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Overall, I thought it kicked ass. I'm a huge fan of FIRST BLOOD and as a kid, loved the 2nd one. The 3rd one blows, so we'll pretend it never existed and this one is actually the end of "The John Rambo Trilogy."
RAMBO operates on several layers, often times overlapping one another. It's an amalgam of realistic brutal violence (Holy shit...), a dramatic character piece (Rambo) with a touch of Hollywood cliche sprinkled in here and there. The glue that binds it all together is Rambo, who is rock solid. Stallone really brings the character back to the FIRST BLOOD days and moves him forward to age 61. Gone is the cartoon character he became in Part II and the abyssmal Part III. The other glue is the full-metal jacket bloodshed throughout (holy shit!), that pushes the R-rating well into NC-17 in my opinion.
3 THINGS I LOVED:
1) Physically, Stallone really pulled it off! Sly is now 61, but he's in great shape! He's now a full-on thick heavy weight, appearing more like a blacksmith than an action hero, and shows that the 61 Rambo not only
still has it, but has some MORE you haven't even seen yet! He has gray around the temples (just barely) and I kept thinking he would have been even BETTER if he had let his natural gray show - I assume he's atleast salt-and-peppered. It would have added to the character, on screen and storywise. Anyway, I love the older John Rambo!!!!
2) Stallone stays true to the First Blood Rambo, keeping him centered, while also allowing the character to grow. He successfully brought Rambo back to his core as the Vietnam Special Forces Vet, who has never truly escaped the War. Gone is the self-parodying "Cartoon Rambo" became in the 80s. This is the John Rambo from FIRST BLOOD, almost 30yrs later.
3) Rambo becomes the Saint of Killers in this flick. When the baddies are getting their just-desserts.... oh man, its fucking awesome! AWESOME!!!!! Rambo using a bow is quite possibly one of the coolest things on the planet. The kill numbers are astounding throughout and so is the blood that accompanies, as dozens of bad guys are wiped from existance. At times, it's downright hilarious and you will cheer! With that said...
3 GRIPES:
1) The mixture of Real violence/death and Hollyood violence/death. The movie begins with real news footage of the genocidal atrocities occurring in Burma; rotting corpses and amputees (of all ages), mass graves, etc. It's an immediate, shockful taste of Ugly Reality and serves to set the mood of the first half of the movie. During this first half, you bare witness to the Burmese Army's brutal, gory, genocide of unarmed villagers. The graphic slaughter is quite disturbing; people being mowed down, amputations, bodily explosions, children murdered and women raped. Stallone brings you into this Hell and yes, you get to watch and listen to it all. With the news footage at the beginning, added to the manner of filmmaking, you almost feel like you're witnessing mass murder, instead of watching a fun action film. By no means is the only scene with such violence, as it occurs throughout. This was simply the most intense and lengthly sequence. This aspect of Reality-meets-Entertainment is what I struggled with the most in this film. While not the faintest of heart myself, there are simply some images I simply do not want to see, even if fictional; rape and babies thrown into fire, for example. Stallone walks a razor line of bringing about awareness to the real-life atrocities in Burma, and exploiting it for the sake of an Action Movie.
2) THE CLICHE MOMENTS. The Mercenaries are the absolute worst. The movie was going just fine... and then the mercs show up. You first meet them on the river, traveling with Rambo down towards the action. Imagine the most cliche ragtag of rough n' tough group of "soldiers" you've seen in Hollwood. Then push it to the point of parody. You have the Singing Guy. You have the other guy who hates the singing guy. You have the over-the-top "leader" with the small penis. You have the young, good-looking sniper with the heart of gold. And you have the token ethic dude, this time an asian. This establishing scene of characters was quite umbearable and reeked of bullshit Hollywood Studio Execs sticking their dicks into Sly's film. It completely pulled me from the film. However, after the relentlessly violent slaughter minutes earlier, the touch of Hollywood cliche was refreshing - like a splash of cold water on your face. To spin it
positively (and to stay in the theater) on one level, it works in a way.... The Mercs represent the outside world that Rambo has spent the past 20years keeping away from. By being the cliche hollywood "heroes", they make Rambo stand out even more as THE total, solid badass... the cartoonish Rambo of the previous two sequels is not in this outing. This is full-on FIRST BLOOD Rambo at the age of 61. Thankfully, the Mercs improve slightly after that horrible scene - its truly a good "bathroom break" moment. It's truly a shame, though... the movie could have been significantly better if they Mercs were handled with the same manner as the rest of the film.
