Rambo 2008

vertex reviewed Rambo (2008)

Rambo delivers!

I had been waiting for the fourth installment of Rambo for quite a while and I was happy to see that Sylvester Stallone finally made it happen. After seeing Rocky Balboa a few years ago I was confident that Stallone could do a solid job with Rambo as well. Like with Rocky Balboa, Stallone wrote, directed, and acted Rambo by himself.

As a movie, Rambo is faithful to its origins and the game is still the same. There are no jokes, there is just sympathetic and tough John Rambo running in the jungle. Some might question Stallone’s age but there is absolutely no reason for that. At the age of 60 Stallone is still convincing as Rambo and the action is intense. The story is simple and very violent (maybe even too violent) and so the movie delivers exactly what it’s supposed to. It’s very refreshing to see an old-school action movie for a change. My biggest complaint about Rambo is the runtime. The movie is only 91 minutes long. With Rambo, 91 minutes goes too fast. It would have been nice to see some twist in the plot and another 30 minutes of intense action. Still, in my opinion the movie is just as good as First Blood , if not better.

kombinaat reviewed Rambo (2008)

Killing is my business.. and business is good

There's nothing better than to finish off a week with a good hour and a half of jungle action.

Rambo succeeds in something that is often tried but seldom excelled at - namely being a worthy sequel to an old time classic saga. Stallone succeeds well again in his role as a simple man scarred, yet refined by extreme experiences of past violence and war.

As a word of warning - Rambo is a tough movie. Harsh scenes of violence are depicted throughout the film and the central message of violence as an occasional necessity is not something that some peace-loving-tree-hugging hippies would enjoy. But, there is an underlying message of humanity amongst the cruelties of war portrayed in this movie. Things can change, and willing, unselfish people are the key to this change.

A good movie, with a simple storyline yet some indications of a powerful message and in the meantime packed with action and heroism of John Rambo - a grand figure of my youth. That makes a solid 8 stars.

nmd reviewed Rambo (2008)

Jungle Authority

So, Rambo is back. In Thailand. Living a seemingly peaceful life, using his bow for fishing only. Then comes a small group of religious people who end up bringing back the real Rambo by having him help them on their mission to Burma where most things have gone bad.

It takes a female, however, to puncture Rambo's extremely pessimistic attitude and convince him to give them a ride on his boat. Sarah Miller (Julie Benz) succeeds where Michael Burnett (Paul Schulze) fails by using a language Rambo understands: "Maybe we can't change what is. But trying to save a life isn't wasting your life, is it?". A very basic relationship between them exists throughout the movie.

From the start, the movie goes on with no surprises (lack of which is warranted in this one, in my opinion). There is a lot of rain, jungle and action, a few scenery shots, and loads of very graphic violence. Numerous scenes exhibiting a gross injustice in Burma are used to build the movie's atmosphere.

Rambo's character turns out to be the same as before: A fierce, antisocial solitary warrior who shows no mercy to the bad guys. He speaks pretty much only when spoken to, if even then. The other characters receive (and deserve) very little attention.

All in all, I enjoyed this movie. It's an action packed 90 minutes, nothing more, nothing less. I happened to watch this one in male only company after some serious FPS gameplay, which I think was a good thing and made me enjoy it even more.

burnhill reviewed Rambo (2008)

Comeback!

Rambo is one of those must-see movies like Rocky Balboa. Rambo movies from the '80 are classic so even if you haven't seen the first ones and aren't interested even a bit you just have to see this one.

John Rambo (Stallone) is living a peaceful life in Thailand trying to forget his past. Group of Christian aid workers requests Rambo to take them to war-Torn Burma. Rambo takes them to their destination and later joins the group of mercenaries to rescue the team of aid workers.

Rambo is full of intense brutal and ruthless action. I just loved every single scene! I was surprised how brutal the movie was, but it didn't affect the movie in a negative way. I think that the movie was well filmed. The flashbacks from previous Rambos were extremely nice! Story takes place in a beautiful jungle and they show nice clips of rivers, mountains, jungles ect. I also liked the music and how it created the atmosphere. The tagline of Rambo: "Heroes never die.... They just reload." fits perfectly. Stallone finnishes John Rambo's story with dignity and esteem. Almost shed a tear when the movie ended.

Rambo is movie worth watching over and over again. With it's hour and a half runtime it's perfect alternative for any movie. Especially those who love action this is pure gold!