Commando (1985) Blu-ray Review

John Matrix, former leader of a special commando strike force that always got the toughest jobs done, is forced back into action when his young daughter is kidnapped. To find her, Matrix has to fight his way through an array of punks, killers, one of his former commandos, and a fully equipped private army. With the help of a feisty stewardess and an old friend, Matrix has only a few hours to overcome his greatest challenge: finding his daughter before she’s killed. While this 1080p, 1.85:1 image found on Commando will never compare to the best transfers I’ve seen, it nevertheless looks marvelous when taken by itself, compared only to the previous VHS and DVD versions of the movie.

Commando is like an old friend, a broken-in baseball glove or a favorite recliner, something that I’m always more than happy to spend time with. It’s safe to say that I know this movie fairly well, and the image presented on this Blu-ray is a revelation. I’m simply amazed by how much this movie benefits from a high definition, 1080p transfer. Sure, there are some problems, but Commando will never be five-star material on Blu-ray or any future format for that matter. The source is over twenty years old but aging rather well, but not as refined and polished as movies of more recent vintage. There are some minor speckles on the print, grain

How Arnold Schwarzenegger’s Commando Was Nearly a Very Different Action Movie.

is almost always present and spikes in certain scenes, and the image appears a bit soft every now and again, but for the most part, the positives far outweigh the negatives. Detail is much higher than I expected it to be, as was clarity and definition. Colors are rich and clearly defined, though somewhat pastel in appearance, but that’s just the way movies looked in the late 1970s and 1980s (Dawn of the Dead comes to mind as a movie with similar-in-appearance colors). Nighttime scenes sport surprisingly good black levels. The 1080p transfer highlights a few blue screen effects as plainly obvious, notably when Matrix and Cindy take off in the sea plane.

My meager expectations for this disc were far surpassed, and I’m simply impressed. Fox’s DTS-HD MA 5.1 track blew me away, and it was like hearing Commando for the first time. Much like the video, this is a revelation, a completely engaging, powerful experience. Like the video, it doesn’t live up to the extremely clean, immersive, and realistic bars set by the best tracks I’ve heard, but this one makes for an absolutely perfect compliment to the feel of the movie, and impressed me as much as any other track out there, all things considered. May of the “problems” are more a result of the source than the disc. Some of the sound effects are pretty dated, like when Cooke drives the car through the showroom window at the beginning,

but either way it’s a fun sound effect, just like in the movie. We get the same experience, only about 100 times more powerful, when Matrix drives a bulldozer into a surplus warehouse. James Horner’s music is iconic and fantastic, definitely a product of the 1980s (lots of saxophone and synth beats), and overall fun to listen to. The surround sound channels work hard too, and there always seems to be something going on, whether it’s a helicopter flying by at the beginning of the film, loud, heavy gunfire, or almost non-stop music. Arnold’s punches and kicks pack a powerful punch and resonate with a tough, authoritative kindness. It’s a cacophony, but it works very well anyway.

The shots reverberate and hit you in the stomach, shaking the subwoofer and reverberating throughout the listening area. The scene in Chapter 5 where Matrix is chained to the table sounded a little awkward, like a breeze was blowing past, more like a vague noise than wind. Minor quibble, and perhaps intended, but it sounded a little awkward anyway. I was most entertained and impressed by this mix, and like the video, the lossless audio mix is far superior to the reduced, very weak compared to the VHS and DVD version mixes I’ve heard countless times.