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General Category => Entertainment and Media => Topic started by: Tau on January 26, 2008, 01:16:56 am
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(IGN Review)Some 26 years after creating one of the most famous characters of his career, Sylvester Stallone has revived John Rambo for an explosive final chapter of the First Blood film series. But Rambo, which one guesses is named to evoke the successful, similarly cathartic Rocky Balboa -- itself a signifier that the franchise's main character has transcended the boundaries of roman-numeral sequels -- isn't merely a finale. Rather, it's an action epic, a message movie, and an epilogue to the character's story... if not also Stallone's career. At the same time, its overabundance of intentions puts it at cross purposes with what its audience wants -- namely, nihilistic one-man carnage -- which in turn puts Rambo in the unique if unenviable position of being a film we're supposed to enjoy emptily and take seriously at the same time.
Stallone, of course, returns as Rambo, who now lives in Northern Thailand as a snake trapper and monosyllabic utterer. When a group of missionaries approaches him to lead them up river to help refugees from the Burmese military, Rambo initially declines, citing the deadly conditions of the territory. But after Sarah (Julie Benz) makes an emotional plea to preserve the victims' humanity, if not his own as well, he agrees. Unfortunately, the missionaries are intercepted by the military soon after Rambo drops them off in the Burmese jungle. Feeling responsible, Rambo agrees to help a ragtag bunch of mercenaries hired to rescue them, in the process being confronted by a lifetime of killing -- unfortunately by having to do a whole lot more of it.
The film opens with documentary footage of the actual situation in Burma, which has endured what the film describes as the longest civil war in history. These scenes include shots of bodies and atrocities that place Rambo in a definitive real-world context -- which essentially means that what we're seeing is "true" rather than part of a screenwriter's feverish imagination. While this certainly defines the character as a person rather than a leftover 1980s action hero, it also unfortunately proves to be a fairly huge problem once the film shifts into overdrive and the bullets start flying. There are things depicted in this film so terrible that they are impossible to enjoy, which simultaneously posits Rambo's inevitable retaliation as both a justifiable catharsis and dubious exploitation of actual inhumanities.
As a character, Rambo is much harder to redeem -- both personally and cinematically -- than Stallone's Balboa; in the series' previous installment, Rambo III, he teamed up with Afghani rebels (Mujahedeen) to fight the Russians, which certainly places him in a dubious historical context. But what isn't clear is precisely how cynical the film is, in terms of redeeming Rambo within a world that is so full of violence. Stallone, who wrote the script and directed, creates a compelling dramatic counterpoint in Sarah and Michael (Paul Schulze) -- two sanctimonious missionaries who quickly discover that their ideals mean little in a winner-takes-all war zone. The two of them appeal of Rambo's dissipating humanity, but when they are captured they require his animosity. At one point Michael castigates Rambo for killing a boat full of river patrolmen who wanted to abscond with Sarah, and then later he succumbs to violence during an escape attempt.
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I really don't know if the film is supposed to be saying that violence is sometimes necessary, or that violence is necessarily destructive. And I don't have an opinion either way. But it creates an uncomfortable moral quandary that is never quite answered, and is in fact glossed over by the enjoyment we are supposed to derive when Rambo shows up in the back of a jeep, unloading millions of rounds from a gatling gun into bodies that liquefy and explode on contact. At one point midway through the film, another audience member in the preview screening I attended clapped at the sight of Rambo using his trademark bow and arrows, and I leaned over to my companion and said, "I don't mean it as a criticism, but I feel like it's completely inappropriate to applaud at anything in this film." The movie works too hard -- and in the end, too effectively -- at creating a palpable reality for the violence to allow us the empty escapism of what passes for action. It's as if someone tacked a scene from Shoot 'Em Up onto the end of Saving Private Ryan and assumed the two would somehow form a cohesive whole.
During the film's press day, I voiced my concerns to another colleague who agreed and then rejoined, "But you're thinking about this movie way too much." He's probably right -- Rambo is not a character who has historically demanded deeper examination, and probably benefits from a more lightweight examination of his earlier films' vague politically-relevant wish fulfillment themes. But Stallone doesn't quite seem game any more for those kinds of films, even if we as audiences still are; hell, what surprised me most about the film was not what it made me think about, but that it made me think at all.
That said, First Blood was in its way actually about something, even if its sequels reduced that message -- something about disenfranchised Vietnam veterans and their shaky postwar reintroduction to society -- to the sum total of bodies that could be counted by the time the final credits rolled. In other words, this fourth and by all accounts final installment is a satisfactory and engaging sequel to the first film, but a more or less illegitimate successor to the other two movies. Like Rocky Balboa, John Rambo is now officially an indelible part of the pop culture fabric. But unlike Stallone's pugilist alter ego, there's no way to separate his superficial victories from his more substantial ones. All of which means that Rambo ranks as the overall series' second-best entry. But in an age when escapism no longer serves as an easy escape, a movie about a one-man army makes for underwhelming odds against reality's horrors.
