Rambo
Written and Directed by: Sylvester Stallone
Starring: Sylvester Stallone, Julie Benz, Graham McTavish, Paul Schulze

After successfully revitalizing his career in 2006 with the moving and somewhat low key Rocky Balboa, Sylvester Stallone has once again dipped into his limited supply of iconic screen characters to try to provide a satisfying conclusion to the Rambo saga (not that anyone was really asking for it). While I’m sure some people will continue to see this as a sad attempt by a washed up star to relive his glory days, you’ve gotta respect a guy who takes matters into his own hands, realizing that if no one else is going to cast him in a decent flick, he might as well try and make some himself.

Be warned: Rambo is a very different beast from Rocky Balboa. There’s a reason why this movie is not getting a lot of love from critics, and it is certainly anything but low key. However, the Rambo franchise was never known for its dramatic power or fantastic writing. The good news is that Rambo still works as a nostalgic throwback to the era of mindless action movies, back when guns and muscles were more important than parkour and martial arts prowess. However, Stallone has kicked up the amount of carnage to an almost absurd level, causing me to question whether something like this could have even been released 20 years ago.

As the movie begins, John Rambo is living in relative seclusion in the jungles of Thailand. He keeps to himself, quiet and resolute, but still carrying a chip on his shoulder and a general hatred for humanity. When a group of missionaries ask to rent his boat to transport them into Burma to provide medical assistance to refugees, Rambo simply tells them to turn around and head home. Obviously if things ended there we wouldn’t have much of a movie, so eventually the female missionary (Julie Benz) manages to change his mind with an inspirational speech. Once inside Burma, however, the missionaries are captured in a raid, and when Rambo catches wind of this he heads back into Burma with a group of mercenaries, determined to save the lives that he helped endanger.

Make no mistake, this is an ugly, ugly movie. Stallone is in great shape for his age, but he looks worse for wear. It seems like the majority of the movie takes place under a torrential downpour, and the amount of severed limbs and exploding heads number among the highest that I personally have ever seen on screen. We are presented with intense scenes of Burmese militia men raping and killing without mercy, and at times you feel dirty for having witnessed it. The movie is not for the faint of heart, and makes no apologies for what it is. For that alone, I have to give it a thumbs up!

In my opinion, Stallone’s only real mistake with Rambo was setting it within the real-world civil war of Burma. Stallone has commented that he chose not set Rambo in Iraq because it would be insulting to the soldiers who are actually over there right now. However, I think it is equally exploitative to use Burma. Although he seems to have the good intention of helping raise awareness, there is certainly no explanation or attention given to the background of the conflict, and the bad guys are just there to provide targets for Rambo’s gun.

That said, there are more than enough over the top action movie cliches and corny one-liners to remind us that we cannot possibly take this movie seriously. For the most part I wasn’t bothered by it, although I did feel a bit weird about the fact that Rambo only cared about saving the people he brought in, rather than the many other prisoners we see in the camp.

The only other complaint I have is that the movie’s climax, while providing a massive orgy of explosions and spectacular kills, seemed just a little too easy. I know that part of the fun in a movie like Rambo is that he is basically an invincible one-man army, but it’s not quite as interesting if we never feel that he might be in any sort of physical danger.

Regardless, anyone who fumed about the soft PG-13 cut of Live Free or Die Hard that hit theatres last summer will surely feel vindicated by Stallone’s old school mentality here. As long as you don’t come into Rambo expecting real human drama or a deep character study, I think you’ll find that it provides more than enough gritty blood-and-guts thrills to satisfy even the most cynical action movie junkie. For your next guy’s night out, Rambo is guaranteed to leave you high-fiving your bros on the way out of the theatre. Whether or not it will secure Stallone his next directorial gig, however, remains to be seen. — Sean

SCORE:

Recommended If You Like: The Condemned, Live Free or Die Hard, Rescue Dawn, Platoon

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