With 'Rocky Balboa' and now 'Rambo' it is painfully obvious that Sylvester Stallone does not want to grow old gracefully.  The only good thing that I can say about 'Rambo' is that it delivers exactly what you expect... a plot-thin, no need to bring your brain, action movie.

Let's start with the first thing that bugged me watching this movie, its cinematography.  For some yet-to-be-fathomed reason they chose to film the whole movie with this blue-grey, grainy tint.  They shoot the film in these vast rain forests and beautiful scenery, but you'd never know watching the finished product because all the colors seem muted.  Maybe they did it on purpose to represent what the world looks like through Stallone's old, tired eyes.

The plot revolves around a decades long civil war raging in Burma.  'Rambo,' living in neighboring Thailand capturing snakes for money, agrees to send some church-going, I can save the world with prayer missionaries up the river into Burma.  Guess what?  They get captured soon after leaving 'Rambo.'  The next part of the plot is paper thin.  The pastor of the church shows up in Thailand and get 'Rambo' to go back into Burma with a band of mercenaries to try and get his congregation back.  What I'd like to know is where he got the money to hire a half dozen mercs.  As you can guess, the rest of the movie is all out action freeing and escaping with the remaining missionaries.  At least in this movie it's not Rambo against everyone.  The mercs actually do something.

One plot side-note that I was really confused as to why it was in the movie involves the General of the 'bad' Burmese army.  In one scene you see a young boy going into his cabin at night and not coming out until the next movie.  Was it not enough to show that he was an evil man when they show him slaughtering innocent, unarmed villagers?  No, they had to tack on gay pedophile to boot.  What was Stallone thinking?

While the action sequences were OK.  The special effects they tried to pull off by showing arms being blown off and intestines falling out of people were really, really bad.  The CGI was just awful.  Then again, maybe that's a good thing not to show those kinds of things too realistically??

I know I usually comment on how the acting is in a movie, but for 'Rambo?'  What's the point?  Why would I talk about something that doesn't exist in this movie.

I admit that I liked First Blood and Rambo II wasn't too bad, but Rambo III and this one were just awful to watch.  If you need to give your brain a break from thinking, then this movie is for you.  Otherwise... save your money and time.

 

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