Rambo Review
We still don’t have a TV so the $5 Saturday AM movies are pretty attractive for us. It’s a little weird to be heading to the movies at 10 in the morning but once you’re inside you can’t tell the difference and you sure don’t have to worry about a packed theater. So I was browsing the movie selection and saw “Rambo”. I figured they were replaying old movies but it turns out they made another Rambo movie (the first Rambo was called First Blood so I guess technically the name is still open). When I saw IMDB was giving it fairly good ratings, I figured we might as well go see Rambo. After all my talk about microformats, I thought I had better start using them more so this is in the hReview format (which actually shouldn’t make any difference to most readers).
As we were walking out of the theater, I asked Xiaofen how she liked the movie. She said “It was pretty fleshy”. After figuring out that she wasn’t saying flashy, I had to agree that that was actually a pretty good descriptor. Rambo went beyond bloody all the way to “fleshy” (but I’d have to say in an enertaining way).
Although the movie is pretty “fleshy”, excluding the bloody start you’re pretty much always rooting against the people getting bloodily killed. I think that kind of reduces the impact. That said the beginning was pretty hard to watch since it was just normal people. I suppose the movie was trying to get a message across though and it certainly does bring home just what news stories about genocide actually mean.
The special effects and stunts were very good. I’m not sure if it was the movie theater (you get what you paid for) or the movie’s style (perhaps in tribute to the older Rambos?) but the film seemed a little grainy and low contrast. That didn’t detract from the movie though. I can’t remember if there was a soundtrack or not so I guess that’s the best kind. The plot was pretty good (especially for a Rambo movie) and I have to say they managed to trick me near the end (avoiding spoilers).
The acting was decent although the girl seemed a little stiff at the start. I guess she didn’t have the most natural of lines though. Stallone did a pretty good job throughout I thought. I actually had to google Stallone to see how old he is. Turns out 61. I was guessing 50 at most. I hope I’m in that good a shape at 61 (or now). Although now that I think about it, I think he did manage to keep his shirt on for the entire movie (which I think gave him more chance for acting).
Rating: out of 5
Scott Sherrill-Mix, February 2nd, 2007