The Flamingbaby staff attended the opening night of RAMBO, the final chapter in the RAMBO series, and the latest Sly Stallone film to bring a close to an epic series.  After the Cloverfield flop last week, my hopes for RAMBO weren't very high as this movie was getting a lot of internet attention.  I however received the shock of my life when I discovered that this movie ROCKS!

Check out our Upcoming Must See Movie list that featured RAMBO. 

The movie centers on the main character, John Rambo, who as we all know from the previous installments is a killing machine.  We find that Rambo is now living out his life as a snake catcher for a show featuring King Cobras.  His peaceful retirement will soon be interrupted by a request that will take him deep into the war-torn country of Burma and demons that have been buried for years will surface.A group of missionaries wanting to deliver supplies, medical help, and of course a good ol’ helping of Bible scripture ask Rambo to take them upstream into Burma.  He obliges, but the missionaries soon find themselves in a heap of trouble and only a team of mercenaries led by Rambo himself can save them.

I really enjoyed that they gave Rambo a very human element, instead of being just a killing machine; he’s a killing machine with a conscience.  He has to come face to face with the past he’s been trying to hide from, a past that only a montage of old Rambo clips can portray.  Ever wanted to know how Rambo, First Blood was supposed to end?  Watch the montage, you’ll see.  What I found the most fun about watching Rambo was the over the top military weaponry.  Not that they used tactical nukes or anything off the wall, it’s just that the actual strength of almost every weapon was upped 100 fold.  Now I’ve never held or shot a 50-calibur sniper rifle or truck mounted machine gun, but I’m pretty sure they aren’t capable of blowing people in half and putting 3 foot wide holes in the side of military boats.  None the less, it was really amusing to see these weapons vaporize people into clouds of blood.  The only believable weapon was the AK-47 which sadly only killed people; it didn’t knock them back 50 feet or make their head explode.

For those interested, the actual sniper rifle used in RAMBO is the Barrett M107CQ.

If you read my Cloverfield review, you’ll know that plot is one of the most important things in a movie to me.  As this movie revolves around the actual civil war in Burma between the military government and the Karen rebels I find it hard to say that the plot isn’t there.  In fact, other than having Rambo save the day, it’s completely within the realm of reality that a group of missionaries travel into a war-torn country and get captured.  So, that being said, I found that the plot was good enough to keep me interested in the movie.

The acting, was, well…let’s just say there wasn’t much of it.  Then again, there really wasn’t a need for it.  We have to remember the movie is supposed to be about big explosions and a rescue mission, both of which it delivered on.  It didn’t add a love story; it didn’t add a supreme purpose, or even a feel good moment.  It was about a group of people trying to help the oppressed and wind up getting screwed.  Plain and simple, the way it should be. Hell, even when the movie ends Burma is still at war, nothing changed, it’s raw, it’s gritty, and it’s real.

Now, one of my pet peeves in action movies is the recent over usage of shaky-cam.  The Bourne series abused the hell out of it, and although it is argued that Cloverfield needed it, it still bothered me.  Shaky-cam in Rambo was not only minimal; it was almost absent all together.  Wha!?  You mean we can shoot an action film where we have people actually doing stunts without shaky-cam?  Apparently the studio wasn’t afraid to shell out some money for stuntmen instead of opting for shaky-cam.  Good Call!

I found myself very happy at the end of the movie.  At 60 years old, Sly is in excellent shape and can still pull off a believable Rambo.  It’s nice to see that he’s bringing a close to his characters as this is the last installment of Rambo which as you’ll see “comes full circle”.  I will definitely be buying this movie when it hits the shelves and won’t hesitate in telling you to go see it!

I grade this movie a solid A.

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