Rambo (2008)

Rambo (2008) Movie Review

There are any number of things that are interesting about “Rambo,” the fourth film in which muscle-man Slyvester Stallone (who stars, co-wrote, produced, and directed the film) plays the ex-Green Beret/Vietnam vet/human killing machine John Rambo, the best of which is seeing Stallone in action, in an action film that remembers the good old days of the bang-bang-bang-shoot-’em-up without a conscience.

To get this out of the way, “Rambo” is Stallone’s best turn as the eponymous character since the original “First Blood” (1982). Rambo is much heavier, and bulkier, this time out in “Rambo,” a sign that Stallone is using his age at 61 to his benefit in re-creating a title character who shows it in his world-weariness and disillusionment with the world, and for a 21st-century audience. It also goes without saying that “Rambo” is probably the bloodiest “R”-rated action film to date - disembowelment, stabbings, shootings, exploding bodies, babies thrown into the path of torches, you get the point.

As the character who first saw life in the novel “First Blood” by author David Morrell, Stallone’s John Rambo is now away from the world as we know it, in Thailand, catching live cobras for entertainment at snake-wrangling shows. When he’s approached by a group of Christian aid workers led by blonde bombshell Sarah (Julie Benz, who shares a passing affection for Our Hero) on their way to the Thai/Burmese border to help the oppressed villagers there, his only words to them are, “Go home,” because the world can’t be saved. As it also turns out, a brutal Burmese warlord in sunglasses is massacring villagers left and right, and Sarah and the other aid workers are taken prisoner. So Our Hero and a team of mercenaries are paid to go back up river for a rescue mission, and so let the action begin.

You won’t find much rationalizing for the relentless violence and bloodshed on display in this film, which is decidedly a bold move on Stallone’s part. He went before the MPAA and told them point-blank that this is what really goes on in Burma, which saw a failed pro-democracy uprising against the government there last year (a nice taste of current events, by the way).

“Rambo” is a solid and brutal exercise that returns triumphantly to the days when action movies just didn’t give a damn. And Stallone returns triumphantly as well, showing that age doesn’t matter, only the size of your guns is what matters.

by Dee