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Rambo - First Blood Part II (Special Edition)

Rambo - First Blood Part II (Special Edition)

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Rating: 5 stars
Summary: refreshing...
Review: an action show with little, if no blood or bad graphics. it's left to the imagination. and i couldn't help but notice there isn't a single fowl word in the entire show. even a child could watch this show. too bad this type of a movie is a thing of the past!!

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Great Stuff!
Review: It's impossible for a real American not to like this movie.When it was released in 1985,it was a huge hit,and with good reason.It finally put the lie to the notion that America was the villan in Vietnam while the Vie Cong and their Soviet allies were the heroes.In this film,the latter are potrayed as sadistic scum,while Rambo,representing American values,is shown as brave,principled,and resourceful.When,at the beginning of this film,Rambo asks "Do we get to win this time?",he speaks for every American who felt betrayed,whether it was by self-serving goverment bureaucrats(represented by Murdock,Rambo's hateful commanding officer)or left-wing so-called intellectuals who stabbed America's fighting men in the back.The movie rips both types of scum while celebrating the ingenuity and sheer guts of the american fighting man."Rambo Part II" may not be added to the list of "great" war movies,but,in its own way,it helped shape our culture,and change America from a land of Alan Alda/Phil Donahue-type wimps to a self-confident nation that could kick the crap of Saddam Hussein and the Al-Qaida.*** out of ***

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: One of the Defining Action Movies of the 80s
Review: The sequel to the critically acclaimed First Blood, Rambo is a film that delivers with intense action from start to finish. You can't be a fan of action movies until you have seen Rambo!

The movie begins with Colonel Troutman (played by the late Richard Crenna) visiting Rambo in hard-labor prison to offer him the chance of a pardon should he return to Vietnam to investigate claims of POWs still held there.

Though asking if "they'll be allowed to win this time," Rambo accepts the mission. Once on the ground, Rambo does find and rescues a POW only to find the political motivations of his mission did not include actually finding anyone. Abandoned by this own men, Rambo must fight out of the jungle with the help of Ko, a pretty young Vietnamese intelligence operative hopeful to leave the war behind against an entire army of Vietnamese soldiers and their Russian allies.

Cold War action at its best, Rambo puts its title character in an impossible situation and lets him shoot, knife, and muscle his way out of it. When he finally returns to base in Thailand and confronts the men who abandoned him in the jungle, he tells Troutman, "I want what they want, what every other guy who came over here and spilled his guts and gave everything he had wants: for our country to love us as much as we love it," the plea of every Vietnam vet who went to a war they didn't want but did the best they could.

Directed by James Cameron before his mania for the Titanic, Rambo is sure to thrill. Great from one end to the other!

Rating: 2 stars
Summary: Rambo - First Blood Part II (Special Edition)DVD
Review: This is a sequal that isnt bad, but wasnt done perfectly. The first movie "first blood" was so great that it deserves a perfect sequal, but this film was not. If I had my way, I would have done a prequal that showed Rambo and his military buddies during Vietnam and some of the problems he faced from American Society when he returned. This sequal however has Rambo returning to Vietnam to look for and rescue missing POWs. The premise wasnt that bad, and missing POWs in Vietnam is a very real and scary issue that alot of people today forget or dont know about. This movie just went to over the top and was far from realistic or meaningful like "first blood". It shows vietnam soldiers who seem like they are still in Vietnam war mode even 15 years later like they have nothing better to do. Somehow the Russians get thrown into the mix and the movie makes even less sense(obviously a cheap patriotic ploy during the coldwar era). Im actually suprised they didnt have the Iranians join the fight against Rambo.
Lets be honest; this film ruined the true meaning and greatness of "first blood". Looking back, there is no denying that "first blood" is still an amazing movie with meaning and stirs emotion to this very day. Rambo 2 took away from a truly great film "first blood" and turned Rambo into a killing machine. The only reason Rambo went into kill mode in the first film was because he was pushed too far. He was a man who lost his friends in battle and sense of home/belonging. He did everything he could do to evade violence and go his own way, but he was pushed around too far and too many times. In the sequal "Rambo 2", he is hardly even the same character. Still, I can see how some people could like the movie and it almost gets 3 stars for the great action. You may dissagree with me, but there is a reason why "First blood" cost more to buy then Rambo 2 and 3.
The Extra features in this DVD are pretty good. There is a documentary on the Rambo series and you get commentary from director George Cosmatos(but no Stallone commentary).

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: So bad, it's good
Review: Rambo 2 is a terrible movie if taken seriously. However, it is entertaining if viewed as a comedy. Sly Stallone delivers another 5 star performance that was really snubbed of an Oscar nomination. This film revolves around Lt. John Rambo whupping some bad guys and rescuing some POW's. Throw in helicopters, explosions, guns, and Russians and you've got yourself an excellent little picture.

