Re: *** Official RAMBO Discussion Thread
I never did get to theater to see the film. I finally rented it on Blu-ray.
Not as bad as I thought it would be. Better than the second and third ones, but still not as good as the first.
Except for a couple of scenes, I felt curiously detached from the slaughter of most of the soldiers in this film. I know the film was trying to manipulate a person into hating these guys, but sometimes I couldn't help but think a lot of these guys were press-ganged into military service. They also suffered plenty of abuse within the army, as the film clearly shows.
One scene, where I did want to see them slaughtered was where the soldiers sow landmines into a rice paddy, force prisoners to run through the paddy, and then bet on the results. The mercs are hiding and watching. At that point, I was thinking, "Fuck, waste them already". All I could think was good riddance when Rambo finally shows up to bow and arrow the bastards.
After watching the sniper clip that was posted in here, I have to say that the effect of the sniper shots in this film were actually understated. They are still very graphic, but I can't say that it was excessive after watching that clip where people literally explode when hit by one of these rounds.
I was a bit stunned when Stallone, in the extras, stated that he toned down the violence because the real thing was even worse. I was left thinking how much more brutal could it be? The level of brutality we, as humans, can achieve is crazy, if what was depicted isn't half as bad as it could be.
All in all the film was not bad. There was definitely no time wasted with long scenes of expository dialogue. This film was pretty tightly written. I have to give them credit. Everything they wanted to get across was shown, not blown. The film was 90 minutes, but it felt like only 45 passed. I might actually add this one to my collection to go along with FIRST BLOOD.