rambo

THE FLICK: One can’t help but wonder how different Sylvester Stallone’s career might have been without John Rambo. As the creative force behind Rocky, he entered Hollywood as a hyphenate writer-actor with grand ambitions and a punching bag full of potential. But three bad film choices later (FIST, Paradise Alley, Victory) he was riding on the coattails of the same character and wondering if lightning would ever strike twice. Go figure, it did. But there was a catch. First Blood and its sequels earned Stallone his next big franchise, but at the cost of his artistic freedom. He became an action-figure rather than an actor; a prisoner of a pop-culture he helped create. So after 20 years of passive-aggressive roles in bland shoot-em-ups (Cobra, Assassins) and ill-conceived comedies (Stop Or My Mom Will Shoot, Oscar) the actor finally saw fit to revisit both franchises and test the waters of cultural relevancy. Rocky Balboa is the easier sell. I mean, how many other fictitious characters have earned a statue of themselves? Rambo, on the other hand, doesn’t even like himself. Not to mention the controversy associated with the franchise’s gratuitous violence and its place in political history. For many, it’s a one note character that is played badly off-key. Yet, for the purposes of creative introspection, Rambo circa 2008 offers more closure for Stallone’s career than his heroic Philadelphia counterpart. Older, saggier and about 20-pounds overweight, John Rambo earns a living catching snakes for a tourist trap in Southeast Asia. As much as he needs the money, the old soldier initially refuses to ferry a group of unarmed and hopelessly naive bible thumpers up river in to Burma. Yet after he reconsiders and they go missing, Rambo takes it upon himself to join a band of mercenaries headed into the jungle to bring them back. Light on action and heavy on clichés, the first three-quarters of Rambo travels a well-marked trail with no surprises and nothing significant to add to the character. But you get the sense that Stallone is intentionally holding something back, and the final half-hour proves that to be correct. When Rambo II was released in 1985 many critics amused themselves - and terrified society - by trying to keep a body count of the film’s over-the-top carnage. It would take a think-tank of MIT’s best mathematicians to keep tally of the atrocities committed during Rambo’s latest excursion into the jungle. Bodies don’t just fall down dead; they explode like computer-generated balloons, spilling blood, guts and severed limbs at an impossible rate. After a while you go numb, drinking in the images like poor Alex from A Clockwork Orange while your brain tries to piece the bodies back together. It’s a reprehensibly brilliant finale, one that embraces both Rambo and Stallone’s place in history. As the character stands godlike atop a hill, looking out over the carnage in his wake, you don’t know whether to laugh or cry. It may not be art, but it is a portrait of both the creator and his creation that deserves some appreciation. THE FEATURES: First, big kudos to Lionsgate for doing hi-def right. Almost every single Blu-ray they’ve produced has looked consistently fabulous and Rambo is no exception. It stands as one of the finest looking titles I’ve seen yet. And the extra features are not only extensive but presented in full 1080 resolution as well. Stallone delivers an audio commentary that’s up to his usual high standards. However, the Enhanced Commentary delivers all that info plus seamlessly segues into picture-in-picture footage and ancillary featurettes about casting, stunts and so on. This is my favorite way to watch extras; no intimidating lists to point and click through, just a guided tour of the filmmaking process. However if you do like to point-and-click, there are a number of featurettes to explore: The Resurrection of an Icon, Music of Rambo, Completing Rambo, Release and Reaction, and Struggle in Burma. Most are of these are self-explanatory, and all of them are worthwhile. Nearly 15 minutes of Deleted Scenes are included as well along with a MoLog feature that apparently allows Profile 2.0 players to chat about the film and utilize cut and paste artwork (honestly, it took a while for this feature to download on my PS3 and seemed a bit complicated).