Cinepals - COMMANDO Movie Reaction & Review!

Episode Date: February 20, 2024

Jaby and Achara watch Commando, a classic action thriller starring Arnold Schwarzenegger (Terminator, Predator, Total Recall, and Kindergarten Cop) as John Matrix, a retired special forces colonel who has to rescue his daughter from a ruthless dictator. Along the way, he faces many obstacles and enemies, using his skills and weapons to overcome them.   This film is directed by Mark L. Lester and also features Rae Dawn Chong (The Color Purple, Soul Man, and AmericanFlyers), Alyssa Milano (Who’s the Boss?, Charmed, and Insatiable), Vernon Wells (Mad Max 2, Weird Science, and Innerspace), and Dan Hedaya (Clueless, The Usual Suspects, and Mulholland Drive).   You can see our cutdown reaction on https://www.YouTube.com/@Cinepals or join our Patreon for access to the uncut reaction https://www.Patreon.com/JabyKoay   Social Media ~JABY KOAY~ Instagram: @TheCinepals, @JabyKoay   ~ACHARA KIRK~ Twitter & Instagram: @AcharaKirk 

Sina. Pals. What's going on, everybody? I am Jabby Kauai, joined by Acharikirk. What's up? Believe it or not, we have, neither of us. I've seen Commando, the Arnold Schwarzenegger film. Thanks so much for joining us on our first time watch. I think I've seen, like, clips of this that I vaguely recall from my parents watching it and then me getting shoot out of the room.

Because that's how old this film is. That was quite the movie. It was quite the movie. That was Bill Paxton. Yeah. According to this. Wow. I mean, everyone has to.

This plane is drunk. Go home plane, you're drunk. Get out of here. Does not know where it's headed. It's going in circles. I don't think she should be a pilot. No. She's still training.

She wasn't trained on this plane. It's fine. This was a... It was a movie. It was a film of its time, for sure. It really was of its time. Between the music and Casey Nystatt, Freddie Mercury. Yeah.

Wow. That was exceptional. I mean, it kind of is like a time capsule of... the 80s action movie, right? Because you've got your action hero in Arnold Schwarzenegger. You've got your cheesy one-liners. You have explosions and guns. If I had to guess, I would imagine the Wachowski's love this movie.

Why? Well, his name is Matrix. The trilogy is called The Matrix trilogy, right? There's that scene where at the mall were all the mall cops. the Paul Blarts or whatever. Uh-huh. Are piled on top and they just fly off of him, like all the Agent Smithson reloaded.

And the whole pipe thing, there's a death just like that and Matrix Reloaded towards the end of the movie. Oh, I don't even remember. And Joel Silver, produced both. I don't know. Is it a coincidence? Maybe.

It's not, if they're really following you, you're not paranoid. Are you still, I think the saying is, are you still paranoid if they're actually following you or something like that. Oh. Yeah.

It's not a conspiracy if it's true. Yeah, the action was interesting. I mean, obviously, we're looking at this through the lens of 2024, so it's... Well, we've come a long way. Yeah. Right. The, the, there was a lot of stunt double stuff. And while it was like, wow, that's obvious.

That's a stunt double. I appreciated it at the same time because you saw that they were doing actual stunts. Yes. And whereas today, there's a lot of green screen and stuff like that or CGI is. Yeah. And there's definitely an appreciation for the fact that, you know, back in the 80s, you would have had to do that. all practical so like it was things getting blown up and like you you feel it you know like it looks

really cool like when all of those warehouses just like blew up all at the same time it was like whoa Bill Paxton was actually in true lies as well another Arnold Schwarzenegger film oh yeah he plays this jerk that's trying to sleep with Arnold's wife I don't know if there's any other Arnold films where Bill Paxton and him have worked together those that's the only other instance I can think of but it's just it was funny to see him here when you associate someone with being huge and famous, like seeing Daniel Day Lewis in this small role in a movie. It's like, what's he doing there?

He's too good for that. More like Ben Affleck and Buffy, the Vampireslayer. Yeah. I don't remember that. But anyway. The movie, the movie. It's like there's this vibe to the whole thing that I feel like we still kind of do today. You know, you have this like brute guy with this character, the lady,

who is the total antithesis. And so in there lies some comedy. He's got the little girl. so there's like a soft spot. Yeah, there are definitely tropes that are being played here. And it's fun. I mean, at times, I did find the lead actress just a little bit funny. Just because, you know, it was very stereotypical of like the, ah!

Oh, my God! You know, but... In fairness to her and the writing and the direction, I didn't feel like they went overboard. I felt like it was within the realm of cheekiness and believability. You know what I mean? Yeah. Because she actually had some good one-liners. She did.

There was a sense of realism to the thing where she's like, I'm involved in this, but this is insane. Just sometimes I was kind of like, okay, this is a lot. What would you have done different? No, but the thing is, right, watching this now, it's, you know, we're at a different time. And so it was much more common for that kind of trope to be played out a lot more, you know. I like it.

It's fine. I think it's fine. I mean, if you reverse the genders, I'm still. into it, you know. That's true. So it's fine. It's funny. Like, I thought there was some good comedy in there.

The one-liners, they stand the test of time. Let off some steam. I let him go. He won't need his car anymore. Santa Barbara. How is that a funny one-liner? It's not a one-liner. It's just funny hearing him say Santa Barbara.

