Rambo: First Blood Part II (1985)

Plot Outline: Rambo is persuaded to return to Vietnam to find a labour camp that may be harbouring POWs. But he is told by a high ranking official that he isn't to get involved physically, only to survey the area and then return in order for the government to take further action. When Rambo does find the POWs, he knows he can't just leave them there.. He busts them out and returns to his pick-up point but the official decides to back out and leave him there, for fear of reprisals when the US people find out the true horrors of Vietnam. Now Rambo is on his own in the jungle with the Russians and Vietnamese after him.

The Review: This is slightly better than the first instalment but it's incredibly dumb and I found it hard to sit through and not laugh at times. Forgetting the obvious commentaries regarding the Vietnamese War (even if the director denies it), this is about as pure as an action film can get in terms of bare essentials. There are plenty of big explosions and action sequences for a die-hard action fan to sink their teeth into. Remember I said it was dumb? Well Rambo has been tortured for hours (electrocuted, punched, whipped and more) upon end before managing to escape and flee into the jungle, before taking out whole battalions of Russian and Vietnamese single-handedly with very few weapons. If war was just as easy. Stallone does what he does best in blowing things up and hurting people, as well as flexing his muscles a lot. He was in the best shape of his career at this point and you can tell. But the muscles must have become so huge, they crushed his brain and he became oblivious to the script (which he co-wrote). Richard Crenna and Charles Napier add some much needed grit to the cast when the film goes back to America but the characters they play are just cardboard cut-outs (considering that Napier always plays bad-ass military types!). The scenes where buildings or vehicles aren't getting blown up do drag considerably but anyone falling asleep will most likely be blasted into orbit with the sound of explosions a few minutes later.

Final Verdict: Still, with plenty of gun fire, exploding grenades, grunting and invincibility from Stallone, Rambo: First Blood Part II is an ok waste of time for a boring night in. It's sort of like a live action GI Joe flick.

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