The following review contains very minor spoilers and was written with consideration for those who have not seen it.
I’m disappointed with how Rambo seems to be doing this weekend at the domestic box office, and I am disappointed that I haven’t reviewed the film until now. That said, at least I am reviewing it, as many of the boisterous voices that could have made Sylvester Stallone’s film an event film with online reviews have not done. There are those action fans, general moviegoers and fanboys who are on the fence about this movie; and for many the tide has already gone out for the film; they’ll get to it on DVD. “Who cares?”
I think this hesitation amongst movie reviewers and movie goers says something about how we deal with age in this country; it signifies that even when an actor goes over and beyond what is expected of him after he’s lived through and outlasted so many copycats, decades of Hollywood, and charlatans to the action throne, the respect is not there like it should be. Is Rambo cool or not cool in the internet culture? Am I too young or too old to see it? I’ve got a college education now, does that matter? What will my buddies straight out of Caddyshack II think if I like it?
America, please.
Review continued after the jump.
These are the pervasive, ubiquitous questions that have spoiled the sensation and unique qualities of mainstream, populist American film just like they have dampened rock ‘n’ roll. We over think everything, even as we soak up “Daily Britney.” There is a large difference between uninspired, lowest-common-denominator slop that the studios offensively push out like mutant pig babies from a sow in a factory (Meet the Spartans, Tyler Perry’s Madea, Witless Protection) and friggin’ Rambo. As Quentin Tarantino would loudly and hyper-actively tack on, “…OKAY?!?” There was a time in the ’80s when action films served their purpose as honorably as high brow films. Judd Apatow has clearly taken notes from that supercharged era of popcorn with his slew of R-rated comedies that hail back to comedies like Stripes and Fast Times at Ridgemont High, but no young turk has done it with action films.
So, Stallone, in his early 60s, has done it for us. And man-o-man, does it feel good to sit in a dark theater, observe all types of clearly excited dudes pile in for the fourth and second best Rambo, and have voices yell “Holy Shit!” in the theater after it starts, with plenty of laughing and flinching bouts in between. At a screening my friend attended, a plebeian drunkenly let off an air-horn* when Rambo appears on screen and catches a fish with his bow and arrow (he was escorted out, but some movie goers wanted him to stay). Indeed. Rambo is a party and it fights for its right. It is the straight-up best action film I’ve seen since Bad Boys 2 and a classic comeback for the genre. I liked Rocky Balboa, but it stumbled a bit. Stallone’s age was both the film’s center and a semi-desperate gimmick. But the Stallone in Rambo makes the Bruce Willis in Live Free or Die Hard look like a soccer dad chump, and note that he also directed the movie in the blazing wilds of Thailand. Do you see Coppola out in the jungle begging for heat stroke, jus’ sayin’?
Rambo is a masterful and not ironic wink at the audience who grew up on Rambo: First Blood Part II, those who were wondering if Stallone still had it in him against all odds, common decency and third act folklore. Stallone more than still has it. There were so many guys in my audience who obviously fit this demographic and many had brought their sons along; I’m sure the dads walked out with a similar feeling, like, “See punk, I told ya.” And I doubt one kid walked out of the screening hating this movie or liking it as a simple “meathead joke,” even the ones who precociously dig Ingmar Bergman, Terrence Malick and My Dinner with Andre.
There is a slew of fantastic and quirkily iconic images here, for the franchise and the genre, and Stallone has almost reinvented his second most famous character as pure myth. The Rambo in this film is not really John Rambo, so the singular title is fitting. This Rambo is almost like a cigar store Indian gone fully animated (not Creepshow animated), a kind of muscled punk pulp fiction gruff that mumbles things to Christian missionaries like “Fuck the World.” Does Stallone think this line is funny? I’ve had this debate with people. I think it’s ridiculous to think he doesn’t see purposeful humor in it. If I ever have a chance to speak with Stallone, I’m going to ask him if he genuinely didn’t mean for this line to get a laugh from the crowd. It’s too well-timed and bluntly delivered to be interpreted any other way. The Rambo here is just over it, over the world, and sure, he’s been like that since the Vietnam War, but now he just wants to catch cobras and pythons and watch the big rock burn, hands off. He’s one detached bastard.
