Rambo

[megladon8]

New trailer is up on Apple.com (http://www.apple.com/trailers/lions_gate/rambo/trailer1b/)

It looks pretty hoaky...but I said the same thing about the trailers for Rocky Balboa, and that ended up being great.

[Sven]

Sure looks like Rambo.

[megladon8]

Sure looks like Rambo.


There are a few moments in it which look more like First Blood than the sequels.

That's definitely promising.

[[ETM]]

"You know his name" was cool in Casino Royale, but again? Eh...

[Grouchy]

I wonder how they'll translate the title here in Argentina. First Blood was re-named Rambo over here already. I'm hoping El Regreso de Rambo [Rambo Returns] or something cheesy like that.

[Ivan Drago]

This movie will be awful.

[Mal]

DAMN... you know what this is leading to... the Over the Top sequel. Oh my. I's excited.

[Mal]

This movie will be awful.

awfully good.

[Dukefrukem]

i wacthed the trailer to it..

looks like eh

[Lasse]

"Live for nothing or die for something" :lol:

[D_Davis]

Dude, he makes his own machete.

[MadMan]

This looks incredibly cheesy, violent, and crazy. Yeah my interest is peaked. Rambo : killer of more third world country citizens than the US government and disease combined.

[[ETM]]

Dude, he makes his own machete.

I hear Rodriguez is doing rewrites for "Machete".

[Sycophant]

So, I've never seen any of the Rambo films, but the local multiplex had this one-sheet up that was this faux spray paint thing, that was amazingly badass. I tried to find a picture online, but my efforts proved in vain. Just know that it's out there and it rocks mightily.

[Sven]

So, I've never seen any of the Rambo films, but the local multiplex had this one-sheet up that was this faux spray paint thing, that was amazingly badass. I tried to find a picture online, but my efforts proved in vain. Just know that it's out there and it rocks mightily.

Yeah, it's posted all over my neighborhood. It's pretty cool.

[Ivan Drago]

This movie will be awful.

Erm...yeah...I saw the trailer for this before Aliens vs. Predator: Requiem the other night...and consider the above statement null and void. This movie will be AWESOME.

[Ezee E]

Any movie that plays the song "Let the Bodies hit the Floor" is guaranteed to be ** or worse.

[DSNT]

They should title this one:

Rambo: Old Guy Takes Steroids Because He Needs Nursing Care Money

[Morris Schæffer]

Composer Brian Tyler confirms Goldsmith's theme will be in there somewhere.

Listen to the clip here:

http://www.myspace.com/briantylercomposer

"Rambo suite"

[megladon8]

It was pretty bad.

I'm writing a full review, but yeh, it was hilarious - and the problem is, I'm not sure if it was intentional or not.

[D_Davis]

I'm probably going to check this out today. It looks like too much fun.

[Sycophant]

I'm probably going to check this out today. It looks like too much fun.

Man, what's up with you and movies lately?

[Rowland]

Nope, not good.

[D_Davis]

Man, what's up with you and movies lately?

I guess I just don't care anymore. Even while watching The Warlords the other night, I just kept thinking about all the other ways I could be spending my time. My buddies are going to see this today, and I just think it will be fun hanging out and watching a bad movie.

[Skitch]

*prays for Cobretti*

[megladon8]

Rambo

a review by Braden Adam


I honestly had no idea that the character of “Rambo” had such a rabid fanbase, until I went to see Rambo last night at the local theatre and ran into several pre-teens dressed in full Rambo costumes, accompanied by their parents who were also dressed with army fatigues and red headbands. I guess I was always more of an Arnie guy than a Stallone guy - growing up, my parents gave me the Terminator movies to watch, and when I discovered Predator a few years later, I felt like I had discovered the Holy Grail of cinematic manliness. First Blood is a movie I actually didn’t see until about three years ago, and I really enjoyed it, but never bothered to see the sequels. So perhaps I was a little too virginal in the world of “Rambo” to truly appreciate what this latest installment had to offer, but I left with this question burning in my mind - was this a joke?

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v496/megladon8/rambo3.jpg

We enter the story in present day, and we watch John Rambo - who has retired to a peaceful life of bow-hunting fish in Southeast Asia - as he goes about his business, doing ridiculously manly stuff like forging his own steel and...well...fishing with a bow-and-arrow. Scenes like this feel like stuff that was left on the cutting-room floor from 300, another recent film trying to break the Manliness Meter - but the difference is that 300 definitely knows its comic book routes, and doesn’t try to trick the audience into giving them a serious movie experience. Rambo, on the other hand, has just enough badness in it to make one think they were trying to make a serious movie here, and just screwed it all up.

