Rambo
Rated: R
Runtime: 1 hour, 33 minutes
Directed by: Sylvester Stallone
Starring:
Sylvester Stallone - John Rambo
Julie Benz - Sarah
Matthew Marsden - School Boy
Graham McTavish - Lewis
Rey Gallegos - Diaz
Jake La Botz - Reese
Paul Schulze - Michael Burnett
If there's a name synonymous with fighting in the wilderness and killing lots and lots of extras, it's Rambo. We haven't seen the Vietnam vet since Rambo III (and no, the newest film isn't a prequel) when he fought alongside the Mujahideen (who knew they'd eventually become the Taliban/Al-Qaeda?) and now, twenty years since that film, he's back in Burma and totally fed up with the world. Only with the convincing of a pretty Christian missionary (Julie Benz), can he begrudgingly take a group of well-intentioned Christians from Thailand in Burma where the missionaries encounter…problems. Rambo has to save the motherfucking day
Let us simply say that Stallone, who along with playing the title character also co-wrote and directed the film, has no reservations showing genocide at its most cruel and haunting. The only way you could call this a "war" film is if the war was Rambo vs. Burma. And if that's the case, then the way to win any war, is Rambo plus one machine gun turret.
As the film slowly drags to where we all want it to go (Rambo royally fucking up the baddies), I tried to find some deeper story. After all, if you're really going to go into Burma and risk your life for a Rambo film, then either you have something to say or your career is worse than we all thought. I'd like to think it's the former. I would also like to think that film is criticizing our bloodlust because as bad as Rambo dishes it out, I would say that the innocent victims of the baddies get it worse.
But as I struggled to maybe find some thematic resonance about the nature of the warrior and his inability to escape war and how much humanity he has to spare to even give a damn about anything, it's all hurt by both the film's beginning and the end (or lack thereof). The film is at its strongest when it's men-on-a-mission as Rambo and a group of mercenaries attempt to rescue the missionaries. But the writing is painfully bad at points as characters don't talk to each other but instead just spout platitudes at each other until you're praying that they both just shut up (thankfully, Rambo is a taciturn fellow). Stallone's direction doesn't fare much better as his skill at filming violence doesn't carry over to anything that's not bloody carnage. And then there's the ending that's so abrupt, that if there hadn't been a dissolve, I would have thought that there was a reel missing.
I have no problem with a new Rambo film, especially after the surprising success of Rocky Balboa. But it seems like Stallone just took a few vague ideas, a current event, and got filming so he could still play his legendary character before losing all the muscle mass he built up on Balboa.
Words by
Matt Goldberg
1.27.08