There is a relentless segment in the film where an entire Burmese village is graphically slaughtered and punctured with bullets. The massacre is lead by a Burmese general who wears mirror-lensed sunglasses and he’s presented similarly to the symbolic, iron-fisted guard in sunglasses from Cool Hand Luke. Bullets maim, shred flesh like sandwiches, and pop heads open; blood flows. A small Burmese boy is shot dead, and like at “Fuck the World,” I laughed loudly at this, too. The scene so sudden, brief and incredulously extreme, it was the moment when I realized my expectations for this movie’s wrath, even with the complimentary pre-show Death Chart, were set low.
The horror that plagues the Burmese villagers gets a laugh several times because it’s simply not possible; but Burma is nefarious for these acts of animalistic violence, and whatever the critics say, Stallone has done a good deed. Human life is cheap there. Stallone memorably has Burmese rebels forced by militants to stumble across wetlands littered with submerged mines. Wholly original outside of reality, and wholly memorable terror. Really, when is the last time you thought about the atrocities occurring in Burma? George Clooney can say the word “Darfur” with emphasis for the next five years, but Rambo is a more effective message to achieve public awareness. And it glimmers with startlingly unapologetic entertainment value. Sue me, it works, like a spiked bat, natch.
There have been comments about Rambo on /Film that express a modest disappointment with, not so much the actors, as the actual presence of the other soldiers of fortune. Rambo guides these men down the river on a mission to save the American missionaries that have been made prisoners by the Burmese army. But these characters, especially the roguish Lewis played by the Brit actor Graham McTavish, serve as an uncouth pack of serviceable well-armed lessers and allow for Rambo’s badassery to remain in focus as he stays characteristically solemn, alert and caught in his strange state of perma-regret (he’s killed what, 1,000 people, a little reflection is due).
The set-up where the mercs creep into the prisoners’ quarters in the jungle at dark, with ran pouring and splashing off the bamboo huts, lightning striking, mud and shadows kissing, it’s been so long since a movie nailed this kind of cinematic rain-drenched tension that drives people to action-war films. These scenes are no longer an overdone cliché, even for the character that exhausted them. Nor are they a low-budget homage here, which is what I was afraid Rambo might be altogether. The dynamics in these scenes are fresh, and they are shot and edited with confidence and verve. With an audience presumably familiar and comfortable with the setting, Stallone ducks predictability and lovingly perfects genre imagery that helped make him a star. This is Stallone’s Unforgiven served at the altar of pop culture, with a wicked slap of the ruler to those who look down on it.
After the missionaries are untied and they escape, with incident, I eased to the notion that the movie was done with its job. I had witnessed what I came to see, Stallone had made good. The film was a six out of 10. The death chart’s numbers had already been met, I guessed. This was a tight affair, and already far from the straight-to-DVD nightmares some might have toyed with, and thought a sure thing pre-Rocky Balboa.
But the next 20 or 30 so-minutes blew my mind. As Rambo heads deeper into the jungle, the audience is given a literal explosion that is so neatly wrapped up and unforeseeable, it nearly matches the classic elevator shaft scene in the first Die Hard. When Michael Bay plots an explosion, it’s like God-as-playboy having stupid fun, mildly amusing himself with all at his disposal. When Rambo executes the explosion here, it is a eye-boggling signal from the most pissed off, toughest person on Earth to whatever sick effer created our galaxy; it is beyond. There are few scenes that literally knock you into the back of the theater, but like the voice said behind me, the exact same words I muttered, “Holy Shit, man.”