This film's finest hour is when Rambo takes to the sky in an Apache and rains death down upon the jungle and anyone who might be in it. I'm getting excited just thinking about it. In closing, this movie is simply too good to pass up.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Stallone's biggest hit movie in the 80's!
Review: When Released in 1985, Stallone was fast becoming an action star, & like Chuck Norris' "Missing in Action", a year earlier, viewers wanted to see Hollywood win in Vietnam, this one begins some time after "First Blood" where Rambo is in prison for his rampage in "First Blood", he is met by Col.Trautman(Richard Crenna) who offers him a mission in Vietnam that involves possible POW's, if successful, he might receive a presidential pardon for his actions in the first movie, he accepts & is soon on his way to complete the mission, the government director of the mission tells him to only photograph prisoners if any, but Rambo is content for rescue instead & in the process is caught only because of government red tape, in which the director orders the rescue helicopter back, leaving Rambo just a few feet behind, Trautman is enraged & realizes that the director is a beaurocrat only interested in pleasing the public's inquiry about POW's not existing, later we meet Russian Col. Pedovsky(Stephen Berkoff of "Beverly Hills Cop") who interrogates Rambo is a torturous way with electricity, demanding answers, of course this was during the cold war, in the Reagan era, & Stallone embodies Rambo as a tortured soul who is scarred by the war, only his contact(Julia Nickson) a vietnamese woman who is his guide & likely a deserter, helps him escape, only after he is made by Pedovsky to contact his government in which he tells the director Murdock, "I am coming to get you", as Rambo makes his escape, he is pursued by the vietnamese & the russians, he becomes a one-man army that systematically wipes out everyone in his path, & even rescues the POW's after acquiring a survellence helicopter, in which he is then pursued by Pedovsky in a more advanced helicopter which results in an arial chase where Rambo's chopper is damaged & lands giving him the oppurtunity to pull the element of suprise, which he does on Pedovsky that involves a rocket launcher, once free of pursuit, he goes to his base, upon arrival he crash lands the chopper & goes after Murdock, who by this point is sweating with nervous antisipation, once confronted by Rambo, he backtracks & tries desperately to convince him he had nothing to do with it,Rambo tells him to not let others die in camps & to find the rest, this was a crowd pleaser in 1985, second only to "Back to the Future" as the year's biggest movie, in which audiences loved because of its underlining political tones about possible POW's & our governments refusal to acknowledge it, Norris' "MIA" played on the same themes, as did Oliver Stone's "Platoon" which showed the horrors of Vietnam, & our ability to not want to accept defeat over there, but do, In 1988, Stallone returned as Rambo in "Rambo III" while not as emotional as this one, it definately played on the political themes of the time, & was less popular, but good nonetheless, but this one was emotional,it was said that Reagan liked this one,the DVD is one of the best transfers I have seen, the picture is clear as clear can be, & has a documentary that showcases the war & what it meant to so many, great DVD, Highly Recommended!

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: A violent but correct sequel to "First Blood"...
Review: With this sequel to the excellent first film, America has decided to get rid of its bad conscience. "First Blood" took place in America, dealing with the difficult and disturbing question of reinsertion of Nam veterans in the American society. This question's been erased for this sequel, located in the Viet-nam jungle. The movie has the same basis than the one in "Escape from New York" - a prisoner sent in hell for a rescue mission, with pardon and freedom offered in exchange -; here, the hell is Viet-nam, the police is replaced by the army and the gangs of New York, by bloody Russians and Vietnamese soldiers. James "Titanic" Cameron, who wrote the script with Stallone, started in movie business working on the Carpenter film; he took its basis element and used it for "Rambo 2". In "First Blood", the enemy was American, and Rambo killed only one person, and not on purpose, it was self-defense; in this movie the enemy's Russian and Vietnamese, so Rambo can do everything he wants, and this is the starting for a long and heavy butchery, especially when they kill his girlfriend. But the whole is watchable anyway.

The final message is very beautiful but also utopic. Who cares how brave the G.I. were in Viet-nam, no matter the guts they gave; they lost the war. And America hates losers, everybody knows that.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: The legendary action sequel that made Stallone a megastar.
Review: Stallone showed us in First Blood that he could play a war
torn vietnam vet so why wouldn't he want to come back for a sequel reprising his role as Green Beret Veitnam Vet Jhon Rambo
who via his friend and commanding officer Col.Sam Troutmen asks
Rambo to go on another misson to a place that Rambo is all to
familar with Veitnam to get American P.O.W.s that have been
trapped at an encampment behind enimey lines, when Rambo meets
selfish beauraucrat Murdock he dosen't seem to trust him but
goes on the misson anyway.

Other then a caught up jump out of the jet that he was in the
mission seems to be going fine , he meets his informant Cat and
together they go to the camp to find the missing soldiers when
they get there the endure light resistance and manage to get one
P.O.W. to the pickup site but once Murdock finds out that Rambo
has one of ours Murdock aborts the mission in some beauraucratic
mess that neither Rambo nor Troutmen wanna be in again but it is

a costly mistake Murdock is going to pay for.

