Rambo [2007]

Product Details

Director : Sylvester Stallone
Actor : Sylvester Stallone, Julie Benz, Matthew Marsden, Graham McTavish, Ken Howard
Format : PAL
Aspect Ratio : 2.35:1
Binding : DVD
EAN : 5035822160637
Product Group : DVD
Region Code : 2
Release Date : 2008-06-23
Running Time : 88minutes
Studio : Sony Pictures Home Ent. UK

ASIN : B00140UBFY

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Editorial Reviews

Amazon.co.uk review

If you've been wondering what ever happened to ex–Green Beret super warrior John Rambo since he singlehandedly shot up a Pacific Northwest town (First Blood, 1982), returned to the jungles of 'Nam to free U.S. POWs held long after war's end (Rambo: First Blood Part II, 1985), and interrupted the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan long enough to blow lots of stuff up and rescue his old commandant from the Reds (Rambo III, 1988), then Rambo (2008) is for you. Without so much as a IV to dilute the brand name, Rambo --which is what most of us called the second, most iconic film in the series--may aspire to open a new era for a pop legend. But it's a thoroughly mechanical attempt to re-animate a franchise that, absent the anger, frustration, and self-loathing of the post-Vietnam years, has no meaning or purpose. For some time now Rambo (Sylvester Stallone) has been putt-putting along the Thai-Burmese border in a longboat, catching exotic snakes to sell. As for the 60-year civil war in Burma between the brutal government and the Karen independence movement, he ignores it. Enter a party of American missionaries whose dewy blond spokeswoman (Dexter's Julie Benz) asks Rambo to haul them upriver so that they can bring medical aid to the insurgents. After the requisite number of monosyllabic refusals, he does. Soon afterward the do-gooders are in a world of hurt, and he's summoned to lead a squad of mercenaries on a rescue mission.

As storytelling, the latest Rambo is the most bare-bones of the bunch. Rambo has little to say, so it's especially galling that Stallone, as director and co-writer, obliges him to have essentially the same conversation at three different points (the final distillation: "Live for nothing or die for something"). The Burmese army goons seem in competition to commit the most hideous atrocity (e.g., child skull-crushing underfoot), the better to justify the eventual, lovingly protracted spectacle of them being eviscerated by high-powered weaponry. Although shot in Thailand, the movie has mostly been photographed in brown, reducing any particular sense of place but, perhaps, perversely increasing our gratitude for the splashes of purple whenever hot metal tatters flesh. --Richard T. Jameson

Customer Reviews

Blood Bath. (2008-10-12)

I drew some irony from negative comparisons of Rambo(2008) and the 'classic' source material. Devoid of characterisation and meaningful dialogue this effort sits well with the rest of the franchise.Irritatingly I prefered the dialogue sequences in the deleted scenes. That aside, this movie stands up well to scutiny. The photography very effective, the action unashamedly brutal(you have been warned) and ultimately ticking all the intended boxes. Particulaly the box office box. Dont watch while eating.

Rambo (2008-09-16)

Rambo is an important movie, at least as far as I am concerned. It isn't polished entertainment; a shoot-em-up video game committed to celluloid, Rambo is raw, powerful and honest. Rambo is a war movie.The story begins in Thailand where we find the character of Rambo relatively at peace in self imposed exile where he fishes and catches snakes. He is then asked to take a group of Christian charity workers into Burma, a war zone. The aid workers are captured by the Burmese military and Rambo once again is forced to reawaken his warrior instincts.The film is about the conflict in Burma and it spares the viewer very little in terms of depicting the atrocities that occur there. Limbs are hacked off, children are stabbed and shot. The Burmese do not have much of a voice in this film but the western characters, the mercenaries and the aid workers debate the situation on there respective boat trips into Burma.The battle scenes are also staggeringly violent, with bullets and explosions reducing bodies in a bloody mush. It is shocking but anything less would be a lie.Rambo is the natural successor to First Blood and it works in a similar way. It is an action movie with something to say.

How action movies should be made (2008-09-08)

In Thailand, John Rambo is living peacefully capturing snakes and transporting people and cargo in an old boat. When he transports a group of Christian Aid Workers into war-torn Burma he gets more than he bargained for. Rambo soon finds himself joining a group of mercenaries to rescue the Christian Aid workers who are captured by the Burmese army. I have to admit that I didn't expect Rambo to be any more than a cheesy tribute to the eighties by a guy desperate to relive past glory. I stand corrected. This is a Rambo that holds up when compared with the original "First Blood". Given its genre, Rambo is a masterpiece. The story is simple but solid, the action scenes are unparalleled and more intense than many action movies of today put together. The level of brutality and gore will shock and fascinate, and no doubt cause some level of controversy. But Stallone proves himself to be an excellent director, as well as in excellent shape for his age. Other than that it is a full blooded action movie that will strap you to your seat for whole 95 minutes!They certainly don't make them like they used to.