There are moments in a man’s life when everything just clicks, the gear is changed and he just goes for broke. Stallone does that here. This is not so much indulgent and unnecessary violence, as many would proclaim, this is violence is comparable to the expectations for Led Zeppelin if they ever tour again, but those won’t be met. This is just Led Zeppelin violence, hah, or AC/DC on their best day. This is a 60-year-old Stallone clearing the damn theatrical jungle of years of undergrowth, torching mediocre action movies like Hitman, The Transporter, Eraser, Shooter, and Sudden Death forever. This is the cinematic equivalent to a “shredder” in Shane Black’s endearing The Last Boy Scout. Rambo stands high on a hill, overlooking the carnage, and for a moment I thought he was part Native American, part Jason Voorhees, and part America, the bad and the good and the ugly.
Ostensibly, the ending to this movie is dead quiet, yet it’s packed with crazy, and it’s just as ideal, shockingly awesome, and sort of…just sad. The ending made me realize that there was a time when I was, like, 11 years old and I watched First Blood and First Blood Part II (as you know the third Rambo is lame) and I equated the image of Rambo firing thousands of bullets shaped like monsters’ golden teeth with America, as people all over the world did, more so than Ronald Regan, the flag, and, at the time, fast food. This U.S.A. was a mammoth that would never budge, that had the best and wildest movies and was proud of it; its citizens and movie stars didn’t age. Honestly, for many years I expected Arnold and Sly to never get old, and I didn’t think I would either. This was the way it had always been, headbands and bazookas and I was the fortunate son of it, enjoying an endless summer by the pool and Rockys and Rambos.
And then Stallone did Oscar and then this decade he went directly to DVD in movies I will never pick up to look at like Shade. I swear, I went to sleep after catching Rambo and I had a dream about Rambo V, and it began right where this one ended. When I woke up, I dashed over to report Rambo V’s details on /Film like it was the scoop of the century. I thought it was really a sealed deal for, like, two minutes, so strong was the plot. It involved Rambo and his friggin’ father (somehow played by Clint Eastwood) and his never before mentioned war buddy (played by Arnold Schwarzenegger), all chewing half-smoked cigars as they get together after Rambo has discovered a huge labyrinth of caves behind the building he’s walking to at Rambo’s end. Deep down it’s stashed with drug dealer money or possibly treasure, and they know it. And then the bad dudes arrived. And this movie was so good!
But the great ending to Rambo, Rambo IV, is what the critics are missing and denying in their reviews. It shows us that we can grow old, and while some of us will die behind desks, some of us are going to rock this world harder than we ever did. Rambo’s and Stallone’s trajectory is the great trajectory of the modern American life, one filled surreal success, rock star wealth and renown, legendary egotism, brain dead mistakes (Daylight, Shade), embarrassments, consumerism, weird strategies, and…even when it should be over, you make a ridiculously ballsy action film at 60something out in Thailand with 5,000 producers funding it. And it’s still not over. I have high standards when I go to see a movie in the Oughts. I’ve been burnt, the action genre has long been dead and made for “girly men.” And I loved this movie; it exists outside of the other Rambo movies for me, and I’m beginning to think it even surpasses the first.
I liked Cloverfield a lot, but I won’t be watching that film again for years. I don’t need to. That movie was a nightmare that summed up the last six or so years of nightly news and plunged hope. In contrast, Rambo almost changed winter to the peak of an Aquarian summer for me, and every guy who walked out into the air had a smile that said, “Damn, I can’t believe how much I enjoyed it. Wait, what in the dunkirk happened to our action movies?!” This is comparable to the sunglasses in They Live for American action cinema from ‘08 onward. Do not pass on it. Stallone is not here for DVDs.
10/10
*Did anyone bring an air horn to the Bourne films? Think not.
February 2nd, 2008 at 5:35 pm
I couldn’t agree more. People are just bashing this film cause Stallone wrote the script, and automaticly view it with “Bad Movie Goggles,” not realizing Stallone also wrote the first Rocky.
