Back in the early 90's, I was always a huge, huge fan of Arnold Schwarzenegger. To me, he was the absolute epitome of everything that is cool. I wanted to be him when I grew up.

Sad to say that now I have grown up, I probably have more in common with Danny DeVito, Arnold's on-screen partner in Twins. However, after stumbling on this rather brilliant clip of Arnold supposedly watching the new Predators trailer, I thought I'd pay a visit to some of the classic films featuring the former Mr Universe.

Released in 1985, Commando had Arnold playing a retired special forces Colonel and single dad John Matrix. Setting up it's protagonist in what is possible one of the cheesiest opening credits sequences of all time, we see John Matrix spending quality time with his daughter. They share an ice cream, they joke together, they even feed a wild fawn.

Shortly after all that, the light hearted side of Matrix is dropped as we see him forced back into action after his daughter is kidnapped. Matrix is then presented with an ultimatum by the films primary evil scumbags, Bennett and Arius – go to the fictional country of Val Verde and assassinate its president, or suffer the consequences.

Needless to say, Matrix presents a third option to the table – which consists of pretending to go along with their plan, then evading capture and leaving a path of destruction behind him as he tries to find his daughter (played by Charmed's Alyssa Milano).

As far as character development goes, there isn't much to talk about. Matrix spends much of the movie shooting stuff and blowing up cars, buildings, anything that comes into his sight really. And along the way he does meet Cindy, an air steward who conveniently knows how to fly a plane. But their characters aren't really explored and it's quite odd seeing how far Cindy is prepared to go to help John after just meeting him (stealing a plane, ram-raiding a department store – where they happen to sell rocket launchers I might add).

There's also the character of Bennett, an individual who is a trained killer but finds it perfectly acceptable to go around dressed as the lost member of the Village People.

One of Commando's strongest assets is it's one liners. The film is littered with them and Arnold (who was never really known for his acting chops), delivers them perfectly. A classic example includes the moment after Arnold kills his capture on an airplane and tells the air steward to not disturb him because “he's dead tired”.

Continuity wasn't on the mind of the makers of this movie. One of my favourite moments is after a car chase – John Matrix walks over to a sports car that is on it's side, pushes it back on it's wheels, gets in and drives away. The next shot, there's not a scratch on it!

I don't think the film makers were that concerned about other technical errors either. Near the end of the movie when John Matrix is blowing up the enemy's hideout, you can quite clearly see mannequins burning away in the rubble.

That's not to say the film isn't enjoyable. Quite the opposite in fact - it's these little errors that make watching the film such a delight, especially in this day and age of CGI. As I sat there taking it all in, I began to wonder how films like the seminal Bourne trilogy will hold up in 20 odd years.

I thoroughly enjoyed revisiting Commando and with plenty more Arnie classics out there, I think it's safe to say, I'll be back. (sorry, feel free to groan).

By Colin Miller