Tremor_The_Fiend

I have been a fan of Rambo since I was about 2 years old. In fact, John J. Rambo was my childhood hero. But make no mistake, I was very, VERY skeptical about the new, fourth installment. I had to be. All the actor veterans are reviving their franchises. Okay, so Terminator 3 was very good, Rocky Balboa I liked, although after Rocky V, there was plenty of room for improvement. But Rambo.... Rambo was my childhood hero. I quoted and pretended to be Rambo since I could remember. Personally, I didn't think Sylvester Stallone would have been able to do justice to Rambo, not at his age. Oh how wrong I was.

I should have known better than to doubt Stallone. Whereas the first three Rambo movies were created by Mario Kassar, who is a brilliant man, responsible for much of the Terminator franchise as well. Rambo (4) was written, and directed by the star himself, Sylvester Stallone. I knew that he wasn't an idiot. If you watch his interviews or commentaries in general, you do get a very clear sense that he's an intelligent man. But this movie surprised even me.

Rambo starts out with what looks like live footage from a nation called Burma, where atrocious acts of violence from the local military are seen. I don't know if this footage was real or not, but the kind of imagery that it displayed, I could easily believe that it was. The premise, essentially, is that a group of religious volunteers goes into Burma, in an attempt to help the oppressed villagers, and as a result, get killed or captured by the Burmese military. A group of mercenaries is hired for the rescue and Rambo was supposed to take them to the location. But I'm sure you all know, Rambo wasn't going to let the mercenaries have all the action. Oh no. The rest, however, you should see for yourself.

Let me just say that Rambo was BY FAR the most violent movie I have seen in a while. It was the most violent of the franchise. And, frankly, it makes action movies such as xXx look like Sesame Street, with Vin Diesel as Elmo. I watched a good share of violent movies when I was a little kid, but if I had kids of my own, Rambo (4) would be the only one of the four that I would NOT show them until they were well into their teenage years. Now don't get me wrong, I'm not saying that this is a bad thing. I loved this movie, and frankly, I think more action movies should be like Rambo. If you're going to make an action movie intended for adults, you might a well show violence where it's due. However, I can see why they don't. Frankly, Rambo is not for the feint of heart. There was a scene at the beginning of the movie Domino, where they placed a shotgun against a man's shoulder and blew his arm off. If you can't handle a scene like that, then Rambo is not for you. Personally, I loved it. The Burmese military performs acts of extreme brutality where the most shocking of imagery is uncensored. I have never seen a movie where they show a child being killed. That being said, by the time Rambo gets into action, you really get to hate the Burmese military. And when Rambo started killing the bad guys, the entire theater applauded, including myself. It made it that much more satisfying. Stallone played the part well. I mean, Stallone is Stallone, but he is a good actor. Frankly, when I was watching this, and I was looking at Rambo, I saw Rambo. I did NOT see Rocky. And I did not see an Italian actor. I saw Rambo.

However, there was one aspect of Stallone's writing that I think could have been improved on. The previous three Rambo films were done in two parts: Rambo gets into action and kills bad guys. A quiet scene occurs. Either Rambo is captured, escaping, hiding, etc. Then he comes back and hits the bad guys twice as hard.

The fourth installment lacked that aspect. It was more of a traditional story telling, where you have rising action, crisis, climax and denouement. What this means, personally, is that the movie left me craving for more action. However, what it had that others didn't was an epilogue which concluded the Rambo franchise rather nicely.

The music in Rambo was largely reused (or recreated) from First Blood, the original Rambo movie. Personally, I thought it was an excellent touch. I don't know how much of it they hired Jerry Goldsmith to do, and how much of it they simply recreated the score, but it was reminiscent of the original First Blood movie, which is always a good thing in my eyes. Masterful soundtrack.

All in all, it was an amazing action movie with shocking imagery, a terrific storyline, and a great soundtrack. Rambo: First Blood, Part 2 is and will always be my favorite Rambo movie. But Rambo (4) by far had the most impact. I was skeptical about it, and I was wrong to be. If you're a long time fan of the Rambo franchise, you will be pleased with this movie. If you aren't a fan of the franchise, this movie might just make you into one.

It has come to my attention that multiple Sudbury critics gave Killing Zelda Sparks a negative review. Please disregard them. I eagerly waited to see this movie, and the other day, I was lucky enough to catch it on TV. Although I must admit, since I was in this movie, I started watching it with optimism. However, the scene with me was over pretty quickly and I eagerly watched the rest of the movie, to see if the critics were correct. I am happy to say, they weren't. The characters were likable, and were played really well. Of course, having Colm Feore in a movie is always a bonus, but the rest of the cast did a terrific job. As for the plot... Without giving any spoilers, I will say this, I expected this movie to be decent, but I was pleasantly surprised. The plot was clever, elaborate and full of twists. And the film's artistic style was unique without being pretentious. I had a blast watching this movie, and sincerely wish they'd release it on DVD. If you get a chance to see this film, don't pass it up. It's much better than most of the stuff released in theaters these days.

I gotta say, I was pleasantly surprised, even though I read the book months prior to the movie release. It was significantly better than its prequel. The characters who died were actually likable, so you actually felt sorry when they died. The scenes where people got eaten were also a lot more gritty. Enough to make me cringe, and I was watching Nightmare on Elm Street when I was 2 years old. The action scenes were visually impressive as well. I will never look at a crow the same way again.

I loved this movie, but I gotta say, the best part was Iain Glenn. I'm not a fan of him, but he did an absolutely terrific job in this movie. If you want a monster action/horror flick, this is the one for 2007.