Rambo

Rambo (2008)

37% on Rotten Tomatoes (out of 140 reviews)

Runtime: 91 minutes

Directed by: Sylvester Stallone

Starring: Sly himself, Julie Benz, Matthew Marsden, Maung Maung Khim

From: Lions Gate/Weinstein Company/Millennium Films/Nu Image/etc.

Finally, I’ve returned and amongst other things, I was in Kansas on a vacation to hang out with family. But now I can do this, and at times I’ll be able to watch these movies on a Blu-Ray player. Yep, pretty great and now I feel like I’m in the 21st century.

I decided to rent this from Blockbuster, as I’ve heard from elsewhere that this is a quality Blu-Ray disc that will demonstrate how great the format is. And that was true. I saw this once on the big screen at a drive-in, of all places, then I saw it on DVD but it’s been more than a year since the DVD viewing.

I’ve seen all four of the Rambo flicks; it’s something that you have this series when it’s based on an anti-war novel that was much more ambiguous. First Blood is a really good dramatic flick about a Vietnam vet who gets mistreated in a small town and he snaps. The second one is a rousing action flick where we cheered on vicariously as Rambo kicked some Commie ass in Vietnam. The third one has him going to Afghanistan to assist a group that pretty much morphed into the Taliban (well, whoops, but at the time they hated the Commies! Still, whoops) to save his old SAS commander, Col. Trautman. This one, though, was different.

John Rambo is now in northern Thailand, operating a longboat for hire, and is an old bitter man at what has happened with his life. A group of Christian missionaries come to him to ask him to deliver them to Burma, a horrible war-torn place where the government are at constant battle with the Karen tribe of the country and as seen in the movie, do horrible things to those that oppose the military dictatorship. In fact, Stallone made the movie to give attention to what is a problem that is ignored by much of the world for whatever reasons. Much filming was done near the area and the evil military guys are actually the Karen people themselves that had to deal with the oppressive government and they risked a lot to be in this flick. It’s quite the story. But back to the movie… Rambo is finally convinced to take them to their destination, but they get kidnapped and it takes Rambo-having to resort to his old killing ways-and a band of mercenaries hired by the leader of the missionaries, coming to the area to look for his people, to try and make the rescue.

Sure, at times some of the characters are dopey and one-note, but overall, this is a *very* violent and bloody film where you see some horrific stuff done by the military to innocent citizens, and extremely graphic stuff overall done by them and Rambo & gang in revenge. But, it’s a great character arc for Rambo and things come full circle for him and the ending is a satisfying coda for the character. Of course, there will be a 5th film in the franchise that has had several different plots and now will be around the Mexican slave trade, but the coda is still pretty nice. Stallone films the movie well (you can actually see what happens in the action scenes, as there’s no shaky cam BS; that’s pretty novel these days, so you get to see all the carnage) and there is little downtime; things move briskly. So, it’s a satisfying experience and if you enjoy the Rambo character in those other films and enjoy gloriously violent movies, this is a must-see, especially if it's on Blu-Ray, as that disc's picture and sound are stupendous.

I'll be back tomorrow with another take on a Blu-Ray movie.