I think I have to agree with a fellow reviewer on this movie... "absolute perfection" is probably the best way I would sum up this film. Indeed this all-out action, gratuitously violent, tongue-in-cheek roller-coaster ride is a must-see for the action movie fan and, if viewed in the right mood, it's a total riot. Actually I rank this film as one of Arnie's best, up there with the two TERMINATOR films anyway, and I far prefer it to the deadly serious/repetitive RAMBO films that Stallone was making at the same time. This is the first film that Arnie made when he started to gently make fun at his own image, while at the same time being outrageously over the top and using his physique to do the talking. I mean, check out the scene where his character is first introduced. He's carrying a damn tree trunk on his shoulder! Like the best action movies, COMMANDO packs in tons of action, explosions and violence into its trim running time. It's one big set-piece after another with only a little bit of plot-building in-between. Highlights include a huge battle with the police in a shopping mall, a flash car chase through streets at night and the big one, the finale where Arnie becomes a one-man army and kills about a hundred soldiers at the baddie's island retreat. The final fifteen minutes are sheer bliss for the action lover who's looking for a good time.
Arnie is in his element here, snapping off his one-liners at just the right tones and with precision (of one guy who he dropped over a cliff edge, "I let him go!"), trying out his soon-to-become trademark catchphrases, and proving himself a force to be reckoned with in the action scenes. Rae Dawn Chong is the token female lead who acquits herself well with her role, proves to be likable, and creates a realistic (well, for the film) transformation from being a frightened victim into a rocket launching weapon of destruction. I still remember the first time I saw the scene where she accidentally shot the rocket launcher the wrong way down a street...it blew me (and the shop front) away! Dan Hedaya is pretty forgettable as the chief baddie, instead it's Vernon Wells (MAD MAX 2) as his henchman Bennett who steals all of his scenes as the outrageous string-vested mercenary who manages to be a match for Arnie, if in terms of fearsomeness instead of bulk. The supporting cast is also very good, with AMITYVILLE II's priest James Olson as Arnie's Major General, Alyssa Milano as Arnie's captured kid, Bill Duke (PREDATOR) as an imposing hit-man, David Patrick Kelly as the irritating and short bad guy, plus a glimpse-and-you'll-miss-him Bill Paxton.
The violence is played for laughs instead of being there to shock, like when Arnie nonchalantly breaks a bad guy's neck on a plane, or when he shoots a bad guy in cold-blood at the film's beginning. Only in the final massacre does it become serious, with a beautiful mansion and its grounds laid to waste, hundreds of men exploding or being shot. Gotta love that interlude where Arnie hides out in a garden shed and tries out some new weapons. The stunts are endless, from Arnie rolling a jeep freefall down a hill to taking a mad dive on a balloon display through the shopping mall. The final knife fight is pretty good too, ending the film on a high-note with another cheesy one-liner (the classic "let off some steam, Bennett"), and you've gotta love the way Arnie's various wounds suddenly heal up and disappear. Another fantastic film from Mark Lester, the guy who astounded us with CLASS OF 1984, and the pinnacle of the '80s action film.
