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| Director: Sylvester Stallone
Actors: Sylvester Stallone, Julie Benz, Matthew Marsden, Graham Mctavish, Reynaldo Gallegos
Studio: Lionsgate
This item is no longer available
Rating:  227 reviews
Sales Rank: 4597
Genre: Action
Rating: R (Restricted)
Media: Video On Demand
Running Time: 92 Minutes
ASIN: B001BNZRUS
Theatrical Release Date: January 25, 2008
Release Date: October 27, 2008 (New: Last 30 Days)
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| Customer Reviews:
Showing reviews 6-10 of 227
 One of the greatest action movies of all time March 30, 2008
Jason Elin (Backwater, Alabama)
12 out of 13 found this review helpful
Ignore the fact that this is a Rambo movie and some have the audacity to say that Stallone is past his prime. This Rambo movie is not only the best in the Rambo series, but it's also one of the best action movies of all time.
Did you think that Commando had a lot of killing? BAH!
Did you think that Saving Private Ryan had the most gruesome injuries? Hardly.
This movie is saturated with arms being cut off, legs exploding into bloody stumps, heads popping like over-inflated balloons, and enough gun-play to satisfy even the most hardcore, extremist gun-enthusiast. If it isn't an arrow evenly dividing a man's skull, or someone's intestines being spilled on the ground, then it's an extreme amount of people being sawed in half by high calibre machine gun fire. There's even a crazy-intense seen in which Rambo basically pulls off the throat removal move from Roadhouse, only with a little slower satisfaction to it. About the only thing lacking is a Colombian necktie.
The story itself plays second-fiddle to the incredible amount of action. A church-group from Colorado is doing peacework in Burma, bringing medicine and religion to people oppressed by a militaristic regime intent on genocide. To make their way into hostile territory, the church-goers ask for Rambo's services as a river guide. At first he is hesitant, but the kind-hearted but deadly Rambo eventually consents.
Sure enough, after Rambo drops them off for their jungle-trek to the villagers, the church-group gets caught in the middle of chaos, as the evil military members are senselessly slaughtering every villager in sight. Once they are captured, it's up to Rambo to save the day.
The rest of the movie is a whirlwind of action, as Rambo leads in a hardened group of mercenaries for an extraction mission. They plan on sneaking into the compound, killing anything and anyone that gets in their way, and saving the prisoners. What transpires is carnage the likes of which I have never seen before.
This version of Rambo is an incredible movie if you're looking for pure action and entertainment from beginning to end. I haven't been more entertained by a movie in a very long time.
The return of Rambo June 9, 2008
Steven Hedge (Somewhere "East of Eden")
10 out of 12 found this review helpful
There isn't a lot of dialogue or even plot to this action film, but that doesn't mean it has no message.
Stallone, still impressive at 60, brings back another beloved icon of film, John Rambo. The plot is deceptively simple in that a small band of religious good deed doers want to sneak into a Burmese village to give some much needed aid and go to the one nut case most likely willing to take them up the dangerous river, Rambo. While he thinks they are foolish wishful thinkers, he does take them up and does so without payment of any kind making one think that deep down, Rambo would love to seem the succeed somehow after all the violence he has seen. He even says, in a rare moment when he does speak, that they, these religious warriors, have good lives that they should be grateful for instead of coming here in a vain attempt to change things.
Unfortunately, Rambo turns out to be all too right in that their attempts end up getting an entire village wiped out and themselves held captive. Rambo is then hired by a small commando group of mercenaries to retrieve the kidnapped church team and, naturally, all hell breaks lose.
The violence, contrary to some critics, is NOT the type we've seen before. The battle sequences are disturbing realistic and capture the brutality of war, especially a civil one, in all its intensity. We see people literally blown apart by mines, 50 caliber machine guns, and bombs. We see children crushed under boot in front of parents and parents hacked to death in front of their children. We witnessed rapes interspersed with these other violent images. It's horrific to say the least. My heart sank as I watched this realizing it was probably all too realistic.
For me the main theme of this Rambo film is a constant theme in our world today, "Man's inhumanity to man." Is there anything in the natural world that even comes close to what we humans do to each other over land, race, religion, ethnicity, or social class? I think this is what this Rambo film is all about.
I know that Stallone is criticized for what some call a vain attempt to relive his youth, to bring back a franchise, and just plain old make money, and the fact remains that all this may very well be true, but these "facts" don't change the fact that this is a powerful film that is well-crafted. Stallone has always been an excellent actor, screenwriter and director, and just as he pulled off a terrific end to his Rocky character recently, this is an appropriate end to his other much loved character, Rambo.
I consider this film a must-see. Either rent it or own it.
