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Rambo

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Rambo (2008)

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Reviews Counted:140

Fresh:52

Rotten:88

Average Rating:4.8/10

Consensus: Sylvester Stallone knows how to stage action sequences, but the movie's uneven pacing and excessive violence (even for the franchise) is more nauseating than entertaining.

Rated: 18 [See Full Rating] for strong graphic bloody violence, sexual assaults, grisly images and language.

Runtime: 1 hr 33 mins

Genre: Action/Adventure

Theatrical Release:22-02-2008

Synopsis: Twenty years after the last film in the series, John Rambo (SYLVESTER STALLONE) has retreated to northern Thailand, where he's running a longboat on the Salween River. On the nearby Thai-Burma... Twenty years after the last film in the series, John Rambo (SYLVESTER STALLONE) has retreated to northern Thailand, where he's running a longboat on the Salween River. On the nearby Thai-Burma (Myanmar) border, the world's longest-running civil war, the Burmese-Karen conflict, rages into its 60th year. But Rambo, who lives a solitary, simple life in the mountains and jungles fishing and catching poisonous snakes to sell, has long given up fighting, even as medics, mercenaries, rebels and peace workers pass by on their way to the war-torn region.

That all changes when a group of human rights missionaries search out the "American river guide" John Rambo. When Sarah (JULIE BENZ) and Michael Bennett (PAUL SCHULZE) approach him, they explain that since last year's trek to the refugee camps, the Burmese military has laid landmines along the road, making it too dangerous for overland travel. They ask Rambo to guide them up the Salween and drop them off, so they can deliver medical supplies and food to the Karen tribe. After initially refusing to cross into Burma, Rambo takes them, dropping off Sarah, Michael and the aid workers...

Less than two weeks later, pastor Arthur Marsh (KEN HOWARD) finds Rambo and tells him the aid workers did not return and the embassies have not helped locate them. He tells Rambo he's mortgaged his home and raised money from his congregation to hire mercenaries to get the missionaries, who are being held captive by the Burmese army. Although the United States military trained him to be a lethal super soldier in Vietnam, decades later Rambo's reluctance for violence and conflict are palpable, his scars faded, yet visible. However, the lone warrior knows what he must do...

Sylvester Stallone writes, directs and stars as RAMBO, filmed on location in and around Chiang Mai, Thailand. Also starring are Julie Benz (Dexter), Paul Schulze (The Sopranos), Matthew Marsden (Resident Evil: Extinction, Black Hawk Down), Graham McTavish (HBO's Rome), Rey Gallegos (American Wedding), Tim Kang ("Third Watch"), Jake La Botz (Ghost World), Maung Maung Khin and Ken Howard. RAMBO is produced by Avi Lerner, Kevin King Templeton and John Thompson. Executive producers Randall Emmett, George Furla. Executive Producers Jon Feltheimer, Peter Block, Bob Weinstein, Harvey Weinstein. Executive Producers Andreas Thiesmeyer, Josef Lautenschlager. Executive Producers Danny Dimbort, Boaz Davidson, Trevor Short. --© Lionsgate
[More]

Starring: Sylvester Stallone, Julie Benz, Matthew Marsden, Graham McTavish

Starring: Sylvester Stallone, Julie Benz, Matthew Marsden, Graham McTavish, Rey Gallegos, Jake LaBotz, Tim Kang, Ken Howard

Director: Sylvester Stallone

Director: Sylvester Stallone
Screenwriter: Sylvester Stallone, Art Monterastelli
Producer: Sylvester Stallone, Avi Lerner, John Thompson, Kevin King
Composer: Brian Tyler
Studio: Lions Gate Films

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Reviews for Rambo

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1 - 20 (sorted by critic A-Z; UK critics are listed first)
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The hero’s iconic inertia is photographed against molten skies or Judgment Day sunsets, providing moments of mythic repose between the pell-mell battle scenes.

Full Review Source: Financial Times | comment Comment
02/22/08
Nigel Andrews
Nigel Andrews
Financial Times

At times there is something weirdly comforting about the film's no-frills, fundamentalist zeal.

Full Review Source: Guardian [UK] | comment Comment
02/22/08
Xan Brooks
Xan Brooks
Guardian [UK]
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

It's unsubtle filmmaking, laying out every nuance for us and playing around with some pretty serious ideas without digging very deep.

Full Review Source: Shadows on the Wall | comment Comment
02/11/08
Rich Cline
Rich Cline
Shadows on the Wall

Little more than a cartoon, Rambo caters only for those still smitten by the rat-a-tat of continuous gunfire.

Full Review Source: Guardian [UK] | comment Comment
02/22/08
David Gritten
David Gritten
Guardian [UK]
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

On one level Rambo delivers what you’re expecting: hard-to-hear dialogue married to hard-to-watch action. But this outing is uncomfortably gruesome and blatantly manipulative. Despite grander aspirations, only leather-tough mayhem-lovers will be satisfied

Full Review Source: Total Film | comment 1 Comment
02/22/08
Tony Horkins
Tony Horkins
Total Film

Stallone may believe that he can turn back the clock to the golden era of his career, but I'm not convinced that this kind of brutal, bellicose naivety sits so well with audiences any more.