The script has the sincerity and subtlety of a Uwe Boll movie. I understand the defense that one should not go to a “Rambo” flick looking for a good script, but come on, I saw and loved the “Bourne” films - and they are strictly action-based, but have well-written scripts. Even First Blood had a great script, and some surprising sociopolitical relevancy. So saying that this type of movie doesn’t warrant or need a good script just doesn’t cut it. Nor do the layers upon layers of racism injected into the film with a turkey baster full of prejudices. It seems that the idea of Burmese soldiers tearing apart villages and kidnapping and killing innocent people wasn’t enough of an “evil” element to justify Rambo’s coming onslaught, so these soldiers have just about every characteristic you can think of which could be associated with the word “bad”. They’re rapists, child molestors and murderes, they execute people without a second’s hesitation, and none of them are ever shown doing anything that isn’t just about cringe-worthy. Obviously this is all an effort to justify Rambo’s inevitable assault later in the film, because Rambo certainly needs to be seen as the “good guy” through all of this, no matter how many people he mows down with a truck-mounted machine gun.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v496/megladon8/rambo.jpg

But the film’s morals are all mixed up - if there are any even there. These characters who come in and convince Rambo to help them in their cause of bringing peace and Christianity to the people of Burma are portrayed as naive, arrogant and dorky - the anti-Rambo’s. But then the film’s climax and enormous bloodbath lead one to believe that the film really is trying to say something about violence and its place in the world. When these missionaries are kidnapped and Rambo needs to come in and save them using brutal violence, is it saying that violence may not be morally “right”, but sometimes it is necessary? Or is it saying that violence is wrong no matter what - whether you’re a corrupt Burmese soldier or John Rambo himself? Or maybe it’s not really saying anything, and it’s just another big, dumb action movie?

Considering how good Rocky Balboa was, I guess I was just expecting something a little more along those lines. Stallone has proven that he’s a great writer, actor and director, so for him to come out with something like Rambo (where he once again occupies all three jobs), is it wrong to expect that there would be a little more to it than shameless violence and ridiculous racial slurs? I just can’t help but still feel bewildered by the film’s political stances and opinions on violence. It sort of seemed at times like it was going down the Hostel route, giving people a criticism of themselves and their love of violence and gore as entertainment. But this semi-satirical philosophy just doesn’t fit with moments in the film which seem genuine, but are just executed very poorly and create large amounts of cheese.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v496/megladon8/rambo2.jpg

Then again, even with all these elements which I saw as flaws, adults and kids alike cheered and screamed in the theatre quite literally every time Rambo killed a baddie, and the slaughterhouse of a finale was met with standing applause. Maybe that’s the film’s commentary right there.

[megladon8]

I also wanted to mention I really like how honest Stallone has been about using human growth hormones to get all bulked up for this.

He's not fooling anybody, and he knows it. Yet so many other actors would surely lie and say "it's all me" - people less than half his age, for whom it would actually, physically be possible for them to get that big.

[Buffaluffasaurus]

Is this really as violent as it's made out to be. I must admit, the red band trailer repulsed me so much I doubt I'll see it.

[megladon8]

Is this really as violent as it's made out to be. I must admit, the red band trailer repulsed me so much I doubt I'll see it.


It's crazy violent. If you don't mind a mild spoiler...

The entire last couple of minutes show Rambo literally mowing down tons of baddies with a truck-mounted machine turret. It shows random bad guys getting torn in half by the enormous bullets, or limbs blasted off, or blown up by claymores - it's really, really brutal.

[Yxklyx]

So this is a new movie ay? I thought they were just re-releasing the original like they did with some other classic a few years back.

