Rambo.
The mere mention of the name conjures thoughts of oiled up muscles, machine guns and explosions - lots of explosions. After 20 years, Sylvester Stallone returns to one of his most famous characters in Rambo, which brings together some of the best aspects of the original, "First Blood," along with its adrenaline pumping sequels.
Rambo begins similar to its predecessor "Rambo III," with John Rambo in southeast Asia living his life of seclusion near the Burmese border. A group of missionaries asks Rambo to take them into Burma and reluctantly he agrees.
Upon his return, Rambo finds out the missionaries have been taken as prisoners in a vicious civil war that has engulfed Burma. Rambo then leads a group of mercenaries to rescue the missionaries at the enemy camp, and in the end must make a final stand against more than 100 enemy troops.
What is often forgotten about "First Blood" is that it barely resembles anything seen in the sequels.
Whereas "Rambo: First Blood Part II" and "Rambo III" were a relentless barrage of explosions and machine gun fire, "First Blood" was an action film with a near nonexistent body count that instead looked at the disillusionment of Vietnam veterans returning to the United States.
"Rambo: First Blood Part II" and "Rambo III" both had rather forced political messages concerning prisoners of war and the war against the Soviets in Afghanistan and focused more on the action than the plot.
"Rambo" does take a cue from the earlier sequels by providing some of the most intense and bloody actions sequences seen in any action film.
While many consider "Rambo III" to be one of the most violent movies ever with its 132 on-screen deaths, it is outdone with "Rambo's" 236, most of which occur during the fist clenching finale as Rambo takes up a truck-mounted machine gun and kills everything in sight.
Stallone pulls a trifecta of duties with this film as star, writer and director. He slips back perfectly into the haunted Vietnam vet role, providing an older, wiser and more contemplative character ready to be called to action.
Stallone's stronger role in this movie makes for an interesting hybrid of the modern style of action film mixed with the style of the 1980s, providing a nostalgic yet modern feel to the film.
"Rambo" is an action film in the greatest sense of the genre, with its predecessors being some of the most recognizable in the genre.
sammccoy@dailynebraskan.com
