‘The Commando’ Review: A Thriller About Family Invasion

A talky and lethargic home-invasion thriller, “The Commando” amounts to an inept crime drama stuffed with banal dialogue and irrelevant characters to pad its feature-length running time. Even Mickey Rourke devotees will find the movie exhausting since the actor disappears from the film after the first 20 minutes and doesn’t return until the anti-climactic finale, where everyone involved seems to be glad the thing is finally over with.

Shot over 11 days in New Mexico during the COVID pandemic, the film tries to make do with limited locations. This is why a third of the movie is including people spouting nonsense sitting inside cars.

Rourke plays Johnny, a fresh-sprung convict who reunites with his old crew to retake the $3 million of stolen money he hid inside a house before he was arrested. Michael Jai White is James, a DEA agent suffering from PTSD after inadvertently killing three hostages during a gunfight with drug traffickers. James happens to live with his wife and two daughters in the house where Johnny stashed his loot. Many confrontations ensue, but none of them involve the two leads until the film’s closing minutes. The wait is long and arduous.

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