Rambo
DIR: Sylvester Stallone • WRI: Art Monterastelli, Sylvester Stallone • PROD: Kevin King, Avi Lerner, Sylvester Stallone, Kevin King Templeton, John Thompson • DOP: Glen MacPherson • ED: Sean Albertson • DES: Franco-Giacomo Carbone • CAST: Sylvester Stallone, Julie Benz, Matthew Marsden, Graham McTavish, Paul Schulze

When effectively rebooting the Bond series with Pierce Brosnan’s debut as the spy in GoldenEye the tagline used as part of the marketing for the film was ‘You Know the Name, You Know the Number’. A well-established character, brand or icon is afforded this luxury of familiarity as well as the fact that loyal audiences are often happy with being presented with more of the same; Rambo similarly plays on our knowledge of the man’s capabilities and his history as a soldier of war. This fourth installment sees the Vietnam veteran reluctantly unnestled from his peaceful existence in Thailand, to aid and assist the plight of missionaries held captive in neighbouring Burma. You might feel a review should give some more time to the premise or story. However, while we are treated to a prologue giving us some insight into the Burmese civil war, the filmmaking on show is one of a very simple construct – the setting is war-torn and surrounded by jungle, the villains are bad simply for the sake of being bad and a substantial artillery of weapons is readily available. After a fifteen-year gap, Sylvester Stallone’s return to one of his two career defining roles is titled simply Rambo and, as with Bond, no further expansion is required.

For purists the inevitable issue is what value, beyond monetary, lies in revisiting the character. Through a dream, the audience is reminded of the ghosts of Rambo’s past and similarly we are reminded of the depth of First Blood. Automatically you find yourself rooting for his guerilla tactics and riled for the first appearance of his mud smeared face. The niggling suspicion emerges though that we are being cheated of the same physicality we know of First Blood and its lesser sequels. We are reminded of the inevitability of Rambo’s call to action and his killer instincts, however the promise of these instincts and survival tactics soon fizzle. While you may forgive the movie for not attempting to match modern action stakes, to veer wide of the mark set by its own predecessor twenty years ago and deliver farcical action comprised of human torsos somehow exploding from within, seemingly made entirely of raspberry jam, is bordering on criminal. In place of any innovative stunts or set pieces the emphasis seems to be on lightweight gore and a multiplying body count more familiar to straight-to-DVD bargain bins.

Despite banking on nostalgic reverence for the earlier movies what also becomes apparent is that Rambo himself is front and centre for very little of the film. He almost becomes a supporting character to the story of the missionaries held hostage. Barely uttering a word throughout, the intention may be to portray a withdrawn, hermit-like man nursing old wounds. However, Stallone’s expressionless delivery reduces this to low-impact filler while we wait for blood to be spilled. Once the carnage ensues, the character is relegated to being the gruff, solemn member of a group of mercenaries. Populating a one-man show with two separate groups of characters within a film only ninety minutes long and keeping the hero off-screen gives the sense some lazy tactics have been employed to distract us from Stallone’s approaching OAP status. Our man of action in no way carries the film and is surrounded by characters, not one of whom is worth singling out for any level of interest.

Your enjoyment of this movie will be entirely dependant on your willingness to leave demands for serious art at the door and take nothing seriously. In fact, there will be no requirement of any form of mental faculty. This is hampered by the brief attention given to human suffering in Burma, particularly those mutilated by landmines in some early scenes, which comes off as being in poor taste with what follows. The film seems to embrace the inevitability of diminishing returns, asking us to accept nothing more than a guns-blazing approach and a film style no different to that of the movies made twenty years ago. Viewed through this lens, the film succeeds at underachieving, yet come the final show-down, you realise the distance the man has kept from the heart of the action. In the end, this trace of cynicism taints our guilt-free enjoyment of the movie.

William O'Keeffe
(Read biog here)

Rated 18 (see IFCO website for details)
Rambo is released on 22nd February 2008
Rambo – Official website