I'll come out and join the vocal minority: "Commando" is sheer genius. It's loose, it's funny, it's irreverent. It has more memorable scenes than many top-250 movies. It casually immerses us in a parallel universe where cartoon logic rules, and doesn't bat an eye along the way. Schwarzenegger is funny, intimidating, ruthless and endearing at the same time - name one other actor who can do this!
You could actually write a thesis about the tricks that take this flick to the next level. The direction is completely tongue-in-cheek from the opening montage onwards. The pace never lets up. The script appears shallow but is actually quite clever: it doesn't make any attempt to make sense from the start, goes left where other action flicks go right, and then introduces the Rae Dawn Chong character to point this out for us in this classic piece of Arnie dialogue...
Cindy: You steal my car, you rip the seat out, you kidnap me, you ask me to help you find your daughter which I very kindly do, and then you get me involved in a shoot out where people are dying and there's blood spurting all over the place, and then I watch you rip a phone booth out of a wall, swing from the ceiling like Tarzan, and then there's a cop that's going to shoot you and I save you and they start chasing me. Are you going to tell me what's going on or what? Matrix: No.
PS - I'm not driven by nostalgia. Watched it on Netflix last week, and was astonished how much I liked it. Had to watch it again today.
You could actually write a thesis about the tricks that take this flick to the next level. The direction is completely tongue-in-cheek from the opening montage onwards. The pace never lets up. The script appears shallow but is actually quite clever: it doesn't make any attempt to make sense from the start, goes left where other action flicks go right, and then introduces the Rae Dawn Chong character to point this out for us in this classic piece of Arnie dialogue...
Cindy: You steal my car, you rip the seat out, you kidnap me, you ask me to help you find your daughter which I very kindly do, and then you get me involved in a shoot out where people are dying and there's blood spurting all over the place, and then I watch you rip a phone booth out of a wall, swing from the ceiling like Tarzan, and then there's a cop that's going to shoot you and I save you and they start chasing me. Are you going to tell me what's going on or what? Matrix: No.
PS - I'm not driven by nostalgia. Watched it on Netflix last week, and was astonished how much I liked it. Had to watch it again today.