 44/100
Mark L. Lester's Average Score (3 Good vs. 2 Bad)
Class of 1984: 65
Class of 1999: 58
Firestarter: 56
Commando: 44
Pterodactyl: 10
Average: 46.6 / 5
Mark L. Lester gets a minimum score of 50 for having 3 good movies vs. 2 bad ones.
Commando
(1985) - Directed by Mark L. Lester
--------------------------------------------
Action-Adventure
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"No chance."
(1985) - Directed by Mark L. Lester
--------------------------------------------
Action-Adventure
-------------------------------------------------
"No chance."
I've known about this movie ever since I was a kid looking through a Hollywood Video catalog. I had already known Schwarzeneggar from one thing or another, probably mostly from movie references, so I was naturally curious. But as I grew up I got more into him, and found that this movie's popularity really pails in comparison to other classic Schwarzenegger movies, reducing awareness of the film to a short-lived running gag about going outside without underwear. So today that all changed.
Schwarzenegger plays a soldier called Matrix, an ex-operative who raises his daughter alone in the mountains. A couple of his army buds meet him to tell him that someone is killing off the members of his team. Well, after his house is attacked and his daughter is kidnapped, it turns out to be one of the soldiers. Matrix is being forced to assassinate someone or else his daughter's life will end. Is he really gonna believe that she won't die anyway? Concerning the blood and explosions, I'm gonna have to saaaaaaaay "No chance."
About our director, I'm not really a fan of this obscure "Mark L. Lester," and I never hear anyone talk about him. BUT, he has some cult classics attached to his name, notably Class of 1984 and its spinoff, Class of 1999, Gold of Amazon Women, Showdown in Little Tokyo, and Firestarter. The guy's one of the B-movie kings of the 80's, and Commando is said to be his one rare diamond in the rough, or maybe a ruby. So I was looking forward to this after being fairly satisfied with his movie Class of 1984, which I found wanting a remake of (and more Perry King knowledge). SO I was hyped.
... For all the wrong reasons.
OK, I've never seen Taken, but from what I can gather, Taken has more plot and action. Obviously, Taken was not the first "gritty ex-whatever rescues kid from kidnappers" movie, and neither was Commando I'll bet. By the time I saw this, I had already seen so many lone-wolf rescue movies from the 80's that I could probably compose a top 40 list. I knew the movie STARTED typically, but it didn't steer from that at all. We get our token female sidekick who does nothing but what Arnold tells her to, besides complain, and a villain who only does one villainous thing in the first 20 minutes before the climax. In other words, this is not a movie for characters.
Commando is a cult-classic but Chuck Norris movies are reduced to being exclusively for action nerds? I can check how many Norris movies are about Commando on my chart of all movies I've seen ranked from best to worst, and I guarantee you there will be at least 5. And none of them are his more notably ones with say Bruce Lee or even Expendables 2. What a joke. It's so generic that I don't have any reason to return to it again. '84 and '99 might've been cheesy, but they had OK plots and they focused on story delivery. This only focuses on Arnold's pecs bouncing for no reason whenever his shirt's off.
= 44/100
Mark L. Lester's Average Score (3 Good vs. 2 Bad)
Class of 1984: 65
Class of 1999: 58
Firestarter: 56
Commando: 44
Pterodactyl: 10
Average: 46.6 / 5
Mark L. Lester gets a minimum score of 50 for having 3 good movies vs. 2 bad ones.