Weekend Movie Night: Rambo: First Blood Part II.

Via IMDb

Welcome again to my occasional movie review series, Weekend Movie Night. I tend to review films that I see for the first time that somehow relate to this blog and I guess this qualifies. Barely. I finally saw Rambo: First Blood Part II. Yep, it took me long enough. I had watched the original Rambo aka First Blood and had really enjoyed it. It was a tense thriller and not an over the top action story. Sure it was still a bit over the top, but it was at least believable. And a fairly good story as well. So how does part two stack up?

Let me be frank. I think I have been spoiled by modern action movies. This movie was almost laughable when you compare it to modern films. The gratuitous hip-firing, bottomless magazines, the fireball explosions, the complete and utter lack of trigger discipline, it all screams 1980's action movie. I'm so used to not seeing those things in a movie when I see it, it's impossible to take the film seriously. This felt like a parody of cheesy action flicks and felt more like a live action cartoon then a serious film. Comparing this to the last movie I reviewed for this blog, Lone Survivor, is like comparing the original Battlestar Galactica to the reboot. The world has changed so much since it was made that it's just not possible to not laugh a bit.

Having said all that the film isn't completely without merit. The story was at least serviceable, even though historically it was extremely unlikely that the central plot could have happened. By 1985, if there were any POW's left in Vietnam, they were there by choice. But again, for an excuse plot for a cheesy 80's action movie it was adequate. Some of the action scenes, though completely over the top, are genuinely fun to watch, and not even on an ironic level. I'm such a sucker for aviation combat that I'll forgive the fact that the helicopters involved in the climax were obvious knock-offs. Obviously, due to the cold war, they didn't happen to have Russian helicopters sitting around and to be completely honest they did a great job with their mockups. Even though there was very little tension in the film because you knew Rambo was going to win, it was at least fun.

So would I recommend it? Depends how willing you are to shut your brain off. There are better Vietnam movies, better cheesy action movies and at least two better Rambo films. First Blood was actually a completely watchable movie and the 4th film, Rambo (getting confused yet?) was at least bloody fun. To be fair to the 4th film I only caught the end of it, but it was still fun. Better then this movie at least. I can't say i recommend it as a good film, but I just might recommend it for ironic viewing or if you really like big dumb action flicks and want to see the mother of them all. Otherwise stay away. 

One final complaint for the DVD version (yes I still watch movies on DVD's) that nobody else will probably care about besides me. It did not have closed captioning! I live in an apartment and watch movies late at night so I have to keep my tv moderately quiet, so I usually always have CC on. But even if I could have cranked it, I still would have had trouble understanding ol' mush mouth Stalone. The female lead was somewhat heavily accented as well, so it did hurt my enjoyment of the film.