I felt as if the big blowout was a huge wake up call to all these slick, coolaction films you see today. John Rambo is certainly someone cool, but he’s not the same type of cool as Jason Statham. I loved it, it showed us how action sequences and explosions SHOULD be done. Even my friends who disliked the film, praised the amazing blowout.
February 2nd, 2008 at 5:58 pm
I really enjoyed this film and yes Stallone co-wrote and directed the film. And you have to see this film in a theater with a good sound system.
February 2nd, 2008 at 6:08 pm
I’m sick of nostalgia in cinema. The rehashing of old characters and remakes really has to end. The current generation has no action hero.
February 2nd, 2008 at 6:11 pm
Agree with everything you say, great review, until the ‘America Please’
I’m not even gonna waste my breath!!
February 2nd, 2008 at 6:12 pm
I just seen it today, it basicly kicked my ass.
February 2nd, 2008 at 6:14 pm
Well I haven’t seen any of the Rambo flicks [I'm 16, btw], and I won’t be seeing this one - not because of his age, but because of seeing how much these Rambo flicks have influenced child soldiers and actual, real life acts of horror. I don’t care if YOU can tell the difference, a 12 year old kid on cocaine can’t, and will actually try out half the stuff in these movies. Glad to see this is the end of the series.
February 2nd, 2008 at 6:19 pm
@Kashif
A 12-year-old with access to guns, all of the coke bumps he wants, and plenty of human targets has a lot more problems than viewing Rambo IV. Don’t blame guns, poverty, corrupt governments and/or coke, blame Rambo? Please, can I have a bumper sticker for my rocket before I take off to Planet Whatever?
February 2nd, 2008 at 6:39 pm
yes, this movie was more than i expected and a great acheivment for sly. it bothers me that dad’s had taken their kids to see this though, as this is NOT a film for kids. nothing drives me crazier than seeing kids in a movie that is clearly not for them. you’ve tossed around some big names in this and another review, Unforgiven, led zep, but the one that caught me was the Rescue Dawn remark. I’m not sure if you meant to make a comment on the scenery, or the film itself, but if it was about the film, then i’ve got to say that Rambo comes nowhere close to being as successful a film as Dawn. while Rambo is a wonderfully packed and executed action film, Dawn is about the triumph of the human spirit, and what we can achieve in the worst possible situations. but then again, maybe you were commenting on the scenery, and if that’s the case, then yes, Rambo was amazing to watch, it really captured the hopelessness of that world i can barely believe exists, but sadly it does. Great review Hunter, you did a kick-ass job while Peter’s been away, hope yer here for good.
February 2nd, 2008 at 6:58 pm
@OC
Per my comparison to Rescue Dawn earlier and else where, I was comparing Werner Herzog’s use of the jungle and makeshift army camp in that film to Stallone’s in Rambo. You are correct, as I wasn’t comparing the films themselves. I don’t feel that’s even possible, and personally (I’ll catch flack for this, and I understand why, but whatevs), I enjoyed these films equally, and maybe Rambo by a hair more - it has the stronger ending of two interesting, well done and unforeseen endings.
But, yes, one aspect of Rambo that stood out to me was its use of Thailand. I expected a film that was restrained by a small budget, but Rambo’s scenery is gorgeously rugged and vast. You really feel like you’re stranded out in Burma (aka “hell”), more so than in Laos as seen in Rescue Dawn.
When I review a film, I judge it based on what goals it ideally set out to fulfill creatively, and then I analyze what goals it fulfilled that were accidental (always interesting). I’m not a guy who will rate movies 10/10 at the drop of a hat, I hardly ever do. But I truly had high expectations for Rambo and Cloverfield, and both exceeded them, while defining moments/observations in time that I feel no film has realized better, and that I hadn’t really considered before I watched them.
What a January, eh?
February 2nd, 2008 at 7:44 pm
Will you be reviewing I Am Legend next?