Links:
IMDB
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0462499/
Wiki
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rambo_(film)
Could someone tell how the fuck you put the You Tube video in!!
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with a premium membership that lets you use dohtml tags.
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I never "got" Rambo until after joining the military and realizing that my own country is pretty torn between "we support you" and "oh god you're bush's lapdog faggot."
But then I saw the two sequels which cheapened the actual message and realized that Rambo is just another boring action movie franchise plagued by the greed of Mr. Bigwig Fatpockets. I just found 5 dollars in old sock. If I don't spend this newfound fortune on beer I might actually see this.
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marcus how come you don't go insane and just start killing criminals.
seriously you're the most disappointing angry black man ever because all you care about is pokemon instead of strapping liquid nitrogen canisters to arrows and practicing your aim via montage.
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these are the questions i ask myself daily.
i wouldn't be so lethargic if i wasn't so apathetic.
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@Marcus - lol always crack me up haha.
I heard he kills like over 200 people in the movie, how fucken crazy is that!
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To be honest, I'm not really looking forward to this. But it's the same way I wasn't looking for to Die Hard 4, which turned out to be fairly alright - at least watchable. I just find it peculiar that all of these sequels are being shat out now - especially when the last installment was like fifteen years ago. Like the Indiana Jones movie, Rocky Balboa (Stallone again!) and this.
First Blood was an enjoyable movie. But not really looking forward to this.
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Now that the "TV Sitcom movie remake" fad is over and we've reached the crux of the "Pulp fantasy book movie" fad, Hollywood is turning to the "Mid 80s movie sequel" fad. I'm guessing the next fad will be "Independent/weird book movie release" with a Scott Pilgrim and Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norell movie.
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I am going to see this today. Honestly I would rather watch something else but my friend really wants to see it. I actually laughed when I saw the movie trailer, I thought the whole thing looked a bit ridiculous. But reviews have been decent, so maybe it won't be to bad.
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(http://img245.imageshack.us/img245/5360/rambodeathchartjpgbu2.png)
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So, from that insightful bit of information we can glean that:
1: Rambo fights with his shirt on.
2: Lots of people die.
3: The other characters aren't as inept as in previous Rambo's?
I will be looking forward to the guy who dies 3 minutes in. I will forever remember him throughout the rest of the film as "The dude who never was."
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I am going to see this today. Honestly I would rather watch something else but my friend really wants to see it. I actually laughed when I saw the movie trailer, I thought the whole thing looked a bit ridiculous. But reviews have been decent, so maybe it won't be to bad.
This movie was extremely ridiculous. It was extremely violent, as well as extremely funny. About 500 people die in this movie because of Rambo. The blood looked fake as well.
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man I have the exact number right there, you don't need to say ABOUT 500.
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Did it beat out Hot Shots: Part Deux for most kills?
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Did it beat out Hot Shots: Part Deux for most kills?
Haha, that part is epic.
For reference:
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Holy Sh!t I remember that haha, Ahh Hot Shots, they should make a third! 236 people!! wow, and Marcus how is it you make me laugh all the time.. But yeah for some reason you always remember the first guy who got killed because well, it's the first time someone got killed, but with this movie, it might be a bit different, I think I'll remember them by who was killed the most disgustingly haha.
I love the part how he just picks up the bullets and kills them haha.
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Hey, remember when parody movies were actually funny and parodied the genre instead of the film itself?
Those assholes who make the *insert whatever* movies should really take a lesson from that.
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Oh... God. What a hilarious movie. I was laughing out loud the entire time. From Rambo's favorite sentence being 'Go home', in response to difficult questions, to him coming out of nowhere and killing everyone with arrows, to him RIPPING A GUYS THROAT OFF, this movie was epically hilariously violent. These aren't spoilers, by the way, because there can't be spoilers in a movie with such a lack of a plot.
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let the bodies hit the floor
let the bodies hit the floor
let the bodies hit the floor
hey wasn't that song big back in like 1995 or something
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This is on the imdb Top 250.
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This movie is incredible. He shoots an arrow through a guys head and he lands on a LANDMINE. It's absolutely epic. I had so much fun watching this movie. A little slow to start, though.
A+++++++++++ BEST MOVIE EVER!!!
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This movie surprised me a lot, took about an hour for the actual action from the trailers to appear, and the films only like 80 something minutes. Story was pretty good actually, a lot better then I would have expected from Rambo haha, and apparently a 5th might be coming!
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I don't care if it has message, it's Rambo. I will go see it when they release it here.
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i wouldn't be so lethargic if i wasn't so apathetic.
Is this a quote from calvin and hobbes? It probably isn't just when I read it I had like an acid flashback overpowering memory of calvin and hobbes
As for Rambo, I'm going to save this for a day when I've had to THINK WAY TOO MUCH because this would probably be a blessed relief.