______2a) Oh, and I have to mention for those who have seen it.... The scene where Rambo is looking down a hill at the Female Missionary, and her back up at him... we cut back and forth, back and forth, back and forth, back and forth... I lost track.... seriously, it goes on (back and forth) for a good minute or more. Yeesh!
3) While the action against the bad guys is fucking awesome supreme, I excpected (and wanted) more variety. Without giving too much away, I wanted to see Rambo more involved in the crazy fire fights and wetworks. Up-close and personal and running around more. This is a script issue, not a physique issue - Stallone looked fucking good up on the screen still being a badass action star and he DOES do alot of action! Ok... SPOILER:............ really? The end battle has him on the jeep firing that giant gun the entire time? That's it? He just mows baddies down for 15 minutes? It was fucking awesome, but that's it? END SPOILER.
_______3b) There are a few rough-around-the-edges story points. One such is the overall mission of Rambo is to save a White Christian Missionairy woman? Hundreds of innocent Burmese, who we never get to know outside of canon fodder, are being murdered and [gang]raped. Yet the blonde American handing out bibles is the one we should care about? Yes, it does relate directly into the them doing nothing vs making a difference (even on a small scale) within the story, but its still a bit weak and smells of Western superiority thinking. I simply was not sold on buying into the point of it all.
IN THE END...
With the 3 main gripes aside, I loved the movie. Unfortunately, Gripe #1 will surely kill the chances of RAMBO being a movie I rewatch for fun. But, overall, it was truly an experience and freaking awesome! A nice bookend to FIRST BLOOD.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Haven't had your fill? Then read GINA CARBONE's review... she makes alot of good points, many similar to mine... except with a gooder handle of the English language.
Overall, I thought it kicked ass. I'm a huge fan of FIRST BLOOD and as a kid, loved the 2nd one. The 3rd one blows, so we'll pretend it never existed and this one is actually the end of "The John Rambo Trilogy."RAMBO operates on several layers, often times overlapping one another. It's an amalgam of realistic brutal violence (Holy shit...), a dramatic character piece (Rambo) with a touch of Hollywood cliche sprinkled in here and there. The glue that binds it all together is Rambo, who is rock solid. Stallone really brings the character back to the FIRST BLOOD days and moves him forward to age 61. Gone is the cartoon character he became in Part II and the abyssmal Part III. The other glue is the full-metal jacket bloodshed throughout (holy shit!), that pushes the R-rating well into NC-17 in my opinion.
3 THINGS I LOVED:
1) Physically, Stallone really pulled it off! Sly is now 61, but he's in great shape! He's now a full-on thick heavy weight, appearing more like a blacksmith than an action hero, and shows that the 61 Rambo not only
still has it, but has some MORE you haven't even seen yet! He has gray around the temples (just barely) and I kept thinking he would have been even BETTER if he had let his natural gray show - I assume he's atleast salt-and-peppered. It would have added to the character, on screen and storywise. Anyway, I love the older John Rambo!!!!
2) Stallone stays true to the First Blood Rambo, keeping him centered, while also allowing the character to grow. He successfully brought Rambo back to his core as the Vietnam Special Forces Vet, who has never truly escaped the War. Gone is the self-parodying "Cartoon Rambo" became in the 80s. This is the John Rambo from FIRST BLOOD, almost 30yrs later.
3) Rambo becomes the Saint of Killers in this flick. When the baddies are getting their just-desserts.... oh man, its fucking awesome! AWESOME!!!!! Rambo using a bow is quite possibly one of the coolest things on the planet. The kill numbers are astounding throughout and so is the blood that accompanies, as dozens of bad guys are wiped from existance. At times, it's downright hilarious and you will cheer! With that said...
