Tuesday, July 27, 2010

Rambo: First Blood Part II (1985)

"Murdock, I'm coming to get you!"

So I gave Andy the go ahead to do a review on "Rambo:First Blood pt.2" but after recently watching "First Blood" I couldn't resist giving my opinion after watching pt.2 for the first time in over 15 years. Picking up a few years after the first we find Rambo in a prison workcamp serving his term. He is approached by Colonel Troutman (Richard Crenna reprising his role), who gives Rambo an offer to good too be true. Go back to Vietnam, locate and retrieve POW's, and you'll have a full presidential pardon waiting for you when you get home. Wanting redemption for the captured fellow soldiers and peace of mind Rambo agrees and is flown to Vietnam. There he meets Murdock (Charles Napier) he tells Rambo he will go into a possible POW camp and take pictures... nothing more. DO NOT ENGAGE THE ENEMY he says. Once there he finds multiple POW's and reports his findings back to base, where the mission is aborted by Murdock, leaving Rambo at the hands of not only the Vietnamese but their Russian allies. Its an all out war from then on. This is THE 80'S ACTION MOVIE OF THE DECADE. Hands down. I know I said that "First Blood" was my favorite of the four, but comparing "First Blood" to "Rambo: First Blood pt.2" is like comparing "Alien" to "Aliens". Both great movies, with pretty much the same core character, just with a little more fuel on the fire. Rambo is the American Solider, fighting because he loves his country, loves his fellow solider, and will do anything to protect them. Deep down this film is an American tribute to those fallen and forgotten. Gives me hope that there is a John Rambo out there somewhere helping his fellow solider out. I love this movie, even more so after waiting so many years to see it again. Surprisingly in watching the opening credits I saw that James Cameron (Terminator1+2, The Abyss, Aliens, Titanic, and most recently Avatar), who you all have to know by now, wrote the screenplay with Stallone. Guerrilla warfare at its finest, "Rambo: First Blood pt.2" is a treat for all action movie lovers. 4/5 -tom

SECOND OPINION

So, since Tom swindled me out of this review after I sat through the whole thing tonight...(insert evil look here)...I see no reason to bore you all with another full review. Instead, I'm just gonna leave a few thoughts. Tom, you did a great job describing the plot, however, I didn't think quite as highly about it as you did. It is definitely the epitome of 80s Action. Like a lot of 80s Action films it has an exotic locale, a significant military presence, lots of guns and some real corny moments. The scene where Rambo's 'me love you long time' girlfriend gets shot in the jungle was probably real emotional 25 years ago, today though it seemed a little over the top. Don't get the wrong impression though, I did really REALLY have fun with this movie. It was a great sequel and the movie was a ton of fun, its just that watching John Rambo attempt to emote struck me as sort of funny. 3/5 -andy

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