 If Rocky can end the Cold War, why can't Rambo stop genocide? January 27, 2008
Jose Jones
9 out of 16 found this review helpful
I'll admit I wasn't expecting a lot from "Rambo" going in. I used to eat up action films like candy when I was younger and I still have a soft spot in my heart for them -- especially rah-rah, kill-everyone, blow-everything-up, monosyllabic-superhuman-ability-hero ones like "Rambo."
As an action film, "Rambo" absolutely rocks. But as a serious film? It's pretty awful. Stallone, who co-wrote and directed, wants to make a grand pro-aggression political statement -- complete with the bleeding-heart liberal who must come to terms with the "true nature" of violence -- but that falls incredibly flat. Stallone has a tin ear for dialogue, and his exchanges with "Dexter's" Julie Benz are unintentionally hilarious.
The plot is simple: a group of human-rights missionaries show up in Burma hoping to get medicine and care to villagers wounded in the ongoing civil war; they enlist Rambo to get them there and then are, inevitably, taken hostage. Rambo, with the aid of a few mercenaries, goes back to kick butt and a lot of stuff blows up.
Stallone makes Rambo a bitter, faithless man, and in one odd moment has him reveal that he's nothing but a bloodthirsty killer. I find this to be a contradiction to this film and the previous ones.
While Stallone can't seem to help himself and makes this movie very melodramatic (he's a total butcher as a director working with other actors; he leaves Benz and Paul Schulze out to dry), I have to admit his extended action scenes -- filled with impossibly violent blood and gore -- got my adrenaline pumping. There's nothing like the sugar rush of extreme violence. It's the most fleeting of thrills, but you cannot deny its charge. As far as cheap thrills go, it's not bad.
Stallone, looking cartoonish with his Play-Doh face and grossly bloated body, never changes expression throughout the movie. Whatever this character once was is gone; he is now stripped of all traces of humanity.
For me, ultimately, "Rambo" is nothing more than disposable, quick-hit entertainment. Stallone didn't think so, obviously, and its major flaw is that at times it looks like he thinks he's making "Platoon."
"Rambo" is worth a look if you like bloody action movies and enjoy a good adrenal jolt.
 Man this was bad.... March 26, 2008
An avid movie buff (Mishawaka IN)
9 out of 46 found this review helpful
IF you like movies with lots and lots of scenes of people getting shot in half and heads and arms blown off and extremely close up shots of blood guts and gore then you'll like this movie.
OR if you liked the original First blood with the smart Rambo and intelligent plot with action then you'll hate this.
The movie is supposed to deal with the subject of genocide. It deals with the subject by showing you scene after scene after scene after scene of people being butchered with very video game style special effects.
Of your a fan of David Morrell's character, you'll hate this movie. This movie has nothing to do with him.
Fantastic! May 30, 2008
Grimmy (MD USA)
8 out of 9 found this review helpful
You know the critics hated it. And here's why: bad guys and good guys, no "nuanced" portrayal, and ... worst of all ... there are Christians in the movie who are not wacky, homicidal, perverse, sadistic, or hypocritical! It's Hollywood's worst nightmare, and certainly not a movie I would have expected to see these days. I can't imagine what must have been going through Stallone's head to be making this movie. I wish this DVD had a commentary or some special feature to shed some light on this.
What can I say? It's a beautifully shot (color-wise, that is) ballet of brutality, post-Saving Private Ryan. Not for the faint of heart. The pacing is perfect, the violence is horrible, when inflicted by Burmese militia upon innocents, and cathartic, when they're themselves shredded into bloody bits.
I had read criticisms to the effect that the bad guys were portrayed as "faceless" cannon fodder. Not true. They are portrayed as psychopathic, sadistic rapists and murdererers, and this is the true face of evil: boring as hell. It's why modern portrayals of villains, such as Wesley Snipes' character in Demolition Man, are surprisingly boring: you know they'll shoot their buddy in the head at the drop of a hat, just to show they're really bad. When it happens, big yawn. In the end, all really evil men look the same, devoid of what makes them truly unique or human. Faceless.
It's a reminder that out there are evil men with guns, ready to wreak havoc upon whomever they will, and that they will not be stopped by appeals to conscience. And it's a tribute to the soldier who defends the weak, perhaps at the cost of his own soul. In other words, a world totally alien to the progressive mindset of today.
Horrible things are happening in the world, and they're screaming cluelessly about ... carbon footprints. (Even though last year's temperature drop alone was enough to "wipe out" all the "warming" of the last decade ... hilarious!) Under Saddam, husbands were kidnapped by the government and returned in pieces, or fed into shredders, and whole villages were wiped out with poison gas, and they're screaming about ... outlawing plastic bags and trans-fats and SUVs.
What can I say? I enjoyed this film immensely. It's sad when it takes John Rambo to remind us what's really going on and what really matters.
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