Technically brilliant hideously violent tripe . Was i entertained?.....you bet. (2008-08-29)

There is a point in Rambo where a Christian aid worker tells John Rambo "taking a life is never right" (even though the men Rambo has just obliterated were going to kidnap and gang rape the one female in their midst ) and you just know that the line is going to have pay off before the films conclusion . Sure enough before the credits roll that same aid worker is hitting a mans head with rock like he's trying to win the biggest cuddly toy on a fairground test your strength machine. By this I took it to mean that the films central message is that no matter how reprehensible killing may seem sometimes it's the only way for the virtuous to survive and evil to be defeated. It's also if this film is to believed extremely messy so best invest in some industrial strength stain remover. Having revived one franchise with "Rocky Balboa [2007]" Stallone obviously felt there was further mileage to be had from the mumbling mixed up Vietnam Vet John Rambo . Some of the ludicrous scenarios, discussed for this by Stallone had Rambo and his family ! kidnapped by white supremacists or Rambo working as a UN diplomat ( the obvious career choice for a man who can hardly string a sentence together) during a terrorist attack on the UN headquarters. Eventually Stallone and co-writer Art Monterastelli came up with a hugely simplified plot where Rambo is working as a snake capturer in Thailand when he is approached by aid workers Michael (Paul Schulze) and Sarah ( Julie Benz) who want him to run them and their colleagues into Burma on his little motorised boat . Burma , it has already been explained in an horrendously graphic montage at the films beginning , is in the throes of a civil war where the militants are wiping out the Karen tribe and the workers want to provide medical , educational and supply aid. Not that Rambo sympathises. "Nothing changes , go home " he grunts . Sarah though appeals to him and before you can mutter extraneous sequel they are off up the river. Once they reach the nearest village the do-gooders go about doing good things until they and most of the village are hideously and realistically slaughtered by the militants. Except some are taken as hostages by the militants , including the fragrant Sarah ( not so fragrant now it must be said) and so some terribly clichéd mercenary types are employed to extricate them . Needless to day Rambo is the one required to really save the day and happily this involves brutally eviscerating hundred s of baddies with a gun as big as the biggest gun you can imagine. (very big in my case) My slightly flippant tone may have led you to come to the conclusion that I didn't enjoy Rambo but actually it's great fun in that simplified way that watching really bad men getting their come uppance can be. I watched this film after watching Planet Terror [2007]" and the over the top splatter violence of that palls next to this film .Rambo is eye poppingly violent ( it has a death every 2.43 seconds or something ) but the violence isn't cartoonish . It is stomach charmingly realistic . The films greatest fault though doesn't lie with the violence but rather the characterisation or lack of it. The Rambo of the excellent "Rambo: First Blood [1982]" has morphed from a tragic misunderstood figure into a monosyballic killing machine. The redemptive scene at the end feels tacked on in order to give Rambo some kind of character arc. Worse still the head villain is given little more to do than smoke moodily and glare out through his ever present sunglasses . He is possibly the most underwritten head baddie in cinema history .As for the mercenaries the gobby cockney Lewis (Graham McTavish) is so annoying I wanted him to perish before any of the enemy. The final scene with Rambo spraying around gut busting bullets by the thousands but without hitting any one but the enemy is ludicrous .Yet despite all this I cannot bring myself to fully condemn Rambo. It,s hideously violent tripe but it,s technically well made and passes 90 minutes in no time. We all love seeing the bad guys getting a kicking and you won,t see more bad guys get a good kicking than you do In Rambo.

What's the point? (spoiler warning) (2008-08-26)

Rambo frowns a bit, grunts, swears, blasts a few holes through some bad guys, and then cuts their heads off....Oops, sorry, I just gave away the whole plot.I liked Hostel, The Hills Have Eyes, Funny Games and so on, don't get me wrong, but this new Rambo installment is ultimately for sad, insecure, power-hungry people who get a kick out of watching innocent beings getting raped, humiliated, cut apart, beaten and mutilated until death.That's basically what happens throughout the entire film... until a sickeningly false happy ending- in which everything is supposed to be 'OK' again, just because the nice blonde lady is reunited with her partner. (Yea, you're supposed to forget about the hundreds of other innocent people who are murdered along the way.)I am (was) a massive Rambo fan, so this addition was never going to get 2 stars or less... and to make this review sound less of a complaint, I'll mention that some of the scenery looks nice, and it's not too long- so whoever is being entertained won't loose interest very easily. For once though, I agree with the critics: The new Rambo film is big, stupid and pointless- just like the character.

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