Amazon.com video review:
Six hours of monosyllabic John Rambo high jinks, best savored
in surround sound (for the bone-rattling explosions) and with your
brain on pause (for everything else). Sylvester Stallone's second
signature character, after Rocky, a seething ex-Green Beret killing
machine, went from Viet-vet victim in the original picture,
First Blood,
flipping out over the ingratitude of his beloved homeland, to a
muscle-bound terminator in
Rambo III, mowing
down Commies in the deserts of Afghanistan. You should consider
bypassing the box set in favor of just the middle chapter,
Rambo: First Blood Part 2, written by James Cameron and directed by George Pan
Cosmotos. It's the most balanced and satisfying of the three films:
Rambo is dropped back into 'Nam to rescue some POWs, and the action
builds steadily in scale and ferocity. Each fireball seems to be
bigger than the last. Of all the recent headbanger action movies, only
the first Die
Hard offers more bang for the buck. The underrated character
actor Richard Crenna (a standout sleazebag in
Body Heat), as
Rambo's military mentor and staunch defender, is the series' secret
weapon, providing some welcome human ballast. --David Chute
Amazon.com video review:
Six hours of monosyllabic John Rambo high jinks, best savored
in surround sound (for the bone-rattling explosions) and with your
brain on pause (for everything else). Sylvester Stallone's second
signature character, after Rocky, a seething ex-Green Beret killing
machine, went from Vietnam-vet victim in the original picture,
First Blood,
flipping out over the ingratitude of his beloved homeland, to a
muscle-bound terminator in
Rambo III, mowing
down commies in the deserts of Afghanistan. You should consider
bypassing the box set in favor of just the middle chapter,
Rambo: First Blood Part 2, written by James
Cameron and directed by George Pan
Cosmotos. It's the most balanced and satisfying of the three films:
Rambo is dropped back into Nam to rescue some POWs, and the action
builds steadily in scale and ferocity. Each fireball seems to be
bigger than the last. Of all the recent headbanger action movies, only
the first Die
Hard offers more bang for the buck. The underrated character
actor Richard Crenna (a standout sleazebag in
Body Heat), as
Rambo's military mentor and staunch defender, is the series' secret
weapon, providing some welcome human ballast. --David Chute
Amazon.com video review:
It's easy to forget that this Spartan, violent film, which
begat the Rambo series, was such a big hit in 1982 because it was a
good movie. Green Beret vet John Rambo (Sylvester Stallone) wanders
into the wrong small town to find a fellow 'Nam buddy and gets the
living heck kicked out of him by the local law enforcement (led by
Brian Dennehy). The vet strikes back the only way he knows how,
leading to a visceral, if unrealistic, flight and fight through the
local mountains. Based on the 1972 novel by David Morrell, this film
saved Stallone's then-foundering career and the Rambo character became
the inspiration for countless political cartoons. But this film is Deliverance
without the moral ambiguity. --Keith Simanton
Amazon.com video review:
Six hours of monosyllabic John Rambo high jinks, best savored
in surround sound (for the bone-rattling explosions) and with your
brain on pause (for everything else). Sylvester Stallone's second
signature character, after Rocky, a seething ex-Green Beret killing
machine, went from Viet-vet victim in the original picture,
First Blood,
flipping out over the ingratitude of his beloved homeland, to a
muscle-bound terminator in
Rambo III, mowing
down Commies in the deserts of Afghanistan. You should consider
bypassing the box set in favor of just the middle chapter,
Rambo: First Blood Part
2, written by James Cameron and directed by George Pan
Cosmotos. It's the most balanced and satisfying of the three films:
Rambo is dropped back into 'Nam to rescue some POWs, and the action
builds steadily in scale and ferocity. Each fireball seems to be
bigger than the last. Of all the recent headbanger action movies, only
the first Die
Hard offers more bang for the buck. The underrated character
actor Richard Crenna (a standout sleazebag in
Body Heat), as
Rambo's military mentor and staunch defender, is the series' secret
weapon, providing some welcome human ballast. --David Chute
