Comments on: Rambo Review

By: greg

greg — Sun, 01 Feb 2009 22:27:32 +0000

For the most part I agree with this review, but I’ll add that the cinematography throughout the entire movie was very well done…even during the boring parts, you could distract yourself with the beautiful scenery and interesting set pieces.

By: Danilo

Danilo — Sat, 20 Dec 2008 05:31:02 +0000

Send it to Manila, it will earn a lot. He should have kissed the canvass a long time ago, or in this case hit the floor, harder! Totally avoided this one… like the plague.

By: Keith Patton

Keith Patton — Wed, 22 Oct 2008 20:22:17 +0000

Last note: Best tag line of the series:

“When you’re pushed, killin’ is as easy as breathing.”

By: Keith Patton

Keith Patton — Wed, 22 Oct 2008 20:10:41 +0000

One last music nerd observation. If you listen to the updated score on the current movie, it is not unlike the previous soundtracks except for one thing. You’ll hear a horse’s neigh at the end of the loud trumpet crescendos. Could this be a little well earned conceit on the part of the one and only Italian Stallion saying fairwell to his Rambo character?

By: Keith Patton

Keith Patton — Wed, 22 Oct 2008 14:41:18 +0000

Sorry. I have to disagree. I think the final Rambo installment was the best of the franchise. If you are like me, you went to be entertained. I spent the first half of the movie comparing the old Rambo with the new and looking for tie ins. I have to hand it to Stallone. He passed up a lot of opportunities to pay homage to the Rambo legend. I kept waiting for the quiet “Boat Man” to reveal himself for who he was and the motley assortment of Special Ops rejects turned mercenaries to let out a collective gasp and say, “You are that John Rambo?” But it never happened. He did pay homage in a few place; the slow rise and camera refocus on Rambo’s homicidal face over the shoulder of a soon dead adversary, reminicent of the scene where a mud covered Rambo materialized behind a hapless Spetznaz soldier in Rambo 2.

I saw the first half for what it was, the build up to the big show, the symphonic cresendo of violence that was to come. It was put together kind of like the 1812 Overature.

My biggest disappointment was the end. I just knew that as Rambo walked along the road that some overweight Sheriff was going to pull up and ask him where he was headed. It never happend, but what a full circle that would have been.

All in all, a great movie despite what anyone, especially the critics think. Where else can I see brutal Asian soldiers dismembered in bloody heaps by a 12.5 mm (50 cal) machine gun.

By: Stevil

Stevil — Thu, 21 Aug 2008 07:53:03 +0000

I have a strong feeling that most people don’t “get” the Rambo series. They are blinded by the violence and do not see the strong underlying messages. I blame in some part the “Commando” movie which really was a no brainner muscle bound hero movie. Nothing against Commando. It was a fun movie, but it helped solidify the shallow perception around muscle bound shoot’em up movies which unfortunately Rambo has been often mistakenly stereo typed as.
Yes Rambo is muscle bound. Yes there is lots of shooting and yes Rambo is portrayed as a hero. And maybe that is all some people can see. They are either too shocked, or have bought into the preconception of the stereo type. What ever the reason, it is unfortunate that they cannot see these movies for what they are.
Rambo First Blood was about a trained soldier with obvious natural physical attributes, combined with elite training as well as having become the best of the best at what he was trained to do. And that was to fight for his country. It turns out that he was drafted into Vietnam which in time became an unpopular war. He managed to survive. His buddies did not. Comes back home and is persecuted for his involvment in the war he did not choose to fight in. He is picked on by the local sherif and that combined with his night-daymares he brought back with him from Vietnam caused him to panic and flee. The movie ends with him crying and being lead away to prison where he belongs. I left the movie feeling sorry for poor Rambo.
Rambo 2 – Gets roped into looking for POWs in Vietnam. Maybe he feels he can help out other people (soldiers) who he can associate with. Obviously he wouldn’t want to see fellow soldiers being torchered like he was. Anyway he got screwed by politics and left for dead. Managed to save himself and some others and ended by walking away (giving up on his country). I left the movie feeling sorry for Rambo but hopeful for his future.
Rambo 3 – Gets asked to go to war. Turns it down. Bit of a trend here. This guy wants nothing to do with war and certainly won’t fight for America. Ends up going to free his only friend.
This movie didn’t really strike up much emotion for me. Was a bit over the top really. Probably was trying to milk the success of the previous two movies and didn’t really have a message. Was fun to watch though.
Rambo 4 – Still living alone, away from America, it looks like he has progressed to giving up on humanity. Became a hermit and just wants to live (or not live depending on how loosly you define the word) out his days alone. His social skills have really regressed as he must have been living alone for a very long time. He has a very realistic view of war. It is not glamorous, no-one wins and it is naive to think you can make a difference to the big picture. Somehow this Christian lady connected with some part of him. It seems he decided he was wasting his life and she helped him find a reason to care. He realised he may be able to make a difference by saving her. And this gave him a reason to live. Ends with him coming out of seclution and looking to give life another chance. Again I left this movie feeling sorry for Rambo as he had wasted so many years of his life (most of it actually) not living, as he had lost faith in mankind. If only America had helped him integrate back once he first came home from the Vietnem war! Also thought it was interesting that Rambo 1 was about an elite soldier using his skills and know how back on American soil and it not turning out to be a successful way to survive in America. Whereas in Rambo 4 we had the leader of the Christion group taking his skills and way of behaving into Burma and it not turning out to be a successful way to survive, finally realising that War is horrendous and there are times when you need to do horrendous things too. Also the irony that Rambo was saving the type of people who were the ones to persecute Rambo when he came back from Vietnam. This series was good for pure entertainment and emotion and also had some great messages (anti war) but also allowed me to better understand and feel for the soldiers that fought the wars. And realise the impact on coming back home once the public oppinion turned the country against their own heroes. I liked the gore of this movie and Saving Private Ryan as it shows that war is not glamourus. Certainly I do not want to be in a war trying to prove that I am Rambo.

