On the Rambos I have known, following a full watch of the series: First Blood - The only film to actually approach things from a real character perspective, and the only one that rises about dumb fun action movie. It's got an actual story to tell about America, PTSD, and abuses of power, and it does a pretty good job of it. Rambo, the Sheriff, and the Colonel all have some depth and nuance to them, even the secondary characters feel like human beings, and the violence is interesting without being absurd. The last speech is really well acted, and emotionally effecting, which is not what you expect given the series' reputation.
5 Bronze Stars/5
First Blood pt. 2 - The most quintessential of the Rambo films, and the silliest. Rambo is sent into Vietnam in 1985 by a team that's part CIA (smugly evil), part Army staff (apparently there for enthusiastic scenery), and part mercs (swaggeringly amoral), but he's meant to fail and is left behind as soon as he actually locates POWs. Why go through all that trouble? Why not just send someone in on the scam, or fake the whole thing? Why are Soviet special forces in Vietnam in 1985 torturing American POWs? How did Rambo go from barely getting the better of some rural deputies and weekend warriors to slaughtering whole units of Vietnamese soldiers and Soviet Paratroopers? The villains, foreign and domestic, are sneering and paper thin, and the violence is all big and blustery. There's some fun, but it's a very hammy movie, and pretty dumb overall.
2 Bronze Stars/5
Rambo 3 - Yes, the first thing that stands out is the movies' propagandist and regrettable-in-hindsight look at the Afghan people, but it's still an entertaining movie! But boy howdy did they worship the Mujaheddin. The back half of the film is the most Metal Gear Solid sequence (especially 3 and 5) you'll likely see in a movie, with genuinely tense infiltration scenes into a Russian military base built into an old Afghan fortress. By the end of it, Rambo's plot armor is fairly absurd, but the film at least respects the audience enough to not have him take down entire battalions by himself like he does in 2. It's also nice to have the emotional through line not just focus on how sad Rambo is again, and instead look at the war's victims.
3 Bronze Stars/5
Rambo - This is my third time seeing this movie, and I was still unprepared for the level of the violence. One of the most gory, messy, angry films I've ever scene, filmed in muddy washed out digital. I'm talking children shot and bayoneted, close-ups of battlefield surgery, bodies turned into salsa, limbs blown off, guttings, throat rips, just a relentless parade of detailed ways to die. The plot retreads bits of the older films, with suicidal missionaries recruiting a reluctant mumbling juiced up weightlifter, then being surprised at the violence they find when sneaking into an active war zone to distribute bibles. The characters are either weeping miserable civilian cannon fodder, blustering mercenaries cannon fodder, and death squad soldiers, and none of them have anything resembling and arc. The way it wraps up Rambo's story also seems to be totally alienated from the rest of the film. It's a violent ugly film, but I have a perverse respect for how far it's willing to go with it, and how creative they are with the carnage.
2.5 Bronze Stars/5
I'd rank them 1, 4, 2, 3. First Blood as #1 is undeniable. I think 4 works as an sleazy ultraviolet almost grindhouse-y movie, and is pretty entertaining. 2 is okay as setting up the popular image of what Rambo is and being an okay if pretty stupid 80's action movie (admittedly, 80s kid nostalgia is most likely at work here). 3 I just remember as being kinda dull, even putting aside the uncomfortable Mujaheddin stuff.
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Shortytouching the meatIntergalactic Cool CourtRegistered Userregular
first blood is one of the only movies about soldiers I can recommend
Nothing beats watching someone watch First Blood for the first time. That final scene hits you like a truck if the only thing you know of Rambo is all the sequels.
Nothing beats watching someone watch First Blood for the first time. That final scene hits you like a truck if the only thing you know of Rambo is all the sequels.
I think Friday the 13th works in this vein too. Hell even the second one.
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TexiKenDammit!That fish really got me!Registered Userregular
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I'd rank them 1, 4, 2, 3. First Blood as #1 is undeniable. I think 4 works as an sleazy ultraviolet almost grindhouse-y movie, and is pretty entertaining. 2 is okay as setting up the popular image of what Rambo is and being an okay if pretty stupid 80's action movie (admittedly, 80s kid nostalgia is most likely at work here). 3 I just remember as being kinda dull, even putting aside the uncomfortable Mujaheddin stuff.
I think Friday the 13th works in this vein too. Hell even the second one.