February 2nd, 2008 at 7:50 pm
yes, dawn was restricted to that camp for the most part (not knocking it, they did a great job) butin Rambo their was this moving urgency that is hard to capture in such a giant location - and Sly absolutely nailed it. it reminded me (& i’ll catch flak too) of the great Vietnam movies, & their classic chase scenes; the end of Platoon, the escape from Duval in Apocalypse. I’m not saying it’s in that league, but it certainly captured that vibe. I think this is a high note to go out on, yer right in saying it’s the best since 1st blood, and i was a little weary of the whole ‘genre crossing idea’ that sly had tossed around. i think that could’ve taken away from the success of this film. Stallone’s got this weird career lately, where he keeps shocking us, like copland, Balboa & Rambo. I’d love to see him do more things as ambitious as Copland, cuz it’s not what we expect at all from him. One thing that has me on the fence about Rambo though: towards the end, with all the flying body parts and such…i can’t decide if that was over the top cool, or over the top shit.
February 2nd, 2008 at 7:58 pm
@Jerry
You already have a biopic? Congrats.
February 2nd, 2008 at 8:16 pm
I liked the flick.
But I had to be convinced to go.
When I saw the trailer, At the very beginning. When they were just showing the jungle. I said, out loud “Rambo.” I was kidding. Making a funny joke to my friends. Why would the ever make another Rambo?
I used to think that the idea of Sylvester Stallone going back to his old movies and finishing them off before he died was cute. An Old man finishing his past.
And I truly think that is what this movie, and Rocky Balboa really are.
Now. What does that mean Artistically.
Rocky Balboa is most like the first Rocky movie.
I haven’t seen the first Rambo movie, But I’m assuming they were similar.
Stallone is doing the only thing in the world he likes doing.
He is writing these movies. They aren’t so much movies, as they are tributes to his life. His greatest hits. For Lost fans.
The movies are the definitive versions of everything before it. The way he wants them.
Good or Bad?
I leave that to you.
February 2nd, 2008 at 8:22 pm
I have no interest in seeing Rambo, just because I’ve never had an interest in seeing ANYTHING Rambo. I just want to say that I’ve really enjoyed having you around here, Hunter. I just like what you have to say.
February 2nd, 2008 at 8:33 pm
I haven’t seen the film yet, but I watched the old Rambo flicks and I saw the trailer for Rambo IV. The trailer looked not too bad, but 10/10 seems way over the top for a pretty simple action flick. Don’t get me wrong, I love well done action movies like Bourne Ultimatum, but practically you are saying that this is one of the three or five best movies of the year (otherwise you will end up with a pretty bad rating inflation where every movie gets the best score). Unless this movie is a revolutionary improvement over the old Rambo’s it’s probably not worth such an over the top rating.
February 2nd, 2008 at 9:22 pm
This movie was so good! This is the way action movies are supposed to be. Hunter, you’re right on with your review. Stallone deserves this comeback, as well as with “Rocky Balboa.” I hope he gets to do more movies now that he’s proven that he’s still got it.
February 2nd, 2008 at 10:09 pm
@ Mark
Thank you for commenting. The argument you are getting at seems directed at /Film’s policy to add a numerical rating, 0-10, to its movie reviews. I think this is a fine, dandy and fun policy and more readers definitely check out and will read full reviews based on movies’ assigned numerical values by the critic(s). That said, movies are made by humans. We can quantify humans. We’ve all said (the better of us have merely shrugged the thought) that someone is a 6, 7, or a 2. Fact is, this is the inner robot in all of us, in this case a Hunter-bot. In a free world, no human is really a number, but it’s like a plastic sword through an olive. We like to see it, if not applied to humans, then to human-made movies.
My review speaks for itself and I have commented more on my reasoning for the 10/10 in my second comment above. As for Rambo being a “simple action flick,” and thus undeserving of a perfect score, I disagree. The story might seem simple, just like the recipe for apple pie. But as we’ve all experienced, some apple pies are 10s and some apple pies are, yep, complete shit. Simple ingredients, rather simple and similar recipes, rather exact goals. Different humans made them. Mmm, Burmese Rambo apple pie. It’s got perfect pop!
