Friday, January 25, 2008

Rambo: Live For Nothing or Die For Something

The film features Sylvester Stallone(John Rambo), Julie Benz(Sarah), Matthew Marsden(School Boy), Graham Mctavish(Lewis), and Paul Schulze(Michael Burnett). Sylvester Stallone, wrote, directed, and produced the film, along side Kevin King, John Thompsoon, and Avi Lerner(IMDb.) Rated-R. John Rambo lives in Thailand, and spends his days fishing, catching snakes, and working on his boat. One day a group of Christian missionaries approached Rambo, and ask him to take them up the Salween River, to Burma, to provide aid to the Karen people.

One of the missionaries, Michael, insist to Rambo that traveling to Burma to provide aid would help make a difference, and feeling that no difference would be made unless weapons were brought to the location, Rambo basically tells Michael, he would not help him.

After Michael unsuccessfully tried to convince Rambo, Sarah tries to convince him, but Rambo tells Sarah to go home. Late in the evening, Rambo walks out to his boat, and finds Sarah waiting for him. Consequently, the two debate back and forth while standing in the rain, until Sarah convinces Rambo, to take her and the missionaries to Burma. After taking the missionaries to Burma, about ten days later, Rambo is visited by Arthur Marsh, who asked Rambo to lead a group of mercenaries up the river once again, to find the missionaries.

This film has plenty of action with a high body count; let the bodies hit the floor indeed. It's beer and pizza time, as this this film follows the motif of quintessential guy movies. The script is not fancy, not deep, not anything that a Rambo movie is not suppose to be, but there is a measure of depth in this film, being based on the significance of the harsh conditions of Burma.

This is the type of movie that Al Bundy would scratch himself to while drinking beer. Impactful, vivid and graphic, the battle scenes left movie-watchers shaken. Some of the key lines, were dramatic to the point of being cheesy, but these lines did not affect the aim of the film at all, from a production standpoint.

Stallone does not bring back the "one man against a whole army" notion. Rambo had help, but the help did not negate Rambo's ability as a soldier, as he was still capable of killing the bad guys skillfully. As a byproduct of a life of war, Rambo has a negative attitude about the fate of the world, but one is capable of sensing, there is compassion left in John Rambo, because he accepted no compensation for initially taking the missionaries to Burma.

The story line is simple; the movie has a good pace, and it is very entertaining. Based on the reviews circulating on the Internet , the fans and critics seem to have embraced this film. According to Movies.com , the fans gave Rambo an A- and critics gave it a B. Stay tuned to Movieporium.blogspot.com.



No comments: