Rambo'

Overall Impressions:
To the average person Sylvester Stallone is Rocky Balboa or John Rambo. The other films are incidental and an afterthought. Before he re-touched up the end of the Rocky franchise, it was safe to say both had pretty bad endings. Rocky V was the worst of the series. Likewise (though I have yet to see it -- shame on me), Rambo III is said to be the word of the Rambo films (even by Stallone himself). Rocky Balboa fixed the Rocky franchise for me. I even had it up there in my most memorable 10 films of 2007. I know a lot of people that weren't as impressed. They wanted not to see an old man but the boxer they knew from Rocky III and IV, the one who came out bleeding but victorious in the end (& though I personally interpreted the end of Balboas as just this -- victory, not everyone did). For those disappointed people there is John Rambo.

It has it's moments left for you to interpret if you want, but let's face it, primarily, this is not a deep and meaningful film, it is total carnage. It takes about 2 minutes for the first person to explode in this film and so the body count begins. It has to be respected that this film dares to show war zones for what they are likely to be. A lot of blood, a lot of pain & a lot of mad men.

The opening is pretty much a display of just this. Villagers getting massacred for the mere entertainment of some soldiers. Many executed for the ease of processing. Some kidnapped for labour. Then we meet Rambo, catching snakes & making enough to lead a simple life. As soon as this sequence is done, the missionaries arrive seeking his help to get to the war zone.

Though it's effectively done, I'll skip over the annoying missionaries & their little boat trip. They get caught pretty much as soon as Rambo leaves them at their destination, and so Rambo gets hired again to take these mercenaries over to get them back. This boat trip was more interesting. It reminded me of the opening few minutes of Predator. They were all unique characters and miserable but likable for what they were. The fact that they mention that one of them was a sniper already had me more than excited for what was to follow.

The remaining hour is pretty much this one mission, but it's adrenaline packed mayhem, escalating scene by scene to pretty much the end. I find it quite tough to describe, if I'm honest. It was nasty, bloody, gruesome yet amazingly cool all at once. There were a couple of things that bugged me about how the action panned out, like the over-use of the 50 cal gun & not enough 'stealth' moments, but this is heavily outweighed by the kick-ass cool stuff to matter.

Pretty much all the guys I went with enjoyed it, one even called it "The best film he's ever seen". Though I think he's over-reacting a little, I do know what he means. It was pointed out to me that I had a big grin of content on my face when I came out. As I said when I began the post, for those that felt the conclusion to Rocky was too deep & not violent enough, Mr. Stallone has compensated you all with Rambo -- Enjoy!
Bow hunting skills, Machete skills, 50 cal machine gun skills, Neck ripping skills, it's all there. It's pretty gruesome, but it's also pretty damned cool. I'd happily watch it again. Not for the faint-hearted.