Now Rambo is captured by the veit cong and now the russians
are in this ordeal they try to interrogate him but it's useless
they try to inflict pain on Rambo but is useless to because he
just ingnores it there only feeding the inevitable.But when he
get's out and they kill his freind and possiblr love intrest
CAT the only thing on Rambo's mind is revenge for him for any
one who is involved.What the enimeys don't know is that they
are in the place that he call's home because he knows it well.
The next 45 minutes of the film is pretty laughable as he makes
the enimey into bullet and fire fodder and simply turns himself
into a one man army destroying everything in site.When he get's
the P.O.W.s back to the base he takes most of his anger out on
Murdock.When Troutmen asks Rambo what he want's he tell's him
that he want's what every veteran who spilled his guts want's
for our country to love us as much as we love it a very solem
moment and very powerful a worthy sequel.

George P. Cosmatos almost let's us see what vietnam was like
and by doing so he entertains us as well as informs us that we
should not hate anyone that has fought for this country.The DVD
is pretty bare bones with only a documentary and trailers.But it
does sound pretty awsome in Dts a worthy sequel.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: You see the thing is this
Review: The only reason I will go into detail about how I feel about rambo 2, is because i work at a retail store that sells dvd's and I dont feel people remeber rambo very accurately. Heres the breakdown.

First Blood - now this is not the prequal to rambo II and III you would expect had you seen 2 and 3 first (which they were not released in any kind of reverse order) I believe it is based on a novel (i know the uncertainty paints me as an amature on the subject but im not)its a deep moving story of a war man caught up in a bad situation, kinda of a flashback picture. Ok this movie is good, personally i dont like it enough to own. This movie instilled in people(the more manely audience) the question, why arent we watching a war shoot-em-up movie. We have this character that we hear is a fighting machine, he was awesome in the vietam war, but we dont get to see it. So whats the answer make a bad war movie sequal. But what they forgot to do was make it bad, it turned out great!

Rambo: First Blood Part II
Notice the name change, new movie, a novel movie sequal, always a bad idea, doomed to fail, but somehow a great emotinal script was written, very well directed, alot of people love the vietnam war angle the whole, do we get to when this time thing, but i was only 3 when it was made, and i knew nothing of the war, and i still no nothing, I just love the action. What makes a sequal bad: simple really once you know you see it everywhere, i suppose you have to start with what makes the first one good: well you have the whole buildup of what the characters can do, how the plot may twist, and all the little things you learn along the way, the exposition if you will, now in the sequal you always know everything already, there is no plot buildup, though you may wish for more action during the original(whatever movie) you get too much in the sequal often and thats the problem, this movie starts from the begging, it doesnt just throw him in the jungle killing people

Rambo III

I thought it was really bad, i admit i havent watched it much but its like rambo cares about other nations and he is not all red white and blue. Its just a sequal to a good action movie, notice the full title change, no more first blood, just rambo, its lacks good plot buildup, acting a record low, people that recklessly buy a rambo movie, i believe ment to buy the 2nd one, and just didnt know the facts. Basically rambo is at home in the jungle so in the movie where he has that chance in the best one

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: "Do We Get To Win This Time?"
Review: Although he never mumbled the obligatory promise of "I'll be back," John Rambo returns in all his testosterone glory in RAMBO: FIRST BLOOD PART II ... and it's a welcome reunion at that!

Sylvester Stallone has built a cottage industry around playing underdogs (see the ROCKY series, the RAMBO series, CLIFFHANGER, COPLAND, etc. as evidence), but he truly hit and held his creative peak circa the early 80s. In the beginning of the film, John Rambo is shown behind bars of a federal penitentiary, hammering big rocks into smaller rocks, when an unlikely visit by Colonel Trautman (Richard Crenna) comes a'calling. Rumor has it intelligence recon has located some POWs trapped since the end of the Vietnam Experience, and Rambo is one of three soldiers uniquely qualified to serve as a photographer to obtain photos that can be used for political damage. However, once he's behind enemy lines, his country fails him again, and Rambo is left to contend not only with some nasty Vietnamese but also the Russians who are funding their continued military activities.

As nail-biting but without the social resonance of FIRST BLOOD, RAMBO is filled with the kind of action and suspense filmgoers still flock to in this day and age. The DVD restores much of the films visuals, as well as a tremendous Dolby 5.1 soundtrack, and it includes the essential extras -- a documercial, cast and crew bios, and the film's original trailers. The commentary track, supplied by Director George P. Cosmatos, isn't exactly what the film deserves, however; while Cosmatos tips you to some wonderful incidentals (i.e. THE James Cameron wrote the original screenplay; a hurricane destroyed most of the film's sets halfway through production; hyped praise for Stallone performing his own stunts; etc.), he provides very little about the filmmaking process or the decisions he made as director. In fact, throughout the latter half of the movie, Cosmatos basically talks the viewer through the story. If someone would've told him to expand upon his observations about Rambo's prolonged torture sequence, the track certainly would've been more fulfilling. As it is, it's relatively standard.

Definitely worth the rent, but I spent hard-earned dollars to own it, RAMBO shows Stallone in his cinema prime, delivering the kind of thrills, chills, and spills one would expect from quality action fare.


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