Full Review Source: Times [UK] | comment 2 Comments
02/22/08
Wendy Ide
Wendy Ide
Times [UK]
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

90 minutes of violence. No more, no less.

Full Review Source: Time Out | comment Comment
02/22/08
David Jenkins
David Jenkins
Time Out
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

It’s far from a perfect movie, and some will get too caught up in the debate over the use of such a war as the subtext for a popcorn actioner, but Stallone has delivered the movie Rambo fans would have asked for.

Full Review Source: Sky Movies | comment Comment
02/22/08
Rich Phippen
Rich Phippen
Sky Movies

Less a war movie than a turkey shoot in a ketchup factory.

Full Review Source: BBC | comment Comment
02/22/08
Jamie Russell
Jamie Russell
BBC
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

Rambo could have been a satisfying romp - wherein bad dialogue and cardboard characters can be forgiven - but for the sin of making the main man step to the sidelines in favour of charisma-free fillers. Bad move, Sly...

Full Review Source: Empire Magazine | comment 1 Comment
02/22/08
Roberto Sadovski
Roberto Sadovski
Empire Magazine
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

Rocky Balboa eventually aged gracefully but Rambo remains mired in gratuitous violence, dubious ideology and cheap sentiment. If anyone sees Stallone contemplating further adventures, don't push him.

Full Review Source: Channel 4 Film | comment Comment
02/22/08
Leigh Singer
Leigh Singer
Channel 4 Film
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

The fourth and, amazingly, the most meat-headed adventure yet of the killing machine John Rambo can safely be recommended to people who hate intelligence and love exploding body parts.

Full Review Source: Daily Mail [UK] | comment 3 Comments
02/22/08
Christopher Tookey
Christopher Tookey
Daily Mail [UK]

Makes First Blood look like Bambi.

Full Review Source: Sun Online | comment Comment
02/22/08
Sun Online

This film is like a bull in a China shop -- it just keeps charging forward, destroying everything in its path.

Full Review Source: KPBS.org | comment Comment
02/03/08
Beth Accomando
Beth Accomando
KPBS.org

After lying low for 20 years, Rambo massacres 1000 men. Best sequel of the series. I'm looking forward to Rambo V.

Full Review Source: FilmsInReview.com | comment 1 Comment
01/30/08
Victoria Alexander
Victoria Alexander
FilmsInReview.com

Torture porn probably makes this movie seem quaint.

Full Review Source: Premiere Magazine | comment Comment
01/25/08
Eric Alt
Eric Alt
Premiere Magazine

Damned if Stallone doesn't get us rooting for Rambo to kick bad-guy butt one more time, the same way we cheered on Rocky's improbable return.

Full Review Source: Film Journal International | comment Comment
01/28/08
Ethan Alter
Ethan Alter
Film Journal International

Stallone's previous film, Rocky Balboa (2006), was a highly personal and surprisingly touching film. But Rambo shows no such justification for its existence.

Full Review Source: Combustible Celluloid | comment Comment
01/24/08
Jeffrey M. Anderson
Jeffrey M. Anderson
Combustible Celluloid

Non-stop violence is too overpowering for kids.

Full Review Source: Common Sense Media | comment Comment
01/24/08
Sandie Angulo Chen
Sandie Angulo Chen
Common Sense Media

Like America, it's both excited by and ashamed of its bloodlust.

Full Review Source: Commercial Appeal (Memphis, TN) | comment Comment
02/01/08
John Beifuss
John Beifuss
Commercial Appeal (Memphis, TN)
 
 
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Latest News for Rambo

September 08, 2009: Stallone Releases Synopsis, First Poster for Rambo 5 Opens in new window
You heard that the fifth "Rambo" was going to pit the titular hero against a drug-dealing slave ring, but as it turns out, Sylvester Stallone's plans for the next sequel are a... More...

August 31, 2009: Fifth Rambo Gets a Green Light Opens in new window
Sylvester Stallone will "fight his way through human traffickers and drug lords to rescue a young girl abducted near the U.S.-Mexico border" in the fifth "Rambo" installment,... More...

January 29, 2009: Stallone Mulling Over Another Rambo Opens in new window
Are you ready for more Rambo? Sylvester Stallone is -- and he's just told Extra that the only thing he needs to do is decide "whether to do it in America or a foreign country." More...

July 28, 2008: RT on DVD: Harold & Kumar, Doomsday and Dark City Director's Cut
Since we're all still recovering from Comic-Con 2008, and tons of new home video details dropped at the Largest Nerd Gathering in the World, it's time for RT on DVD: Geek... More...

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