RAMBO! A man’s film!

After the surprising success of the ROCKY BALBOA remake, it took only a year before Sylvester Stallone banks on his other hit character from his FIRST BLOOD movies.  RAMBO continues twenty years after the last film of the series.  John Rambo (Stallone still as buffed as ever) now with double attitude, runs a longboat on the Salween River in Northern Thailand.  Why? - so that the film can connect with current affairs such as the Burmese-Karen civil war.  The excuse for Rambo to come out single handedly taking on an army is to rescue Sarah (Julie Benz).  Her troupe of human rights missionaries get abducted by the marauding army (the bad guys) in the jungle.

Stallone who co-wrote the script and directed, goes all out in the reality department.  Whether catching King Cobras with his bare hands or wallowing in the mud, one has to give him credit for trying very hard to get his film to work.  And it does!  Full of action – Rambo-style, there are plenty of pyrotechnics in every scene.  The body count is too many to keep track.  RAMBO is no harmless action flick.  Stallone shows lots of violence, gore, stumps, blood and body parts.  No wonder the character Sarah is screaming half the time.  Stallone’s film is messy in plot detail – for example, Commander Tint (Maung Maung Khim) is shown in one scene taking a local boy into his quarters.  A remark is later made about him being a lady boy though how the person comes to know about Tint is questionable.

RAMBO has enough action to keep the target audience of young male fans excited.  It is a question of one against all odds.  And in a way, Stallone has succeeded similarly with filmmaking in Hollywood.  Just ignore the slightly ridiculous Hollywood ending and RAMBO satisfies – no questions asked.