Rambo (2008 film)

Rambo
Theatrical poster
Directed by	Sylvester Stallone
Written by	Sylvester Stallone Art Monterastelli
Produced by	Avi Lerner, Kevin King Templeton John Thompson Sylvester Stallone
Starring	Sylvester Stallone Julie Benz Matthew Marsden
Cinematography	Glen Macpherson
Edited by	Sean Albertson
Music by	Brian Tyler
Distributed by	Lions Gate Entertainment (USA) Columbia Pictures (UK, Australia) Warner Bros. (Germany)
Release date	January 25 2008 February 22 2008
Running time	91 min.
Countries	United States, Germany
Language	English
Budget	US$50,000,000

Rambo is a 2008 action film starring Sylvester Stallone as Vietnam War veteran John Rambo. Stallone also wrote and directed the film. It is the fourth installment of the Rambo franchise.

Rambo holds the record with the most kills out of the entire Rambo series, with 236 kills and an average of 2.59 kills per minute. Sylvester Stallone has described the film as "sort of like Beyond Rangoon, but with rocket launchers."

Cast

• Sylvester Stallone as John Rambo
• Julie Benz as Sarah Miller
• Matthew Marsden as Schoolboy
• Graham McTavish as Lewis
• Rey Gallegos as Diaz
• Jake La Botz as Reese
• Tim Kang as En-Joo
• Maung Maung Khin as Tint
• Paul Schulze as Michael Burnett
• Ken Howard as Rev. Arthur Marsh
• James With as Preacher Missionary

Plot

The film opens with newsreels of the crisis in Burma. Burma, under the iron fist rule of Than Shwe, takes harsher stances against the nation's pro-democracy movement. One of the first scenes in the film is of a group of rebels being thrown into a mine-infested marsh and then being gunned down, while a cigarette-smoking Burmese Lt-Colonel gazes grimly at the scene.

The film reveals that, following the events in Rambo III, Rambo returned to Thailand and now resides in a village near the Burmese border. He captures snakes and transports roamers in his boat. A missionary approaches him and asks Rambo to take him and a group of his fellow missionaries up the river to Burma on a humanitarian mission. Rambo refuses, but is convinced by another member, Sarah Miller, to take them up there.

During the ride, they are stopped by pirates who demand Sarah in exchange for passage. After negotiations fail, Rambo kills the men. After the group arrives, another missionary, Michael, says that they will be going out by road and will not need Rambo's help for the return trip. The mission goes well until the Burmese army, led by Lt-Colonel, arrives and attacks the village, killing one missionary and most of the villagers. The rest of the group is kidnapped. When the missionaries fail to come back after 10 days, their pastor comes to Rambo, tells him what has happened, and asks for his assistance in guiding hired mercenaries to the village where the missionaries were last seen.

Rambo decides to accompany the mercenaries and pushes them to continue after they see the destroyed village. Hijacking one of the army's trucks they create a plan to save any remaining hostages at the P.O.W. camp. They conduct the mission within 15 minutes to avoid alerting the army. As Rambo, Sarah, and the others escape, the Burmese army discovers that their hostages are missing and sets up a massive man-hunt. Rambo, using his knowledge of guerrilla combat, helps to dwindle the numbers of military personnel giving chase. Other elements of the Burmese army manage to capture all of the mercenaries and missionaries except for Rambo, Sarah, and one other mercenary as the group approaches the river. Just as the group is to be executed, Rambo hijacks a truck-mounted .50-caliber machinegun and engages the Burmese army personnel. Soon after, a group of Karen rebels join the fight and help Rambo and the mercenaries defeat the Burmese army.

Encouraged by Sarah's words (earlier in the film, Sarah asked Rambo if he was curious to see how things have changed back home) Rambo decides to return to the United States. The last scene shows Rambo walking along a rural highway, walking past a horse farm and a mailbox with the name R. Rambo on it. He makes his way down the dirt driveway of the farm as the credits roll.

