He'll Be Back... (Rambo: First Blood Part II (DVD))

Member Name: a-true-ben

Product:	Rambo: First Blood Part II (DVD)
Date:	01/08/03 (94 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Well, it's part of the Rambo trilogy, It does have some impressive action scenes

Disadvantages: Not really a good film (by a long way), Stretches the imagination

To avoid any confusion: the first Rambo film is technically called ?First Blood?. This, the sequel, is ?Rambo: First Blood Part Two?. I checked Ciao reviews before seeing the movie, but surprisingly none were particularly helpful. I had heard that after the first film (which is actually quite good ? see separate op) things got a little silly. Never mind, I wanted to see the other two for the sake of completeness at least (and because they just might be so bad they?re good too!) Two key members of the original cast are retained:

Sylvester Stallone ? John Rambo
Richard Crenna ? Col. Samuel Trautman
Charles Napier ? Marshall Murdock
Julia Nickson-Soul ? Co Bao (Vietnamese agent)
Voyo Goric ? Sgt Yushin (Russian torturer)

This film is both similar to and different from the first. In many ways, the story parallels ?First Blood? in so far as it mostly degenerates into violence, and some scenes in the jungle and the ending are bound to seem familiar to those who?ve seen the first. On the other hand, Rambo?s no longer having to fight his fellow Americans, he?s back in the jungle he calls home?

The year is 1985 and, after Rambo?s rampage in the last film, he?s working as part of some kind of slave gang in an American prison ? spending his days turning big rocks into little rocks under armed guard. His old Colonel Trautman, however, shows up with an offer to get Rambo out. They need someone to undertake a special mission back into the ?Nam jungle.

Marshall Murdock gives Rambo the brief that they?re looking for POWs ? he?s to go in and photograph a Vietcong prison camp. Five minutes into the film he?s told to take photographs only ? not to engage in combat. Somehow, you know this is never going to be likely! I?ll try not to spoil things, but suffice to say Rambo ends up stranded in the jungle, and has to fight his way out and rescue a load of POWs.

The problem I had with this film is that the ?plot? is really only a
pretext for action or (more truthfully) violence. Soon after dropping into the jungle, Rambo meets a female Vietnamese operative, who it seems perhaps he already knows. Exactly who she is never seems to be explained (or if it is, I missed it) ? and it was only checking IMDB afterwards that I found her name was Co Bao.

Further, a lot of this film is, frankly, silly. The first film features Rambo stalking around with a machine gun off a truck ? which surely any man would struggle to carry, let alone fire (the recoil would probably throw him across the room and tear his arm off). This film features even more of that. Rambo, it seems, is almost superhuman. In a film like Terminator, it makes sense, but Rambo is supposed to be an ordinary man, albeit especially well trained. Now we see him suddenly expert at taking out his enemies with a single thrown dagger or arrow straight to the head/chest. Not to mention one of the more ridiculous scenes, where he slowly and calmly notches and fires an arrow at a Vietnamese soldier who?s shooting a gun at him!

The first hour or so strained plausibility enough. In the final half hour or so of jungle action though, things went even more ridiculous. Rambo?s chased through the jungle by Vietnamese and Russian soldiers, in a way that recalls his flight from the cops in the first film. Again he has to resort to his ingenuity to pick his pursuers off one by one ? and again it?s pretty good viewing, but this time goes rather far ? one minute he?s completely buried himself in a muddy bank to surprise one guard, and the next minute he?s popping out of the water to fire his bow at another?

The movie?s not clever by any stretch of the imagination, but at least it is big ? loud, violent and unsubtle. The climax features Rambo using explosive arrows and a stolen helicopter to wreck havoc through the Vietnamese camp. Big explosions, and our hero strolling triumphantly through the smoking camp (carrying the biggest f***-o
ff gun you?ve ever seen) are the order of the day.

And that?s how I?d sum up this film. It?s not particularly good. It follows the original perhaps a little too much and the acting?s average at best. What it has in abundance though is action, violence and explosions. It?s fun. And sometimes that?s not too bad.

Rated: 15 ? only a 15 despite copious violence (guess you got the message by now). There are a few gruesome torture/people being blown up type scenes, but it?s mostly done in and over the top type way, rather than realistically.
Duration: 94 minutes
http://us.imdb.com/Title?0089880

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