Rambo 4 = Total Win!
Last week, I caught “John Rambo” a.k.a. Rambo 4, the latest (and presumably final) installation in the 80’s Stallone juggernaut about a mentally scarred and overwhelmingly bloodthirsty Vietnam veteran, given to headbands, ripped muscles and monosyllabic, single sentence dialog. (Trivia note: His characteristic slurred speech and permanent snarl/scowl is actually a result of partial paralysis of the left side of his face, caused by a pair of forceps severing a nerve, during his birth.)
I’ll admit that I am actually quite a fan of Sylvester Stallone, albeit only recently. I find the majority of his work during the 80’s and early 90’s to be intolerable schlock—akin to porn, only substituting severed limbs and arterial spray in place of tits and ass. However, his very early films, such as the original “Rocky” and “First Blood” (the first movie featuring the character, John Rambo, in case you don’t know), are in my opinion, pretty good flicks. Stallone, in his best moments, is not a bad actor, an excellent writer and some of his films actually have real characters with plots.
At some point in the late 90’s, when Stallone’s career as an action superstar began to tank, he started appearing in low-budget, more independent films. Since that transition, his credibility with me has soared. Movies like Cop Land and Get Carter, and Rocky Balboa have been Hollywood gold as far as I’m concerned.
So, with that in mind, I felt I had to give the new Rambo a chance. I wasn’t disappointed.
The movie is scandalously graphic in it’s violence, especially towards children (which is fine by me). You’ve got kids being shot, pasted by mortar fire, stabbed with bayonets, hacked with machetes and thrown into fiery wreckage, only to be finished off with a flame thrower.
But, believe me, the adults have it much worse. The key phrase is, “an orgy of severed arms and legs“. The transformation of humans into an organic pink mist via explosives also features largely. The movie basically explores just about every easily available method of killing Asian people. Shit gets deep.
As Rambo succinctly states, “Killin’s as easy as beathing.” Epic!!!
Sent to rescue a posse of bitch-ass Christians from a constantly smoking, implacable Asian dude with sunglasses, Rambo heads up the river into Burma with a group of mercenaries.
As expected, Rambo basically rips out everyone’s asshole and feeds it to them, but with style.
There’s no jokes. There isn’t much of any dialog, especially on Rambo’s part. What you get is death, dismemberment and general mutilation and it works surprisingly well. At one point, I actually had to pause the film, just to absorb how much I was really enjoying it.
Nobody fucks with John Rambo!
Rent it. It’s a good time.