Alternate titles

The most recent installment of the Rambo franchise has undergone many name changes during pre-release, and has been known as the following:

• Rambo IV
  • Rambo IV: In the Serpent's Eye
  • Rambo IV: Pearl of the Cobra
  • Rambo IV: End of Peace
• Rambo: To Hell and Back
• John Rambo - Mirroring the final installment of the Rocky franchise, Rocky Balboa. This is still the title being used in Germany, France, Belgium, Hungary, Israel and Italy, because First Blood's original title in these countries is Rambo, and also Spain, where the first film was retitled as Acorralado ("Surrounded"). A workprint version of the movie that has made it's way to the Internet has the title ""John Rambo". More lately, the name of the movie in Mexico and Latin America is "Rambo: Regreso al Infierno" (Rambo: Return to the Hell).

On October 12, Lionsgate announced that the film title was being changed to Rambo: To Hell and Back. After some negative feedback from the online community, Stallone spoke with AICN's Harry Knowles and said:

"Lionsgate jumped the gun on this. I just was thinking that the title John Rambo was derivative of Rocky Balboa and might give people the idea that this is the last Rambo film, and I don't necessarily feel that it will be. He's not an athlete, there's no reason he can't continue onto another adventure. Like John Wayne with The Searchers."

Box office

Rambo opened in 2,751 theaters on January 25, 2008 and grossed $6,490,000 on its opening day. Taken into account that the last Rambo movie was released 20 years ago, Rambo grossed a very solid $18,200,000 on opening weekend. It was second highest grossing movie for the weekend behind Meet the Spartans. As of February 10, 2008, the film currently has a total domestic box office gross of $36,876,490 and a worldwide gross of US $46,773,034.

Critical reception

Critics gave the film mixed reviews. On Rotten Tomatoes, the film scores 35% out of 105 reviews as of February 11, 2008. Metacritic reported the film had an average score of 46 out of 100, based on 25 reviews.

Some critics have expressed their displeasure with the amount of violence and lack of a good plot. Variety called it "a notably cheerless exercise", while Newsday pointed out that "the battle sequences are so muddled in execution that we can't tell who's killing whom." The Philadelphia Inquirer was equally unimpressed, labelling Rambo a "slab of action porn" in which the director-star resembles a "mothballed Conan The Barbarian." The Hollywood Reporter critic simply signed off with, "Sorry Sly, not this time."

In his review for the New York Times, A.O. Scott wrote, "Mr. Stallone is smart enough — or maybe dumb enough, though I tend to think not — to present the mythic dimensions of the character without apology or irony. His face looks like a misshapen chunk of granite, and his acting is only slightly more expressive, but the man gets the job done. Welcome back." Michael H. Price of Fort Worth Business Press wrote, "Stallone invests the role with a realistic acceptance of the aging process, and with traces reminiscent of Humphrey Bogart in 1951’s The African Queen and Clint Eastwood in 1992’s Unforgiven — to say nothing of the influences that the original First Blood had absorbed from Marlon Brando in 1953’s The Wild One and Tom Laughlin in 1971’s Billy Jack."

When asked what his take on the film was, First Blood writer David Morrell said, "Overall, I'm pleased. [...] This is the first time that the tone of First Blood the novel has been used in any of the movies. [...] It's not a 4-star movie--the villains are superficial, and the climax is overextended. But this is a solid three stars."

In the first week of release, Rambo had a favorable user-rating of 8.2/10 on the Internet Movie Database. This rating started at 8.8 placing it #195 on the IMDb's Top 250, however, it has dropped to it's current rating of 7.9.

The Burmese military junta has ordered DVD vendors in Myanmar not to distribute the film over the movie's content.

External links

• David Morrell, Author of First Blood
• Official site
• Rambo at IMDb
• Rambo at Rotten Tomatoes
• Rambo at Metacritic
• Rambo at Box Office Mojo
• MoviesForGuys.com Review
• Rambo at AllMovie