You also suggest that there is a limited number of 10/10s allotted for films per year. In your case, you have come to the conclusion that there can only be 3 to 5. This is interesting to me. See, my top three films of the year will be labeled “Hunter’s Top 3 Films of 2008,” and that’s how I will know. Let’s trade text books though.
Also, please comment on how this Rambo could have been better. I’m curious. If you give it a 6/10, what would Mark have done in the jungles of Thailand to oomph it to a 10/10? And what numerical value do you give the Star Wars Flute video on YouTube?
February 2nd, 2008 at 11:09 pm
I’ve never seen anything like it. It was one ultra-violent scene after another amidst sparse dialog, and midway the movie an initial sense of triumph had to give way for uncomfortableness.
And Hunter, Rambo III did not suck.
February 2nd, 2008 at 11:48 pm
I havnt seen Rambo 3, and was too young to experience First Blood 1 and 2 when they came out. But it seems like every Rambo movie succeeds in highlighting our failures as a nation whether they try to or not. This review really made me understand the significance of the lack of response for this movie. It was very subdued, I had noticed, and was wondering why? Anyway I got really into reading this and as I read the playlist I was listening hit on Unforgiven, by Metallica. It totally matches the evolution of this character, I believe, it was crazy. And somewhat the life of Stallone too here I will share some lyrics- They dedicate their lives
To RUNNING all of his
He tries to please THEM all
This bitter man he is
Throughout his life the same
He’s battled constantly
This fight he cannot win
A tired man they see no longer cares
The old man then prepares
To die regretfully
That old man here is me - an odd coincidence. I like the new Stallone, and have a newfound excitement for Rambo, now that Im caught up. Good review, heck of a job Hunter.
February 3rd, 2008 at 1:06 am
hunter, this review was as fantastic as the sensation of watching Rambo in the theater last weekend - analysis as sharp as sly’s arrow piercing some sadistic burmese solder’s eye socket.
for years i thought stallone had lost his mind. one dogsh-t movie after another.
it’s now clear that he just needed to be comfortable with doing what he wanted to do - rather than what some z-grade producer would fund him doing.
great job, sly. and great review, hunter. you are really making this site a must-read, my friend.
February 3rd, 2008 at 6:02 am
I’m going to the local cinemark to check this flick out later this afternoon, before the Super Bowl. My mates seem VERY uninterested in the movie and it really ticks me off - so, I’m going to link them this review and let them make the decision.
Thanks for the great review, bud. Keep up the good work here at /Film.
February 3rd, 2008 at 8:35 am
Hey Triple H. I think your review is as epic in scale as Rambo was an amazing flick. Better then my review would have been. I agree with everything you’ve said with vigor, AND, I have to say I love your Led Zeppelin comparisons and all that. I agree with your agelessness of Stallone and Schwarzenegger, Oscar? Are you forgetting Junior? Good shit, my friend, these were our action icons!
A tad of criticism.
“The ending made me realize that there was a time when I was, like, 11 years old and I watched First Blood and First Blood Part II (as you know the third Rambo is lame) and I equated the image of Rambo firing thousands of bullets shaped like monsters’ golden teeth with America, as people all over the world did, more so than Ronald Regan, the flag, and, at the time, fast food”
I agree again, but I would never have gotten away with such an overeager period-less rant.
This is by far one of the greats in /Film movie reviews. And I agree, Rambo was not reinvented, but came back full circle to the simplicity of First Blood, when he was just a broken man. Remember? He wasn’t RAMBO yet then, that was basically a drama I suppose.
And one last thing, don’t give the satisfaction of responding 3 and 4 times to negative feedback like Pete does, let the Negs be negative and revel in the compliments of all the people who are actually right….. Tee Hee.
Good job, Great Movie, Your competition is now a fan.
~ZL
February 3rd, 2008 at 8:37 am
The Captain says: I love Metallica too!! But lay off the pipe Unforgiven!
