Rambo Reloads for the Last Time?

The Rambo series of movies is not one that I would have openly made an effort to watch, as I am not an outward fan of mindless violence. Give me zombies and vampires any day! I think a lot of my aversion to "war" films is the fact that I am married to a soldier, and don't really like to be reminded of the dangers faced, even if these dangers are grossly exaggerated on the big screen.

At this point, I must hasten to add that I have never seen any of the other 3 Rambo films.

On sale on Amazon UK for £12.98 on a pre-order for the release date of June 23, 2008. This is obviously better value than purchasing the DVD for full price in the shops but, as always, my advice is to shop around as there are always bargains to be had, even on new releases.

***Synopsis***

The film itself is set 20 years after the end of Rambo 3, John Rambo is now living in peace in Thailand. By day he earns his living catching snakes and fishing. He seems to be at peace. Then he is approached by a group of Christian aid workers and asked to take them into war torn Burma, where they want to help the local people who are suffering at the hands of the local infantry regiment.

The "soldiers" are regularly murdering locals for fun and generally terrorising the local area.

At first, Rambo is reluctant to take these people into a war zone, but he is persuaded by Julie Miller (Benz). She manages to get under his skin and her logic manages to persuade Rambo that they are doing the right thing.

On the way to the drop-off point, the group encounter Burmese pirates, with almost disastrous consequences. But Rambo's lightening reflexes solve that problem.

After dropping off the aid workers, Rambo returns to his home and carries on with his life. Until one night when the minister of the aid workers arrives at Rambo's home to ask for help. It turns out that the group have been taken hostage by the infantry regiment and Rambo is needed to take a group of mercenaries to the drop off point where they will travel overland and rescue the aid workers.

This group consists of an ex-SAS soldier and other former members of the military who are only on the mission for the pay, not for the good of rescuing innocent people. Rambo, however, is just the "boat man" as far as they are concerned but he has his own idea about that. When ordered to remain with the boat, he decides to go out on his own and follow the mercenaries.

***Film Info***

Cast - Sylvester Stallone, Julie Benz, Matthew Marsden

Rating - 18 (and rightly so)

Running Time - 91 minutes (approximately)

Writers - Sylvester Stallone, Art Monterastelli

Director - Sylvester Stallone

Tag Line - Heroes Never Die ... They Just Reload

***Trivia***

This is the first Rambo film to be directed by Stallone.

It has the highest kill count of all the Rambo films. This stands at 236 while it averages 2.59 killings per minute - rather high?

***My Opinion***

Like I said earlier, this is not the genre that I would normally watch, but in saying that I did enjoy the film. It did have a good storyline, which took my attention and held it. I have to say I am not a fan of films that are of this genre but could not stop watching this. Some of the scenes are very graphic and flying limbs were not uncommon throughout the film.

I have to say that the special effects are absolutely fantastic, if exceptionally graphic in places. Even I was shocked at parts and cringed at other parts. And I would class myself as semi-immune to on-screen violence, given my like of vampire/zombie/horror movies. But this was different. I know that violence on this scale occurs daily in parts of the world far removed from me, but that these areas could become part of my daily life, should the government send armed troops in to keep the peace.

The soundtrack I found to be unmemorable, simply because I had no memory of any soundtrack even five minutes after the end of the film. I was so engrossed in what was going on in the movie that I did not notice anything else.

The acting was of a high standard. Stallone plays Rambo as I would imagine him to be. With this being my first outing in the Rambo field, I pretty much had to guess at how he would act. Although my husband did fill me in on the basics, ie that John Rambo was your vietnam veteran who was basically a fine tuned killing machine. Stallone plays him exceptionally well, and shows him as an older man, just wanting to be left alone to live in peace.

Benz and Marsden also play their parts very well in my own honest opinion. Benz manages to cary off her role as a woman wanting to do good, while Marsden shows that even though his character is a mercenary, there is still some good within.

I have to admit to thoroughly enjoying the film, even if it shows such wanton violence and killings. As I have said previously, this is not the type of film I would normally watch, but I enjoyed it. I would not necessarily watch this again, simply because I have seen it once, and would not really want to repeat the experience. In saying that, if it was the only thing to watch, I would probably read a book! To me, Rambo is the type of film that you watch once, as the memory will stay with you for a long time.

I did ask my husband if he enjoyed the film and he told me that it was "alright" but that he wouldn't necessarily go out and buy the DVD to watch it again.

I have given this 4 stars. I have deducted one star because of the number and graphic nature of the killings in the film. I will recommend this as there are Stallone fans out there who will thoroughly enjoy this and who will watch it again and again. I must add at this point that we both found the ending of the film to be weak, where the rest of the film was strong, the ending really lets it down.

Thanks for reading and for me, it's time to reload! Di x