Commando

Riding high on the success of Terminator, it was inevitable that Schwarzenegger would appear in some pretty over the top b-grade action flicks to show-off both his physique and capitalise on his popularity. Commando is one such movie that never takes itself too seriously and is so over the top that you can't help but laugh at yourself for enjoying it so much when it came out. This is bad at its best.

Colonel John Matrix is a retired head of a Commando strike team who has retreated to the high country with his daughter Jenny (Alyssa Milano). His original team is being picked off one by one and soon the military is back on his doorstep to warn him of the impending danger. It's too little too late as his daughter is kidnapped by his one-time team member Bennet.

To see his daughter alive again, Matrix is forced onto a plane to perform an assasination. His daughter will be freed once his mission is completed but he has other plans and soon finds himself packing a truck load of weapons on his own mission, to rescue his daughter and kill the hundreds of foot soldiers single handedly, well with the help of a stewardess in Rae Dawn Chong.

Sounds typical of the 80's action flick? Well it is. It's not going to win any awards for best performance, unless you consider the ratio of kills Arnie performs to his one bullet graze inflicted on him worthy of any award. Watching this movie just for the fun of hearing the macho one-liners in almost every scene is the best way to get something out of this flick. Oh, and Arnolds body is the most 'cut' that it has ever been and ever will be. This guy is one huge mother fah.

Oh yes, which brings me to what else is 'cut' in this movie. The first of 3 titles coming out in march that have fallen under the chop of the BBFC. Although not really noticeable to a first time viewer, a fan like myself can reveal the obvious short cuts that have been introduced and that ruin the experience for me. Not happy Jan.

The quality here varies from ordinary to good. There is an issue whereby the encoding on the DVD changes from a progressive signal to interlaced which produces some ghosting in said scenes. This is noticeable when Bennet and Matrix arrive at the airport and when Matrix is chasing Sully and gets hit by the yellow porsche. A weird mastering flaw that seems out of place given that it only occurs for these 2 scenes. Lack of quality material?

This print looks to be taken from an interpositive as there is varying amounts of grain and substantial film dirt throughout. I don't see any real effort here to use a quality print, more like a rushed job to get whatever print they had in their vaults archived onto the DVD format.

Whilst the movie doesn't call for anything special, the print is probably the best you're going to see for this movie. Having had many viewings in the VHS format, the DVD is a welcome relief, albeit with my expectations not reached.

We are presented with a Dolby Digital 2 channel surround track that is good enough. There is some sloppy ADR work at here that a young teenager like myself wouldn't have noticed way back when but on DVD it is very evident. As is the sloppy sound editing that has been done. Given its very B-grade nature, there is not much more that could have been presented here.

Low end Bass is present in most scenes but nothing that really feels dominating at any time. Surround work is more the DPL processor doing what it is told rather than any real effort to turn heads. Dialogue, as mentioned above, is varied and in and out of synch on occasion. Fairly ordinary.

I doubt there is much that can be added here other than a theatrical trailer and that is all we have, a very full-frame and flat audio one at that. Move along.

This disc is not going to make fans happy at all. The lackluster video transfer, an ordinary audio mix (albeit due to the source), a lack of any real extras and the BBFC edited version is just a weak effort.

The first of 3 cut discs coming in March. Steer clear unless you're desperate.