80s Action Movie: Commando (1985)

Out of all the movies on the list, this movie is probably the most bland. It is a very generic 80s movie on the whole and trivia surrounding the movie is more interesting than plot line...

...which is probably a good thing because a complex plot would probably get in the way of the 109 deaths in the movie. Now while that's not the biggest body count in a movie by far, but it's more that the large majority of these deaths come within the last 20 minutes and are caused by the main character.

Now why would someone want to kill 87 people in rapid succession? Easy. They had kidnapped his daughter. The man in question is John Matrix (Arnold Schwarzenegger), an ex-commando living in retirement with his young daughter (Alyssa Milano). After his old squad kidnaps his daughter, Matrix is blackmailed into going to the Latin American country of Val Verde to kill a president he himself help to install in power.

(I should probably take this time to remind everyone to remember Val Verde, because it won't be the last time we see or hear of it).

But with such a rebellious spirit, Matrix won't be told what to do and instead goes on a murderous revenge rampage around the state he will later govern, killing everyone who gets in his way, as well as spouting many puns that we've come to expect in a Schwarzenegger movie ("Let of some steam, Bennett" when he impales his nemesis with a steam pipe is a classic).

One of the most interesting facts that I found out about this film is that an early draft was written by comic book writer Jeph Loeb. While not everyone will know that name, the nerds among us (and I am most definitely one) will recognise him for being one of the better Batman writers out there.

Verdict: Now while it may seem that talking about this film seemed like a futile gesture considering how bad it is, I wrote this more because this is a gateway movie for the rest of the films on the list. It's non-stop action gets you pumped up for the films that follow. Commando also has a very interesting connection to the next 80s film I will review, Die Hard. See the script for Die Hard was originally going to be a sequel for Commando, but Schwarzenegger refused to reprise his role from this film (I wonder why?)