Rambo [WARNING: SPOILERS]

[Fighter17]

I know what you mean since I live a couple train stops from Coney Island . I don't know how long you been gone, but Brooklyn has changed a lot in the past two years. You'd be surprised how many buildings have been demolished to build condos. This is becoming condoland, seriously.

I don't want to get too off-topic so I'm going to PM you.

[iatneH]

Yes, more Rambo and less suckage in Florida please.

I don't feel like spending a lot of money to see this in a theatre, but I will rent it for sure.

[Acid King]

Interesting article on the Rambo series at Reason.

http://www.reason.com/news/show/124630.html

[JBC]

Apparently, Stallone is leaning towards Rambo 5. In one of the interviews i read he stated something along the lines of "Rambo isn't an athlete" (implying that he's not too old for his job) and "There is no reason he can't have further adventures" when asked about the title to the movie having been changed from 'John Rambo' to just 'Rambo'. He didn't want people to make a connection and think this would be the last one. ^_~

Killing Lots Of Dudes Fan CIRCUITFACE! ^_~

[BIL]

Just watched this. It was awesome.

It's really dark compared to the feel of part 2 and 3. It's like a thin mixture of the first two movies - but now with added slayings of the innocent. I guess to stress the horrors of war or something. It's good though - an extremely ballsy film by today's standards. It's probably the most violent and gory action movie i've ever seen.

I agree. The village massacre scene is horrific, and there are several others that are nearly as bad. Wasn't quite expecting that, though it did genuinely feel like a darker Rambo movie rather than just abruptly different. The combat violence was off the goddamn scale, but it felt in character too. Just alarmingly (sometimes hilariously >_>) hardcore.

I'd heard negative comments about Rambo working with a large team in this movie, but I think it actually worked out well. They were all pretty cool without hogging the spotlight, and Rambo still had all the baddest scenes. That claymore mine trap was so goddamn crazy. As was that guy getting his head obliterated by Rambo's knife as he commandeered the stationary gun. Dude was like Jason at some points.

Only 2 complaints -
1. the two missionaries that have prominent roles are horrible actors. To the point that it's annoying.
2. no chopper scene

Other than that it was pretty good.

I missed the usual dose of helicopter drama too! I did enjoy it when that gunboat showed up and got owned, though. The last scene is my favourite action of all four movies, I'm pretty sure. III's was maybe even more over-the-top but it felt slightly cartoony. IV's was riveting, especially with the momentum being so chaotic and both sides getting brutalised.

[moozooh]

I thought Rambo 4 was more of a dark comedy than a good movie.

Rambo 1 (First Blood) actually had drama elements. A good part of it was devoted to the message of country abandoning its war veterans, about unwanted heroes. Rambo is trying to endure the stressful events, but after being mistreated by incompetent yet violent redneck cops, breaks down and flips their shit. Then they start to hunt him just to redeem themselves, so it's obvious he accepts the attack and fucks them over, being a specialist in guerilla warfare and such. This is a coherent movie plot. Maybe a bit exaggerated in terms of Rambo's survival, but it was a good movie: there was action, there was drama, there were antagonists that actually talked about themselves and their actions, there was satire, and most importantly, there was interesting plot.

Rambo 2 tried to further expand on the "unwanted heroes" theme, except this time treachery and corruption in military forces were under the scope. The movie obviously had much more action (and solo action at that), but still within good taste. It could have been a good spot to end the saga.

But no, there came Rambo 3. Quickly motivated to fight again after his friend the colonel got captured, Rambo goes into another hot spot. The movie had a lot of obviously refurbished elements: the trademark knife and bow action, hand to hand fighting with a big Russian officer, saving the prisoners, choppers, ballsy catchphrases… And a deus ex machina ending. In other words, milking the brand. Still a good action movie, if tad cheesy, that pretty much fails at all aspects other than action itself.

Rambo 4: all the narrative condensed into a minute of flashbacks, NO coherent plot, NO drama, the acting is as bad as it gets, the enemies have NO personalities whatsoever (and this is a serious flaw), the allies are as dumb and stereotypical as possible, LOTS of shock value just for the sake of it, a lot of deus ex machina moments and a completely anticlimatic ending. He basically just kills a lot of people out of a stationary machine gun while the allied forces finish the rest. No other action from Rambo himself for about five minutes of gratuitious bloodbath, and any good taste which could have been there was buried under a truckload of exploding bodies which become boring after the first 2-3 minutes. This is funny, to an extent, but not interesting in the slightest. I sure hope they don't make another Rambo movie in this vein.

[Twiddle]

They should have cut out all the non-action parts in Rambo 4.

Rambo 3 is still the worst.

[JBC]

Rambo 2 tried to further expand on the "unwanted heroes" theme, except this time treachery and corruption in military forces were under the scope. The movie obviously had much more action (and solo action at that), but still within good taste. It could have been a good spot to end the saga.

To me the point of the second movie was moreso to show what this character they elaborated in the first movie was capable of. It was like they were saying 'Hey, we told you so' about him. The second movie was beautiful and needed to happen to establish that this man was in fact a legendary soldier like they made him out to be in the original. Otherwise he would look like just a really great survivalist.

Third movie we'll just not talk about. The fourth i think you've got abit wrong. By your description it seems like you've only noticed what's on film and not what's implied. I'll admit that the female missionarie's acting has a terribly detrimental effect on the movie but the rest of it wasn't so bad considering it's a RAMBO flick. lul

- By the fourth film in an action series a profound narrative isn't necessary.
- The english-accent fella' mercenary was a total stereotype but the rest weren't so bad. He got way too much screen time.
I would say the main male missionary was a bad stereotype but i actually know people who are very much so and consistently like that. Not such a great thing but it does defy the idea of a stereotype if that character is too real.
- I found the ending to be quite fitting. Sure, there was no sudden raid on an enemy compound complete with chopper scene, flashing red lights and a computer chick telling you t-minus some shit but he did eviscerate the main bad dude and spill his guts all over a bunch of dirty leaves and well... damn man, evisceration! :p
- No other action for Rambo himself? You fell asleep, right?

There are still a few faults... one thing i really hated? The 'main' badguy. You were correct in saying the villains had no real context. To me it seemed like the 'Oh, he's a child molester' scene was put in place so that they could skip fleshing out the character and just go ahead and make you fucking hate him. If they had built him up so that it wouldn't seem so ridiculous... but it's almost like they forgot they needed to make a badguy hateable and threw that pathetic subject in at the last minute.

[moozooh]

The second movie was beautiful and needed to happen to establish that this man was in fact a legendary soldier like they made him out to be in the original.

I agree.

- I found the ending to be quite fitting. Sure, there was no sudden raid on an enemy compound complete with chopper scene, flashing red lights and a computer chick telling you t-minus some shit but he did eviscerate the main bad dude and spill his guts all over a bunch of dirty leaves and well... damn man, evisceration! :p

All the killing in the movie was made into a flamboyant parade of naturalistic dismemberment. After a while it just felt like a shock value filler, nothing more.

- No other action for Rambo himself? You fell asleep, right?

I mean in that last particular scene. He kills a guy with a knife and shoots the popcorn guys for five minutes, then kills another guy with a knife (quite unsatisfying, at that). That's it. This miniscule variety in the action made it seem more bland than in Rambo 3, where he used a lot of different weaponry, and even drove a tank. Not all of it was good, but it made the action itself more interesting, without the feel of "popcorn enemies", at least until the end.

[system11]

This sounds awesome, I didn't even know it was coming out.

I got the Blu-Ray today.

It was indeed as awesome as I had hoped.