 KSL Movie Show Review:...
RAMBO **1/2 By Steve Salles Standard Examiner movie critic GO: if the notion of “first blood” becoming buckets of body parts doesn’t worry you, then you may be ready to revisit our old friend Rambo. DON’T GO: if you get queasy after a paper cut. Admittedly, I was a little worried a year ago when Sylvester Stallone insisted on doing one more installment of “Rocky.” Turns out, his instincts were good. The movie was a fitting end to a great character and it made a bunch of money. So now I’m thinking he knows what he’s doing by bring back Rambo for a swan song after 20 years. Who knows? Maybe he can capture lightning in a bottle a second time? Yeah. More like finding a grenade in your shorts. Rambo (Stallone) has gone off to Thailand to live in peace and seclusion - well that - and to do some deadly poisonous snake wrangling to keep food on the table. He’s approached by some Christian missionaries to take them up river to Burma where human right’s violations are running rampant in the region. They hope to take medical supplies to an oppressed village suffering at the hands of the Burmese Army. John Rambo knows these soldiers know only strength through violence. He doesn’t hold out much hope that these missionaries can affect any change, but a strong-willed woman Sarah (Julie Benz) tells him “that trying to save lives is worth doing.” So he reluctantly agrees to take them, but it’s about to get pretty ugly. It looks like Rambo will have to dust off his headband, his bow and arrow and wade through some Burmese bad guys with the help of some mercenaries paid to attempt a rescue. Sadly, Colonel Trautman (Richard Crenna) isn’t around to make an appearance in this installment (although he is seen in flashback). He passed away in 2003 of pancreatic cancer. Stallone had written a part for a replacement Trautman. James Brolin was considered, but eventually the role was written out. Probably a good call. Here’s the most important thing to remember about this movie. It is the bloodiest, dismembering display of human flesh I’ve ever seen on film. It makes “Saving Private Ryan” look like a tiptoe through the tulips (with all due respect to those brave, wonderful men). Rambo is a killing machine and when he gets that look in his eyes, stuff just falls off of people in grotesque and violent ways. But, of course, they’re all bad guys, so it doesn’t seem as horrifying, but only the toughest of the tough need attempt to sit through this. What it does do is gets your own blood pumping as this hulk of a man wades into villains like wind through a wheat field - and even though he takes brooding to a whole new level - Stallone is still Rambo in every sense of the character. It’s a pure “I-kill-you-before-you-kill-me” kind of movie and on that level it works. Try to see into it anything more than that - like dialog or character depth - you’ll come up short. The gist of it is - Rambo’s back and he’s crankier than ever. THE FILM: “Rambo” OUR RATING: **1/2 STARRING: Sylvester Stallone, Julie Benz, Matthew Marsden, Graham McTavish and Jake La Botz BEHIND THE SCENES: Written and directed by Sylvester Stallone (“Rocky Balboa” “Staying Alive”) - filmed in Burma, Thailand, Puerto Vallarta and the U.S. PLAYING: Running time: 93 minutes MPAA RATING: R movies at a glance: RAMBO **1/2 (R) strong graphic bloody violence, sexual assaults, grisly images and language. Talking was never Rambo’s strong suit - killing was. Fortunately, he does very little of one and a whole lot of the other in this jungle bloodbath aimed at rescuing relief-worker missionaries in Burma. Stallone is still convincing as a skilled weapon of war, but the label “first blood” will probably have to move over for the far more accurate “all blood.”
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Steve