Review: Rambo returns for new rumble in the jungle
Almost 26 years after the 1982 release of “Rambo: First Blood,” Vietnam veteran John Rambo is back. And the big surprise is that he’s looking better than ever!
John Rambo (Sylvester Stallone) has dropped out of life and now lives an isolated existence in Northern Thailand, where he runs a longboat up and down the Salween River. Just miles away, on the Thai-Burmese/Myanmar border, a brutal civil war between the country’s ruling military junta and the minority Karen tribe has entered its 60th bloody year.
(“Rambo” has the good fortune to be released mere months after massive pro-democracy protests in Burma/Myanmar and the subsequent vicious military crackdown made international headlines). The Karen face a brutal and systematic genocide at the hands of the Myanmar government, and when a group of missionary doctors, led by Julie Benz and Paul Schulze, appears at Rambo’s doorstep asking for passage into Myanmar to deliver medical supplies and food, Rambo’s solitary life is shattered.
The doctors are sincere but hopelessly out of their depth. Rambo is at first unwilling to aid the missionaries on what he is sure would be a suicide mission. In the end, however, their passionate idealism wins him over.
But less than two weeks after he drops them off near a refuge camp, Rambo finds himself back in the jungle, leading a team of hired mercenaries to rescue the Americans, who are being held captive by the Myanmar army.
What follows is essentially one long, pitched battle (the film lacks an effective third act) in which Rambo almost single-handedly takes on the might of the entire military junta. Surprisingly effective and tense, “Rambo” succeeds despite what can only be described as a natural predisposition to dismiss the film before the first frame.
Do not take “Rambo’s” R-rating lightly. It is, perhaps, the most graphically violent film I have ever seen. Bodies are not simply eviscerated by bullets and knives, they are carved into pieces, hacked to bits and torn limb from limb. All of this over-the-top carnage is sure to inspire yelps of glee from some and waves of nausea from others.
Stallone, who is 62 but has the rugged, gnarled physique of a man in his 40s, wrote and directed “Rambo,” just as he did last year’s “Rocky Balboa.” It would be easy to suggest that Sly is a man living on the fumes of yesteryear, and certainly this duo of films gives credence to a washedup actor’s last ditch attempts at reviving a flagging career.
And yet, the truth is not as simple as all that. “Rocky Balboa” was well-received by critics and audiences alike, and while “Rambo” is certainly not for everyone, it succeeds at being exactly what it sets out to be — a nostalgic, actionpacked, gore-splattered ode to the antihero of a bygone era.
Imagine what this film would have looked like if it had been titled: “Rambo and the Hunt for Bin Laden.”
details
Rambo
Cast: Sylvester Stallone, Julie Benz, Matthew Marsden, Graham McTavish
Director: Sylvester Stallone
Playing at: Cinemark, Carmike, Chapel Hills, Tinseltown
Rated: R (for strong graphic, bloody violence, sexual assaults, grisly images and language)
Running time: 1 hour, 33 minutes
Grade: B