[lovejuice]

wow. what a mixed bag! unlike most reviewers, i'll be the odd one out and claim it's more similar to first blood than the sequels. stallone is trying to achieve the gritty, realistic feel. so instead of spreading gung-ho actioners through out the movie, they're all clumped near the end. (the comparison to the wild bunch is quite obvious. especially with that gatling.) that spells out pacing problem and makes for one bad 80s action films. stallone seems to realize that and tries to make the film as short as possible.

unlike most mixed bags, i think the film succeeds to some degree. if anything, i wish we see more not less stallone going apeshit. i'm thai. i don't mind seeing burmese soldiers being torn apart. :P

there is one scene that just doesn't compute in my head. (minor spoiler) the hostage rescuing. the act of rambo and mercenaries trying to rescue the hostages are inter-cut with the general having sex with a young boy and a gang rape of five prostitutes. (there ARE prostitutes. no "nang rum" dances that horribly. i have more grace in my movement than those girls.) i don't know what stallone is trying to do here. what's even weirder is after only 15 minutes we see hundred of burmese soldiers walking away with the satisfactory looks on their faces. wth! are like all burmese quick shooters? did they just harass those girls and let them go? aaahhh! the sequence just doesn't compute in my head.

[Philosophe_rouge]

I thought it was kinda fun... but frankly, it's because the audience was a hilarious and really into it. I just don't get these kind of films really, I'm pretty much bored the entire time. Some of the splosiding people, and the tearing out the throat was kinda cool and memorable, but I just can't get into it.

[Irish]

Maaaaan this movie is so violent and brutal I'm not sure what to make of it, aside from making the obvious observation that it's the best First Blood sequel.

Is Stallone titillating our need for bloodlust? Playing to the action adventure gore-hound crowd? Or is he actually delivering a more realistic, uglier version of the war film, atoning for the gross cartoonishness of the Rambo character from years past?

Maybe a little bit of both. But with this, Rocky Balboa, and The Expendables, I think people haven't given him enough credit. As writer/director/producer of a lof of this stuff, he obviously understands his own characters -- and his own career -- better than most people think.

[Morris Schæffer]

I've gotta say I'd definitely pick First Blood Part II and Rambo 3 over the 2008 movie.

Like you say Irish, it's difficult to decide what Stallone had in mind. Sure, it seems to have a foot in reality far more than the aforementioned sequels, but its nuances are so simplistic, the message (firepower > prayer) executed with such little subtlety, that the 2008 movie might as well be just the same as the Cosmatos and McDonald sequels.

And so in the end, Rambo 1985 and 1988 are more fun, with better action sequences, better supporting players, more memorable Jerry Goldsmith scores.

[Dukefrukem]

New trailer is up on Apple.com (http://www.apple.com/trailers/lions_gate/rambo/trailer1b/)

It looks pretty hoaky...but I said the same thing about the trailers for Rocky Balboa, and that ended up being great.

Remember when we used to get our trailers from apple?

This was graphic as shit.

First Blood
Rambo
Rambo III
Rambo II

[Morris Schæffer]

I read a fan idea a few months back. let HBO do a Rambo prequel where we see him fight in Nam, meet Trautman and all those (lost) comrade in arms he mentions while in that cave in First Blood.

Although the idea of one-man army is probably an issue if you want to go the realistic, dramatic route.

Still, I could get behind this. It would restore the character to credible status for the first time since 1982.

[Skitch]

Remember when we used to get our trailers from apple?

This was graphic as shit.

First Blood
Rambo
Rambo III
Rambo II

Whoa, I thought we could all agree part 3 is by far the worst.

[Dukefrukem]

Whoa, I thought we could all agree part 3 is by far the worst.

I may have it confused. Which was the one where he covered himself in mud and hid in the mud wall?

[Skitch]

Part three was in Afghanistan where he was on mission to help the Taliban defeat the Russians, and it turned into a comedy in third act. Part 2 was rescuing POWs in...Vietnam? I like part two.

[Scar]

Part three was in Afghanistan where he was on mission to help the Taliban defeat the Russians, and it turned into a comedy in third act. Part 2 was rescuing POWs in...Vietnam? I like part two.

Correct. Part III was ridiculous as shit. Part II is rescuing the POW's.

First Blood
Rambo
Hot Shots Pt Duex
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Rambo II
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.
.
.
.
.
.
Rambo III

[Scar]

I may have it confused. Which was the one where he covered himself in mud and hid in the mud wall?

Part II


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J39HPaLXBJA

[Skitch]

Its too bad that the middle two of the series are such a step down, because while they do feed into his overall arc, the beginning of First Blood and the end of Rambo make for one hell of a great character arc. Now I'm going to pop in First Blood, thanks. :D

[Dukefrukem]

Part II


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J39HPaLXBJA

Whoops, got them mixed up.