Rambo literally has no purpose anymore, because America is not at war anywhere. Fortunately, his reckless, impulsive, childlike teenage step daughter suddenly develops a craving to see Mexico . . . and her long lost father. Because everyone in Mexico is evil, she is immediately kidnapped and forced to become a sex slave, along with dozens of other zombie like females.
Rambo is at his best in the melancholy first act, where he keeps mumbling mush-mouthed sentences about how life has become purposeless. "Now are our bruised arms hung up for monuments," he mumbles at one point, indicating a huge knife displayed on the wall of his man cave. "Now are our stern alarums turned to merry meetings," he adds, when his daughter throws a party. The echoes of Shakespeare are obvious, and Stallone's distinctive diction renders each phrase more memorable than ever before. "Grim visaged war, has, uh, smoothed his wrinkled front. And now, uh! Instead of mounting barbed steeds, to uh, uh, uh, fright the souls of fearful adversaries, he capers nimbly in a lady's chamber, to the lascivious pleasing of a lute." I just wanted to see Rambo capering nimbly in the Mexican lady's chamber, to the lascivious pleasing of a lute!
Now I won't give away the plot, but why couldn't Rambo's step daughter have been a long lost Aztec princess? And why couldn't the men chasing her have been part of an ancient warrior cult hoping to revive the Aztec empire? That would have made the whole story more believable and dramatic.
Rambo is at his best in the melancholy first act, where he keeps mumbling mush-mouthed sentences about how life has become purposeless. "Now are our bruised arms hung up for monuments," he mumbles at one point, indicating a huge knife displayed on the wall of his man cave. "Now are our stern alarums turned to merry meetings," he adds, when his daughter throws a party. The echoes of Shakespeare are obvious, and Stallone's distinctive diction renders each phrase more memorable than ever before. "Grim visaged war, has, uh, smoothed his wrinkled front. And now, uh! Instead of mounting barbed steeds, to uh, uh, uh, fright the souls of fearful adversaries, he capers nimbly in a lady's chamber, to the lascivious pleasing of a lute." I just wanted to see Rambo capering nimbly in the Mexican lady's chamber, to the lascivious pleasing of a lute!
Now I won't give away the plot, but why couldn't Rambo's step daughter have been a long lost Aztec princess? And why couldn't the men chasing her have been part of an ancient warrior cult hoping to revive the Aztec empire? That would have made the whole story more believable and dramatic.