"Rambo" movie review

Sylvester Stallone's latest cinematic resurrection is Rambo ( R). In this fourth installment of the Rambo series, John Rambo leads a group of mercenaries into Burma to rescue a group of American missionaries who had been kidnapped by the Burmese army.

Andy: Rambo undoubtedly got the green light because of the surprising success of Sylvester Stallone's 2006 film Rocky Balboa. In that film, Stallone was able to put a nice coda on his most famous film and character. That movie seemed real without being campy and self-referential. With Rambo, I was expecting Stallone to play up the campiness of his second most famous character, and the trailer for the film made it seem like that was the direction it was going. Unfortunately, Stallone is taking everything a little too seriously in Rambo, and the movie falls flat on its face.

Ryan: I'll have to give Stallone a lot of credit. A few years ago he crafted a very enjoyable Rocky movie --when most people thought he was crazy for doing so. Here again, Stallone is attempting to revitalize another cinematic icon. Much like with what he did with Rocky, Stallone's latest Rambo movie is a thrilling success. The movie is exactly what one would expect a Rambo movie to be. It's light on story, dialog and character-development but heavy on action, violence and more action and violence.

Andy: Rambo does have its moments where it is somewhat entertaining, but even those end up feeling problematic. Many of the action sequences are full of over-the-top ultra-violence that moviegoers have come to expect from the Rambo franchise. Whether that's a good thing or a bad thing is left for the individual audience member to decide. For me, this type of violence works one of two ways. Either it is done in jest, almost as a parody of violence (Kill Bill), or it is done in earnest to illustrate some type of horror (Saving Private Ryan). Rambo falls somewhere in the middle, and that makes the violence mostly awkward and sometimes offensive.

Ryan: I will agree with Andy that Rambo is one of the most gruesomely violent movies that I've ever seen. This movie is not for everybody. But with that said, I think most moviegoers who want to watch this movie know what they are getting into so the level of violence should not be a surprise. If anything it was a change of pace to watch a straight-ahead, in-your-face, R-rated action movie. So many action flicks anymore are either overly stylized or drastically sanitized. Rambo is neither of those notions. It's ironic to think of a Rambo movie as being refreshing to the action picture genre.

Andy: This movie is at its best when there is no dialogue. Stallone must have realized this weakness in his script because he gives his title character very few lines. He mostly mugs at the camera and doesn't talk. This is a good plan, because when the characters were talking, it was frequently inadvertently funny. The most guilty party was female lead Julie Benz, who may have an early edge for Razzie nomination for worst performance by a female in a leading role.

Rambo might work for some moviegoers but it didn't work for me. Final grade: D+.

Ryan: There's no denying that Rambo was a high-octane theatre experience. At the same time the critic in me feels like I should point out that the movie is absurdly ridiculous when one stops and thinks about it. Most of the time, that revelation hinders how much I like or respect a movie. I'm not trying to give Rambo a free pass. For whatever reason, I'm willing to overlook the obvious flaws of the film and accept the movie for what it is—a mindless action spectacle. Final grade: B.