By: Dave

Dave — Fri, 01 Aug 2008 22:13:42 +0000

Forget what the reviewer said about skipping the first 20 minutes, you’ll miss the parts that set-up the plot and the justification for WHY Rambo becomes poetry in motion during the second half. The reviewer obviously only wanted to see Rambo for the sake of watching people getting blown away. His loss. Stallone made a great book-end film to ‘First Blood’, and has produced a film that is essentially anti-war while also delivering great action. Stallone shows violence in war for what it is, and never glorifies the killings that occur en masse during the second half. It’s essentially about a man who has almost lost his humanity, but who sees his way to the end of the film towards redemption. For the blood-nuts out there, including the article reviewer, go and see ‘Saw IV’ to release your urges. For anyone else who wants a great action film with a conscience, Rambo is worth your dollar.

By: EPF1961

EPF1961 — Tue, 22 Jul 2008 22:25:37 +0000

Ok, I’m going to state what I thought was the obvious, because nobody else has done so yet: I think that, in a very basic sense, WE ALL WANT TO BE JOHN RAMBO. Before you laugh, read on: This movie (and the ones that preceded it) are appealing to most of us for the same reason that the vigilante movies (Charles Bronson, et. al.) were so popular. We all, at one time or another, wish we could single-handedly take on the slime and scum of the world and just wipe it all out. When we watch Rambo rip a bad guy’s throat out, the rush that we feel is a release of our own pent-up frustration with all the crap that’s going on in the world, and even in our own personal lives. Maybe for some of us, that “bad guy” is an abusive boss, or a scumbucket neighbor, or the bonehead that cut you off on the interstate this morning. We all “rip their throats out” in our minds, but hey: Rambo does it right there on the screen for us, and in flying colors! As primitive and banal as it may seem, I think we all need to watch a Rambo style movie once in a while, so we have some stress-release, and a fictional hero to root for in a world with too few real heros. Here’s wishing for a “Rambo 5″!!!

By: Ace

Ace — Thu, 17 Jul 2008 19:29:43 +0000

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I don’t know what you’re talking about! Rambo IV was AWESOME! Who the heck cares about dialogue among the missionary puppets. We are there to see Rambo kick ass. If anything, the film reflects on Rambo’s life and shows how he’s regressed in life and continues to hide from life.

By: Scott

Scott — Tue, 15 Jul 2008 00:04:36 +0000

You just can’t review a Rambo movie against anything else other than another Rambo movie. It’s sort of it’s own genre at this point. That being said, the Christian Missionaries were a little contrived, although not so cliche or stereotyped as I might have expected. I agree the dialogue was awful, let’s just be glad it was so sparse. Otherwise, yeah, stupendous violence and bloodshed, possibly the most intense and condensed 30 or 40 minutes of killin’ that I ever saw onscreen. It was pretty stylishly directed, though, and the entire Burma environment did seem very convincing, which added to the believability of the action. So not great, but it was pretty good, because we get to see Rambo kick ass again. That’s really all we care about seeing in a Rambo movie, and I think Stallone knows that.