3 GRIPES:
1) The mixture of Real violence/death and Hollyood violence/death. The movie begins with real news footage of the genocidal atrocities occurring in Burma; rotting corpses and amputees (of all ages), mass graves, etc. It's an immediate, shockful taste of Ugly Reality and serves to set the mood of the first half of the movie. During this first half, you bare witness to the Burmese Army's brutal, gory, genocide of unarmed villagers. The graphic slaughter is quite disturbing; people being mowed down, amputations, bodily explosions, children murdered and women raped. Stallone brings you into this Hell and yes, you get to watch and listen to it all. With the news footage at the beginning, added to the manner of filmmaking, you almost feel like you're witnessing mass murder, instead of watching a fun action film. By no means is the only scene with such violence, as it occurs throughout. This was simply the most intense and lengthly sequence. This aspect of Reality-meets-Entertainment is what I struggled with the most in this film. While not the faintest of heart myself, there are simply some images I simply do not want to see, even if fictional; rape and babies thrown into fire, for example. Stallone walks a razor line of bringing about awareness to the real-life atrocities in Burma, and exploiting it for the sake of an Action Movie.
2) THE CLICHE MOMENTS. The Mercenaries are the absolute worst. The movie was going just fine... and then the mercs show up. You first meet them on the river, traveling with Rambo down towards the action. Imagine the most cliche ragtag of rough n' tough group of "soldiers" you've seen in Hollwood. Then push it to the point of parody. You have the Singing Guy. You have the other guy who hates the singing guy. You have the over-the-top "leader" with the small penis. You have the young, good-looking sniper with the heart of gold. And you have the token ethic dude, this time an asian. This establishing scene of characters was quite umbearable and reeked of bullshit Hollywood Studio Execs sticking their dicks into Sly's film. It completely pulled me from the film. However, after the relentlessly violent slaughter minutes earlier, the touch of Hollywood cliche was refreshing - like a splash of cold water on your face. To spin it
positively (and to stay in the theater) on one level, it works in a way.... The Mercs represent the outside world that Rambo has spent the past 20years keeping away from. By being the cliche hollywood "heroes", they make Rambo stand out even more as THE total, solid badass... the cartoonish Rambo of the previous two sequels is not in this outing. This is full-on FIRST BLOOD Rambo at the age of 61. Thankfully, the Mercs improve slightly after that horrible scene - its truly a good "bathroom break" moment. It's truly a shame, though... the movie could have been significantly better if they Mercs were handled with the same manner as the rest of the film.
______2a) Oh, and I have to mention for those who have seen it.... The scene where Rambo is looking down a hill at the Female Missionary, and her back up at him... we cut back and forth, back and forth, back and forth, back and forth... I lost track.... seriously, it goes on (back and forth) for a good minute or more. Yeesh!
3) While the action against the bad guys is fucking awesome supreme, I excpected (and wanted) more variety. Without giving too much away, I wanted to see Rambo more involved in the crazy fire fights and wetworks. Up-close and personal and running around more. This is a script issue, not a physique issue - Stallone looked fucking good up on the screen still being a badass action star and he DOES do alot of action! Ok... SPOILER:............ really? The end battle has him on the jeep firing that giant gun the entire time? That's it? He just mows baddies down for 15 minutes? It was fucking awesome, but that's it? END SPOILER.
_______3b) There are a few rough-around-the-edges story points. One such is the overall mission of Rambo is to save a White Christian Missionairy woman? Hundreds of innocent Burmese, who we never get to know outside of canon fodder, are being murdered and [gang]raped. Yet the blonde American handing out bibles is the one we should care about? Yes, it does relate directly into the them doing nothing vs making a difference (even on a small scale) within the story, but its still a bit weak and smells of Western superiority thinking. I simply was not sold on buying into the point of it all.
IN THE END...
With the 3 main gripes aside, I loved the movie. Unfortunately, Gripe #1 will surely kill the chances of RAMBO being a movie I rewatch for fun. But, overall, it was truly an experience and freaking awesome! A nice bookend to FIRST BLOOD.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Haven't had your fill? Then read GINA CARBONE's review... she makes alot of good points, many similar to mine... except with a gooder handle of the English language.
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