Amazon.com: After Rocky and its sequels, Sylvester Stallone cast about for another character that would bring him the same kind of box-office hit--and found it in disillusioned Vietnam vet John Rambo in First Blood, a solid little action thriller. So when all else failed, Stallone went back to the same well in hopes of recapturing the same commercial success. Which this film did. But where First Blood was a no-nonsense thriller that pitted Stallone against a worthy (and not necessarily bad) Brian Dennehy, this one is a sadistic chest-thumper in which Rambo gets to go back to Vietnam: ostensibly, he's there to rescue missing POWs, but in fact the movie was a lame excuse for him to refight the Vietnam War--and win. Audiences ate up the cruel Vietcong (and their Russian manipulators) and Stallone's bogus heroics, but it was strictly by-the-numbers action. --Marshall Fine
Action-wise, it was what I expected from First Blood My initial complaint about First Blood was that with all the buzz and word "classic" thrown about about it, I expected innovative, genre-defining violence hardly seen at the time. I did not receive that.
Just a few years later, with "First Blood II", the first movie to bear the "Rambo" tag, I get exactly the sort of "genre-defining violence" I had expected from the first movie.
It still pales in comparison to modern bloodfests, but it's still something I haven't seen in many pre-80s movies, and even bloodier than most PG13 action movies today.
From a Saga point of view, this installation was necessary to establish Rambo's skills, particularly with a bow and with pain tolerance. From a story point of view, it was cheeseballs. Majorly cheeseballs.
The plot involves Rambo being taken out of prison for his crimes in the first movie, and sent to Vietnam for a redemptive act in which he must free a prisoner of war or a few. For a veteran of old action films, the casting of Stacey Keach probably should have made it obvious that the commander in charge would eventually become the bad guy, but it took me a few scenes before realizing that.
So Stacey Keach's character betrays Rambo for a reason which is highly logical and rational, and yet unlike most trashy action movies, the motives and justifications for it, despite being very mature and thoughtful, are nevertheless wrong and not worth abandoning Rambo and a prisoner of war or two.
The story itself does feel like a cheeseball re-playing of the Vietnam war, with "America" winning in the form of the basic soldier, winning out against both communist enemies, and their own leaders who sent them to a pointless war to begin with.
The parting words of Rambo at the end are very corny in the context of the plot, but I think out of context from this plot, they create yet another layer of profoundity and beauty to this insanely complex character. It probably should have been included in "First Blood", but it is certainly not out of place here.
"The war and all this may be wrong, but, dammit don't hate your country for it." "Hey... I'd die for it." "Then what do you want?" "I want... what they want. And every other guy that came over here and gave everything he had and spilled his guts wants. For our country to love us, as much as we love it. That is what I want."
EDIT: I don't think that guy was played by Stacey Keach, actually.
Reagan-era revenge fantasy Rambo (Sylvester Stallone) is emancipated by Col. Trautman (Richard Crenna) from the prison camp where he is serving time and sent back to Nam to gather evidence of the existence of POWs. Problem is, the "government," as embodied by a square-jawed tool named Marshall Murdock (Charles Napier), doesn't want anyone to be found.
This stunningly illogical piece of garbage trots out all the reliable boogeymen of Cold War Reagan-era America: evil Russians, loathsome Asians, and two-faced bureaucrats (government is the problem). I'm not sure that Rambo's mission even makes any sense except perhaps as a piece of intra-governmental propaganda since a convicted criminal's failure to find evidence of abandoned MIAs could hardly be expected to be persuasive to the general public. Rambo's enemies conveniently show up where needed so that they can fall into his clutches, and the two Russians who torture Rambo, a lieutenant colonel (Steven Berkoff) and his sadistic henchman (Voyo Goric), also turn out to be the two helicopter pilots that he faces in a dogfight later. The filmmakers have loads of fun blowing up a Vietnamese village, which would no doubt result in the deaths of numerous peasants, thereby demonstrating why the natives might not be so appreciative of our efforts to "liberate" them.
Mixed Reviews I just want to say, I have no mixed reviews for this movie I have seen rambo 1-3 and I would have to say this one is my favorite. The first one built up to part 2. And the third one had more stealth, but this one was just perfect. It had almost over 25 explosions in one scene alone and had him hide in the bushes and get people that way (as in the first) and I think that's just awesome the way he does it. This movie had one of my favorite scenes in movie history. After he was being tortured and was forced to talk to his command station, all hell breaks loose.
Movie: 3.5/5 Picture Quality: 3.25~4.5/5 Sound Quality: 3.25/5 Extras: 2.5/5 Version: U.S.A / Lionsgate / Region Free VC-1 BD-25 1080p / 23.976fps / Advanced Profile 3 Running time: 1:35:58 (h:m:s) Movie size: 21,325,658,112 bytes Disc size: 24,359,135,536 bytes Average video bit rate: 21.97 Mbps
DTS-HD Master Audio English 4233 kbps 5.1 / 48kHz / 24-bit / 4233kbps (DTS Core: 5.1 / 48kHz / 24-bit / 1536kbps) Dolby Digital Audio English 640 kbps 5.1 / 48kHz / 640kbps Dolby Digital Audio French 640 kbps 5.1 / 48kHz / 640kbps Dolby Digital Audio English 192 kbps 2.0 / 48kHz / 192kbps
Subtitles: English / Spanish Number of chapters: 16
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Version: U.K / Optimum / Region A / B VC-1 BD-25 1080p / 23.976fps / Advanced Profile 3 Running time: 1:35:55 (h:m:s) Movie size: 20,505,513,984 bytes Disc size: 23,373,405,514 bytes Average video bit rate: 17.01 Mbps
Subtitles: English / Danish / Dutch / Finnish / French / German / Norwegian / Portuguese / Spanish / Swedish Number of chapters: 12
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Version: E.U / Studio Canal HD DVD VC-1 HD-30 Running time: 1:35:50 (h:m:s) Movie size: 16,294,049,792 bytes Disc size: 17,071,625,621 bytes Average video bit rate: 17.03 Mbps DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1
all in blue ray glory really a good remake of Rambo 2, the best in the series in my opinion. clear and fine in HD. the only step back i had was my wish to see arabic subtitle, so i can i enjoy it with friends who do not speak english. but i guess thats the same problem with all new blue ray titles.
Anything Goes Trivia
Trevor
Megaton Man
