There are a multitude of movies that should never be made for a variety of different reasons, and any self-respecting action junkie would be quick to name Commando as one of them.
From an artistic or technical perspective it’s a million miles away from being a classic, but the number one reason why it’s endured as a stone-cold classic of the genre for almost 40 years is because it perfectly encapsulates the over-the-top excess and bullet-riddled extravagance of not just shoot ’em up cinema’s 1980s boom period, but Arnold Schwarzenegger as a superstar.
David Ayer was planning to reboot Commando over a decade ago, something that mercifully never came to fruition, but writer Steven E. de Souza revealed to the Radio Times he’d be open to a do-over if Dwayne Johnson were to step in and fill the Austrian Oak’s inimitable shoes, even if his reasoning doesn’t make a lick of sense.
“You need this unique character and they’re just not in motion pictures. I guess you could do it with The Rock, but The Rock isn’t going to do a reboot of something. I don’t think a reboot is worth doing but if they do it, please put in the original ending!”
Based on his comments, we can only assume the scribe is unfamiliar with Walking Tall, Get Smart, Race to Witch Mountain, G.I. Joe: Retaliation, Baywatch, and Jumanji: The Next Level, all of which could be described as reboots in one way or another, without even mentioning Johnson’s ongoing plans to do something with Big Trouble in Little China.
The Rock most definitely will do a reboot of something, but we must collectively hope and pray that Commando isn’t one of them.