February 3rd, 2008 at 9:39 am
Great review…I couldn’t agree more. One of the best theater experiences I have had in a long time. And I think everyone in the audience thought so too, judging by their reactions.
I remember when people would go to the movies to escape, to have a good time, and not be so critical.
I think what changed things was the increase in prices. Normally you could take your girlfriend, buy a couple sodas and a tub of popcorn, afterwards go out to dinner and it wouldn’t cost you an arm and a leg.
Now for two tickets it’s over 20 dollars. Forget if you want some popcorn and drinks, now it’s close to 40 bucks. After spending all that money, if you aren’t completely blown away by the film, you get pissed with the money you spent.
In the 80s, I was satisfied with watching Stallone, Arnold, and just having fun, watching good verses evil, being ENTERTAINED.
I hope things change and people lighten up.
Rambo would wipe the floor with Jason “Matt Damon” Bourne.
February 3rd, 2008 at 11:14 am
I will lay off the meat pipe when Unforgiven makes it onto the Rambo soundtrack. :|
February 3rd, 2008 at 4:28 pm
Awesome review !!! Loved the movie and agree with every point you made!!! The effects were beautiful and Stallone still has it !!!! Love to see Arnold do a movie with Stallone after all these years myself!!! Not much else to add here review says it all!!! Loved the end After 20 some years John Rambo finally got to go home and after all isn’t that all he was trying to do after Vietnam war in First Blood!!!
February 4th, 2008 at 5:00 am
This is the strangest review I have ever read on this site. Another strong reason why we need a sarcasm font, because I really had trouble working out if this was sincere or not.
But then, that is why I read the AV club for reviews and this site for laughs.
I give this review 10/10 and the Airhorn mark of approval.
February 4th, 2008 at 5:07 am
down with overthinking!
February 4th, 2008 at 2:16 pm
thank you hunter, thank you. . .im with you 110%
February 4th, 2008 at 2:34 pm
I stopped reading this review after he said he liked Bad Boys 2 and Rocky Balboa. I don’t get why people seem to love the ultra-violence in this film. That’s America for you I guess. Why not join the military? Then you can experience all the coolness first hand while people try to shoot you in the face…It’ll be fun. Killing is cool!
February 4th, 2008 at 7:51 pm
Trebek, Rocky Balboa was fine me thinks. BB2… well, BB2 was being BB2, a film that didn’t take itself too seriously in terms of the violence. Which is quite the opposite with Rambo IV.
I’ve read a review somewhere on the Net saying that Rambo IV lacked self-awareness as the excessive gore and sadism was set against a backdrop of reality, as alluded to by the news reporting montage at the beginning of the movie, and was therefore not something to be meant tongue-in-cheek.
That was what made my guts telling me that there was something not right with the movie.
February 11th, 2008 at 11:20 pm
A REASON FOR GUYS TO GO BACK TO THE MOVIES!!!!!
OK, listen up!! I have seen every movie ever made i think, lol. I can say with all honestly RAMBO is by far the most violent film I have ever seen. You have seen people mowed down with an AK before but you have never seen it look so real as it does in this. I dont know how they pulled this off, but the special effects will blow your mind. I haven’t used the word revolutionary since The Matrix, but i came out of the theater with that same ” holy crap, I aint seen nothing like that before” feeling. SEE IT ON THE BIG SCREEN!! The theater i went to has killer surround sound and my seat was rumbling during the .50 caliber jeep mounted gun scene. Stallone deserves his props. Best of the series in my opinion. And for a number 4??? Better than Die Hard and 4 Lethal Weapon 4 combined. DONT MISS and DONT TAKE YOUR GIRLFRIEND!!
February 11th, 2008 at 11:25 pm
or your mom, or your little brother..or anyone under 18, or someone really old who gets distraught easily
May 25th, 2008 at 2:28 am
GREAT and truthful review. Well written. Don’t agree with all your points but I do on many of them….