Commando (1985) |
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General | Extras | ||
Category | Action | Theatrical Trailer | |
Rating | |||
Year Of Production | 1985 | ||
Running Time | 85:34 (Case: 88) | ||
RSDL / Flipper | No/No | Cast & Crew | |
Start Up | Menu | ||
Region Coding | 2,4 | Directed By | Mark L. Lester |
Studio
Distributor |
Twentieth Century Fox |
Starring |
Arnold Schwarzenegger Rae Dawn Chong |
Case | Amaray-Transparent | ||
RPI | $36.95 | Music | James Horner |
Video | Audio | ||
Pan & Scan/Full Frame | None | English Dolby Digital 2.0 (192Kb/s) | |
Widescreen Aspect Ratio | 1.85:1 | ||
16x9 Enhancement |
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Video Format | 576i (PAL) | ||
Original Aspect Ratio | 1.85:1 | Miscellaneous | |
Jacket Pictures | No | ||
Subtitles |
Czech Danish English for the Hearing Impaired Finnish Hebrew Hungarian Icelandic Norwegian Polish Portuguese Swedish |
Smoking | Yes |
Annoying Product Placement | No | ||
Action In or After Credits | Yes, at start of credits |
Commando opens with the murders of several seemingly innocent people. Later, we find out that they were all part of an elite commando strike team, trained by John Matrix (Arnold Schwarzenegger). Why they allowed themselves to be killed so easily is just one of several holes in the storyline.
General Kirby (James Olson) goes and warns John that the members of his team are being murdered, which of course leads the killers right to John. They take John's daughter, Jenny (Alyssa Milano) as hostage and order John to kill the president of Val Verde. John knows his daughter is dead whether he kills the president or not, so he starts looking for his daughter. Along the way he enlists the help of Cindy (Rae Dawn Chong).
The transfer is presented in an aspect ratio of 1.85:1 and is 16x9 enhanced.
Picture sharpness and detail is very good and is one of the better mid-80 film transfers I have seen in this regard. No low-level noise or edge bleeding was noticed. Only one short scene had some minor edge enhancement, but it was not the slightest bit distracting.
The colour is great, with all objects being well-saturated, impressive for a mid 80s film.
It is in the area of grain and pixelization that the transfer is a let-down. It affects both the foreground and background throughout the entire film, but overall it is still tolerable. Some of the more noticeable examples can be found at 0:00 - 0:20, 9:19, 22:10, 31:58 and 63:33.
No MPEG, aliasing or moiré artefacts were noticed. There is some telecine wobble during the closing credits, but it is very minor.
Film artefacts were surprisingly rare. They were almost always one-offs and small to medium in size. By far the worst film artefact can be found at 28:04, which looks like a string of Christmas lights! Really noticeable, but very pretty!
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Film Artefacts | |
Overall |
The dialogue was clear and easy to understand, with no audio sync problems noticed.
The musical score is by James Horner.
This is pretty much your standard Dolby surround-encoded soundtrack, with some good use of the surround speakers. The front soundstage did collapse into the centre on a couple of occasions, but overall the sound was well spaced across the front soundstage. Highlights are at; 8:30, 18:28, 54:48, 58:25, 65:10 and 87:40.
At no point was I actually aware of the subwoofer's presence. It was used during explosions and the like, but overall its use was limited and subtle. I must point out that the soundtrack still sounded just fine though. The soundtrack just doesn't have those earth-shaking explosions we have all come to love and expect from today's movies.
Dialogue | |
Audio Sync | |
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Subwoofer | |
Overall |
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The picture quality is good, with only the noticeable grain/pixelization lowering its quality.
The audio quality is good.
The extras are extremely limited, consisting of just one theatrical trailer.
Video | |
Audio | |
Extras | |
Plot | |
Overall |
Review Equipment | |
DVD | Sony DVP-725, using Component output |
Display | Sony Projector VPH-G70 (No Line Doubler), Technics Da-Lite matt screen with gain of 1.0 (229cm). This display device is 16x9 capable. |
Audio Decoder | Built in to amplifier/receiver. Calibrated with Video Essentials. |
Amplification | Onkyo TX-DS989 |
Speakers | Fronts: Energy RVS-1 (3), Rears: Energy RVSS-1 (2), Subwoofer: Energy EPS-150 (1) |