25th February 2008
Rambo (USA)
Director - Sylvester Stallone
Cast - Sylvester Stallone, Julie Benz, Michael Marsden...

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So far this year, as befitting awards season, audiences have been treated to a steady stream of interesting and enjoyable movies. We now go from the sublime to the ridiculous. The release of Rambo signals that award season is truly over with and we are entering the dire movie months of March and April.

Rambo has few redeeming features. The dialogue is laughable and is nothing more than a selection of meaningless sound bites. It is easy to add that the acting is truly atrocious too; however one would struggle to imagine that even Brando, Olivier, or Pacino could deliver those lines with any sort of dignity. The story is entirely unconvincing and the whole picture is so poor that it actually begins to become mildly entertaining. Very mildly mind you.

But it’s Rambo! Surely such snobbery is redundant. Rambo knows what it is and is not pretending to be any different. This is perhaps true, but still one can not defend the movie as being anything other than tired and turgid.

The most distressing aspect of this picture is that it begins with a horrific montage of real news footage from the conflict in Burma, an issue that is truly important. What follows however, is eighty minutes of boneheaded politics and scene’s that can only be described as morally reprehensible. Nothing meaningful can be derived from Rambo. Consequently the conflict in Burma has is yet again neglected. Paying money to watch this movie was an embarrassment.