Rambo (2008)

Rambo. Film review. After a considerable recent success reinvigorating a twenty-year odds of a film icon character, Rocky Balboa (My take on the film), Mr.Stallone was once again reinvigorated a twenty-year odds of a film icon character. This time, it’s an US-Vietnam war Veteran - I can’t vouch in any way or another about the faction of which Army John Rambo is. A NAVY? A SEAL? I couldn’t care less -, John Rambo. He has living in Thailand for some years, and when a group of missionary volunteers tried to bring books and supplies up north to Burma, against all warning from our old man, they goy caught in civil-war. And of course, who does the authorities came out for help? Mercenary soldiers. John Rambo is of course tagging along with the rescue team. Otherwise, this film won’t be titled John Rambo. In a nutshell, that was what the film is all about. You know exactly how it ends.

Anyone my age or older and never knew Rambo must’ve been had a very dull childhood. I mean, I used to live in a remote city a little bit far-out off of what you’ve called a modern civilization, and I still knew him. I still remembered his dealings with leeches during his capture in Vietnam, his custom explosive arrow-heads, his red bandanna, and most of all, perhaps, his signature knife. For a time, i named that knife, a huge knife with a jagged edge a "Rambo knife". It was seem appropriate at the time. However, in this film, his weapons of choice consists of a home-made blade, a bow and arrow. A normal ones this time, and a Howitzer. And if you want to know what does a Howitzer is capable of to a human body when fired at a point-blank range, there's a pretty nasty scene that shows just that. If you can't stomach such atrocities (which i must tell you that the film doesn't shy away from such atrocities. Mr.Stallone had aimed for an 'R' rating, and he wishes to exploit this), any acts that involved a head blew-off, a man stepped on a land-mine, a limb severed, a head mutilated, a mass-rape, a village genocide, lots and lots of blood and flesh, then you might want to stay clear of this film. And did i mention a head blew-off? There's plenty in this film. And by i mean with plenty is real plenty.

I had pretty much figured out whnece the film is going to take its direction and rightly expected it to. Unlike Rocky Balboa where he was forever an underdog taking an unlikely odds to win a boxing match, where his trainings, his reasons to stay in the game is an appaling case for a film, John Rambo was forever would be known as a guy who would be believed of taking down a single army with one arm tied in his back. Before breakfast. Just put him somewhere where there's a rather make sense reason for him to be allowed to kill (in this case, civil war in Burma) and with a purpose no matter how most unlikely it would seems (in this case, a charming woman who gave him a liontin and when she's gone missing he had no inner-struggle whatsoever to put his killer instincts once again into a play, regardless that for a quite some time, prior he meets this charming woman, he has been playing it down by chosing NOT to involve, directly or indirectly with Burma), and there you goes, a film that is so brutal, and so freakingly violent. But, of course, we - at least I - don't really want John to get all melancholy, are we? We know him, and expecting him turning from a killing machine into something more... humane would be pointless and wrong.

I just love that Mr.Stallone didn't opt for Iraq. We had too much of that already.

The first part of the film was awesome. The second part, the one where John Rambo begins his killing frenzy, well, it's just a feast to the eye - of course, if what you meant by feast to the eye, is akin to an achievement in visual effect resembling humans killed and shredded in various manners - and a routine. But the first part was what really delivering the punch in me.

Some months ago, there's a brief news about the biggest demonstration in Burma by civilians and monks protesting the military regime. A Japanese reporter was killed. Burma was at a time, completely shut-off from the outside world. Various Burmese Internet bloggers went underground, and hunted. One conspiracy theory i read about Burma at the time is that the People's Republic of China was behind this oppression that crushed the demonstration. I've heard no further update afterwards (i'd probably going to check about Burma after office-hour) but i read a lot, and browsing for videos and images that has been leaked to the Internet. In an interview, Mr.Stallone himself said that he was in Burma at the time and it was pretty life-threatening experience. The film opens with video footages which probably were added at the last minute of editing. I recognized the footages immediately, as these footages where ones i'd seen months before in the Internet. A dead monk in a river. Some various violences conducted by the military. I mouthed 'fuck' and from there on the film had felt more real than it should be. Even when the fiction part begins, the film manages to convince me that what had really happened in Burma was at least as bad as what Mr.Stallone had shown to us. And i believed that it could be much worse than that even though i'm personally unable (or i simply don't want) to strech my imagination further than what Mr.Stallone had shown to us.

The second part of the film, was routine. A standard procedure for a feel-good film. Mr.Stallone provides us with a genuine single evil. One that we'd LOVE to see killed. And rightly so, when this certain evil dies (tsk. As if you don't know that he's going to die eventually. It's easy to guess who is going to live and who is going to die by the end of the film. It's not a rocket science) i heard a cry from behind my back. "Mampus!", she said. Which translates to roughly, "Die! You ". It amuses me. As if the audiences themselves were approved of taking a man's life. I was guilty as well. If anything, it shows that Mr.Stallone had a pretty much solid understanding about how to reinvigorate John Rambo. And if i hadn't known any better, he had succeeded. Not the best in the series, but far better than the worst (my personal opinion, the worst of the series was the third, and the best of the series will still be the first installment). Further, this film is most likely the goriest, bloodiest, and most violent film ever graced our local cinema screen.