Rambo [Blu-ray]
The next chapter finds Rambo recruited by missionaries to protect them during a humanitarian aid effort on behalf of the persecuted Karen people of Burma. After the missionaries are taken prisoner by Burmese soldiers Rambo gets a second impossible job: rescue the missionaries in the midst of a civil war.System Requirements:Running Time: 93 minutesFormat: BLU-RAY DISC Genre: ACTION/ADVENTURE/HEROES Rating: R UPC: 031398232995 Manufacturer No: 23299If you’ve been wondering what ever happened to ex–Green Beret superwarrior John Rambo since he singlehandedly shot up a Pacific Northwest town (First Blood, 1982), returned to the jungles of ‘Nam to free U.S. POWs held long after war’s end (Rambo: First Blood Part II, 1985), and interrupted the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan long enough to blow lots of stuff up and rescue his old commandant from the Reds (Rambo III, 1988), then Rambo (2008) is for you. Without so much as a IV to dilute the brand name, Rambo–which is what most of us called the second, most iconic film in the series–may aspire to open a new era for a pop legend. But it’s a thoroughly mechanical attempt to reanimate a franchise that, absent the anger, frustration, and self-loathing of the post-Vietnam years, has no meaning or purpose. For some time now Rambo (Sylvester Stallone) has been putt-putting along the Thai-Burmese border in a longboat, catching exotic snakes to sell. As for the 60-year civil war in Burma between the brutal government and the Karen independence movement, he ignores it. Enter a party of American missionaries whose dewy blond spokeswoman (Dexter’s Julie Benz) asks Rambo to haul them upriver so that they can bring medical aid to the insurgents. After the requisite number of monosyllabic refusals, he does. Soon afterward the do-gooders are in a world of hurt, and he’s summoned to lead a squad of mercenaries on a rescue mission.
As storytelling, the latest Rambo is the most bare-bones of the bunch. Rambo has little to say, so it’s especially galling that Stallone, as director and co-writer, obliges him to have essentially the same conversation at three different points (the final distillation: “Live for nothing or die for something”). The Burmese army goons seem in competition to commit the most hideous atrocity (e.g., child skull-crushing underfoot), the better to justify the eventual, lovingly protracted spectacle of them being eviscerated by high-powered weaponry. Although shot in Thailand, the movie has mostly been photographed in brown, reducing any particular sense of place but, perhaps, perversely increasing our gratitude for the splashes of purple whenever hot metal tatters flesh. –Richard T. Jameson
Beyond Rambo
 Complete list of Rambo movies on DVD and Blu-ray |
 Soundtrack |
 Rambo: The Complete Collector’s Set |
Stills from Rambo (click for larger image)
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User Ratings and Reviews
5 Stars Bad to the Bone
I think Sylvester ranks among the stars such as Swartzeneger, Van Dam, Chuck Norris, and Steven Segal. Rambo is a terrific tactical movie. Bravo movie makers.
5 Stars Gift
I got this as a gift for someone else, so all I can say is that it came within the specified time.
5 Stars Taking Claymores Where They’ve Never Been Before
If you’ve seen one Rambo, you’ve pretty much seen them all. At least this one involves a conflict between a real, live repressive regime that violently stays in power, with all the popular support as that enjoyed by North Korea, and this one isn’t saddled with a pro-colonial, pro-imperial side to champion as the earlier Rambo romps.
What makes this one a five star Rambo was its jaw-dropping depiction of a claymore mine exploding with what appears to be all the qualities of a low yield field nuclear weapon. As super-patriot Sly Stallone somehow missed serving in the military during the Vietnam war, he may be excused from thinking that a mushroom cloud is produced by a claymore.
There are lots and lots of Saving-Private-Ryan exploding heads and flying flesh. Some local women (and one guy) are sexually abused (we learn nothing about them or their fates), while the one European woman in the movie is saved from the fate worse than death…and even manages to fall down during the race to escape; she further exercises her acting chops by holding her hands to her ears and looking pained, for the last 20 minutes of the movie, i.e. during the Kill ‘em All “plot” resolution for which the audience has been so patiently waiting.
Next to watching Keanu Reeves drive a motorcycle faster than the light/heat/shock wave of a nuclear blast (Chain Reaction), there’s been no better example of testosterone based science fantasy.
If you don’t care a whit about plot or character development, and if nuance is anathema, this is for you!
4 Stars Burma gets Stallowned
While the hectic camerawork and editing are indicative of modern action movie trends, Rambo has the soul of an old-school action flick. The plot picks up twenty years or so after Rambo helped the Mujahideen defeat the Soviets in Agfhanistan. A group of aid workers are taken hostage by the genocidal Burmese military and Rambo must give up his solitary life as a snake wrangler to rescue them, against his better judgement. Predictably, the blood and bullets fly.
The best part about the film is, quite simply, seeing a grizzled John Rambo come out of action hero retirement. Unlike the special effects-oriented fourth Die Hard and Indiana Jones films, which were not only terrible but extremely boring, Rambo is a gritty, stripped-down action thriller with a compelling lead character. Stallone does a great job portraying Rambo as a nihilistic outcast who’s all but given up on life. Even when Rambo is doing something seemingly heroic, it’s not out of altruism or duty, but rather his own personal sense of purpose.
I have only one major complaint about Rambo, and that is the deletion of several great scenes that help establish the characters and film’s overall message. These scenes are available on the DVD, but they should have been kept in the final cut. Rambo is only around 90 minutes long, so it doesn’t make much sense for them to have been deleted for runtime purposes. Some of the CGI is weak, and again, the camerawork and editing are a little too fast, but they don’t ruin the film. Rambo is the first film in the franchise since First Blood to have a true sense of pathos, and for this reason, I’d say it’s the second best in the series. Hopefully Stallone will be able to do just as good a job with Rambo 5.
5 Stars awesome
Cringed when forced to watch the other Rambo movies. I was infact tramatized by them at a young age. They were my brother’s favorite movies from ages 13 and up…I had been forced to watch them (only 1 TV in house back them) during holidays, school breaks and summer vacation when they were on one of the few stations that came in on our TV (before satilite dishes and cable did not come out to out house). Now fast forward to present day, I am bored and on a friends recommendation decide to watch this….WOW. What a fantastic movie. This actually had a great story line, a unfortunatly believaable storyline and was very well executed. I won’t bother to give a synopsis, there are numberous reviews which do this. All I can say is this movie is so good, I even recommended it to my mother, who was also tramatized by the number of times by brothers wanted to watch the other 3. She was at first resistent but as my dad wanted to see it (apples don’t fall far from the tree)she relented. Although IT IS violent, she was also suprised what a good movie it was. The extra material is also really great and very informative. If you can stomach modern war and seeing the inhumane things humanity does and enjoy a good action flick, this could be a movie you would enjoy.
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