Yeah. Was this very early on in Arnold's career? I think it was shortly after Terminator. The Terminator was like, that was the film that really, really put him on the map. I feel like. Acting wise, it's still like a very stilted Arnold Schwarzenegger. That never goes away. I feel like he gets a little bit better as we go along.

Yeah, with jingle all the way. Who told it you can eat my cookies? Yeah. You know? And Terminator 3, talk to the hand. I need your clothes, your boots, and whatever the fuck he says. Did you see Terminator 3? It's awful.

As a follow-up to Terminator, I feel like this is the... This film did what it needed to do, right? I don't know how many films were between Terminator and this. It was the following year. Movies took longer to get made and come out, and so... Well, yeah, I mean, he was, like, the quintessential action hero. They had to explain in the film, like, he's from West Germany or whatever. Like, they bothered to tell you that.

That goes away. Yeah. That goes away in later movies. Like, they don't even bother. with that anymore. So this is the one time they felt the need to explain it. And so I feel like...

That's interesting. I guess you can join the U.S. Army, right? As a foreign national and then you get... You get to become American. I don't know. Join the Army. Maybe that's what he did.

I don't know anything about that. I don't know. I just read this today that that was an option. I didn't even know that. I just don't think that the U.S. Army was done justice for lending their helicopters.

It's like they all showed up, with their guns aimed at Arnold just walking with Alyssa Milano in his arm and like none of them are saying stop or we will fucking kill you it's not a good look for the army but it's fine for the movie are you okay bro yeah I just killed a bunch of people

I left you some corpses good luck with the cleanup it's a silly film but it was fun it's a fun 80s action film it is like it very much is like everything you'd want from a film of this era it did it all between the one-liners the silly action the silly action the silly whatever like one man army against all these people

just like perfect supreme accuracy standing out in the open takes one shot in the entire action scene and I and he's like completely bare-chested like come at me bros and no one got him he got bare-chested after he almost got killed by the grenade remember he went into the woodshed uh-huh and then did the toby McGuire yeah because it was so uncomfortable to wear clothes They really shouldn't have gone

like full-blown Toby McGuire on that, shouldn't they? Where they like, some guy walks in and then like a drop of blood comes down onto the floor. Music. The James Horner score. Very interesting.

Oh, what's the James Warner do? That's his name is... I feel like to be everywhere. He did Titanic. Oh my God. I'm pretty sure he did Titanic. Yeah. See? Braveheart.

Legends of the Fall. Avatar. He's done a lot. This was his opportunity to do the steel drums. I feel like he may, had just discovered a steel drum and was like, this has to go on the movie. This is it.

This is the sound. I will only do this movie if I get to use the steel drums. Yeah. You know? Let me convince you. I feel like that kind of negotiation happens all the time. I mean, Steve DeSuzza, who wrote the movie, that's how he got Street Fighter.

He's like, I will write this draft for you for this film for your meeting with Capcom if you let me direct the movie. And the exact was like, fine. You can direct it. This dude, Dan Hedea, is he actually Spanish? I was wondering the whole time, like, is this guy even Hispanic? I wasn't that far off, though. Born in New York City is like, that's pretty close to Jersey,

and Jersey's where the Sopranos takes place. You know what I'm saying? Yeah. It was like either that or everybody loves Raymond's older brother, you know? That's like, that's who he reminded me of. And Ray Don Jong, my God, what a lady. Yeah. What a lady.

Beautiful, beautiful lady. It's really neat to watch this film. 40 years removed, I guess, almost because it came out of 85, right? Shoot, it's always. Yeah, so it's really neat to watch this 40 years removed knowing what's ahead. You know what I mean?

Like, this is before Predator. And Predator is one of his biggest movies of all time. This is before Terminator 2, which came out, I believe, in 92. Whereas Andrew Flash Gordon when you need him. Yeah, for all of the stats on his favorite actor. Yeah, and so, like, Terminator 2, I don't believe, came out until 1992, or 91. It's just really neat to see this, like, time capsule, like you said. Yeah, just like where this falls in line with everything else because I think this help propel into the next thing, into the next thing, into the next thing.

Well, yeah, like he's really solidifying himself as the action star of the 80s and 90s, you know? I just wish there was like a recording out there of the audience reaction because I want to know if people were just like invested when they were watching it or if they were laughing. You know what laughing at things they shouldn't be laughing at. Right. You know what I mean? Yeah. Like the silly light, we can take Cook's car. He won't need it.

I can't do his accent. But you know what I'm saying? Like, there was such a dumb line. It's a trope that we see a lot in 80s movies, right? So I imagine that it was probably something that people enjoy. You know, like, this is entertainment. It's fun. Yeah.

It's not meant to be serious. Like, it's a dude who has, like, massive biceps. Yeah. He's coming out of the airplane in a freaking speedo. Where'd that come from? I mean, I guess he could have been wearing it the entire time. He comes out. No, you're right.

He's shooting people up. You know, you're right. You're absolutely right. I mean, because things just evolve over time. You know, at one point, Orson Wells, Red War of the Worlds, and people, like, went off to themselves out of fear that the Earth was being attacked by aliens.

There was a film called The Incredible Shrinking Man, which was, like, mind-blowing at the time. Yeah. But, so I can imagine that at the time that this came out, it wasn't considered cheesy as much. It's just gotten cheesier with time. And you know what? I love cheese.

I want steel drums now. Cheese is fine. I want to put them in everything. Yeah. Lit off some steam. You guys, thanks so much for hanging out. Hopefully you enjoyed that in the steel drums. I'm Jabby Kui.

This is a charver cook. Peace out.