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Rambo [2007]
from Sony Pictures Home Ent. UK
starring Sylvester Stallone, Julie Benz, Matthew Marsden, Graham McTavish, Ken Howard
directed by Sylvester Stallone

Features:

• PAL

Editorial Review:

If you've been wondering what ever happened to ex–Green Beret super warrior 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 re-animate 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

Customer Reviews:

• Avg. Customer Rating: 4.0 / 5.0

• Rambo
  Rambo is an important movie, at least as far as I am concerned. It isn't polished entertainment; a shoot-em-up video game committed to celluloid, Rambo is raw, powerful and honest. Rambo is a war movie.
  The story begins in Thailand where we find the character of Rambo relatively at peace in self imposed exile where he fishes and catches snakes. He is then asked to take a group of Christian charity workers into Burma, a war zone. The aid workers are captured by the Burmese military and Rambo once again... more info

• How action movies should be made
  In Thailand, John Rambo is living peacefully capturing snakes and transporting people and cargo in an old boat. When he transports a group of Christian Aid Workers into war-torn Burma he gets more than he bargained for. Rambo soon finds himself joining a group of mercenaries to rescue the Christian Aid workers who are captured by the Burmese army.
  I have to admit that I didn't expect Rambo to be any more than a cheesy tribute to the eighties by a guy desperate to relive past glory. I stand corrected.... more info

• Technically brilliant hideously violent tripe . Was i entertained?.....you bet.
  There is a point in Rambo where a Christian aid worker tells John Rambo "taking a life is never right" (even though the men Rambo has just obliterated were going to kidnap and gang rape the one female in their midst ) and you just know that the line is going to have pay off before the films conclusion . Sure enough before the credits roll that same aid worker is hitting a mans head with rock like he's trying to win the biggest cuddly toy on a fairground test your strength machine. By this I took it to mean... more info

• What's the point? (spoiler warning)
  
  Rambo frowns a bit, grunts, swears, blasts a few holes through some bad guys, and then cuts their heads off.
  ...Oops, sorry, I just gave away the whole plot.
  I liked Hostel, The Hills Have Eyes, Funny Games and so on, don't get me wrong, but this new Rambo installment is ultimately for sad, insecure, power-hungry people who get a kick out of watching innocent beings getting raped, humiliated, cut apart, beaten and mutilated until death.
  That's basically what happens throughout the... more info

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