Arnold Schwarzenegger stars in this director's cut edition of Mark L. Lester's classic 80's action thriller. John Matrix (Schwarzenegger), a retired Secret Service colonel, is on the trail of right-wing renegades and a Central American dictator, whom he had once helped to depose. The renegades have kidnapped his eleven-year-old daughter and Matrix is not going to rest until he has her back. The cast also includes Rae Dawn Chong, James Olson and Bill Duke.

A massively underrated action thriller which kept Schwarzenegger occupied between blockbusters, Commando may be one of the last shoot-out films ever to have real characters in it. Not, of course, that they're anything other than stereotypes, but they're painted with such detailed, positive strokes that it's impossible not to relate to them. Arnie plays a retired military special-ops officer whose daughter (played with an expert balance of cute/feisty by Alyssa Milano) is kidnapped by the baddest of bad guys, who'll only hand her back as and when he's assassinated a tiresome banana-republic president on their behalf. Needless to say, Arnie is deeply annoyed by this, rescues the moppet single-handed amid more bullets and explosions than you can shake a stuntman's pay cheque at, and... well, why spoil the fun by revealing any more? Co-star Rae Dawn Chong gets some nice one-liners as the innocent bystander who gets caught up in the mayhem.

The DVD comes with no additional features at all, but who needs 'em anyway? --Roger Thomas

Product details

Arnold Schwarzenegger stars in this director's cut edition of Mark L. Lester's classic 80's action thriller. John Matrix (Schwarzenegger), a retired Secret Service colonel, is on the trail of right-wing renegades and a Central American dictator, whom he had once helped to depose. The renegades have kidnapped his eleven-year-old daughter and Matrix is not going to rest until he has her back. The cast also includes Rae Dawn Chong, James Olson and Bill Duke.

A massively underrated action thriller which kept Schwarzenegger occupied between blockbusters, Commando may be one of the last shoot-out films ever to have real characters in it. Not, of course, that they're anything other than stereotypes, but they're painted with such detailed, positive strokes that it's impossible not to relate to them. Arnie plays a retired military special-ops officer whose daughter (played with an expert balance of cute/feisty by Alyssa Milano) is kidnapped by the baddest of bad guys, who'll only hand her back as and when he's assassinated a tiresome banana-republic president on their behalf. Needless to say, Arnie is deeply annoyed by this, rescues the moppet single-handed amid more bullets and explosions than you can shake a stuntman's pay cheque at, and... well, why spoil the fun by revealing any more? Co-star Rae Dawn Chong gets some nice one-liners as the innocent bystander who gets caught up in the mayhem.

The DVD comes with no additional features at all, but who needs 'em anyway? --Roger Thomas

Product details