Review of Rambo (2008) by Chads — 27 Jan 2008

"Rambo" is the work of a desparate actor/filmmaker, who missed a golden opportunity to dig deep; to finally make amends with his big payday-motivated career choices and corresponding downward trajectory in popularity.

The financially successful "First Blood", and its blockbuster follow-up, probably ruined his reputation as an actor like how "Smokey & the Bandit" made Burt Reynolds likewise, a washed-up A-lister, and industry laughingstock(before Paul Thomas Anderson's "Boogie Nights").

Instead of living up to his "the next Marlon Brando" billing, Sylvester Stallone made films like "Over the Top" and "Tango & Cash", which would later lead his nadir, "Stop! Or My Mom Will Shoot"(w/Estelle Getty).

It wasn't until James Mangold's "Copland" did audiences remember that Sylvester Stallone was indeed an actor, not just a celebrity. "Rambo", to my disappointment, is no meditation on violence like "Unforgiven"(in which Clint Eastwood returned to the western as a older, wiser actor/filmmaker); this fourth installment of the John Rambo saga is shockingly reductive.

What little artistry that remains in the mind's eye of this filmmaker, based on this witless display of bang, bang, bang, and ka-boom, was spent on the nostalgia-heavy "Rocky Balboa". The violence on display here is supposed to be justified by its social consciousness; its global citizenry duty of shedding light on the social upheaval in southern Asia.

Yeah, right; as if this movie's target audience gives a rat's ass about Burma. "Rambo" is pared down to the genre's essentials; blood and explosions, made reprehensible by its purported dilligence in political awareness.