Rambo (2008)

"Live for nothing or Die for something."

"Rambo" is the fourth film in the franchise about Vietnam vet John J. Rambo. By now we have covered the first three films so if you haven't read our reviews, you should so you can catch up on what's lead Rambo up to this point. This time, we find our hero living in Thailand where he operates a boat and catches snakes for some sort of show being put on along the river. He is visited by a group of missionaries looking to be taken up river to Burma, which Rambo describes as a 'war zone', so they can provide aid for the villagers that are being tortured and killed there. Rambo refuses at first but after the girl in the group, Sarah (Dexter's Julie Benz), returns later that night she is able to convince Rambo to take them. Sometime after that a pastor from the church in Colorado where the missionaries were from seeks out Rambo in Thailand telling him that the group never returned, asking if Rambo will take a group of mercenaries up river to the spot where he dropped of the first group so that they may look for the lost missionaries.

I was never initially into the whole Rambo franchise so I didn't see this movie when it came out in 2008. It was because of this I was asked to review it and fortunately this blog has provided me with motivation to view films I probably never would've seen otherwise. "Rambo" doesn't try to be anything extraordinary. It knows what it is and never really attempts to be too philosophical or intelligent for its own good. It got right to the action and wrapped things up nicely in just under an hour and a half - a rarity in film these days. It was EXTREMELY violent which I saw as a way to not beautify war like some other action films do, including the earlier films of the Rambo series. The dialog and acting was the best of all four films and the jungle locales looked better and more believable than they did in "Rambo: First Blood Pt. 2". After viewing the other films recently, it was nice to see what I felt was a great end to a unique franchise in cinema history. 4/5 -andy