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Rambo

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Rambo (2008)

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Reviews Counted:24

Fresh:6

Rotten:18

Average Rating:4/10

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

Runtime: 1 hr 33 mins

Genre: Action/Adventure

Theatrical Release:Jan 25, 2008 Wide

Box Office: $42,724,402

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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Release:

May 27, 2008

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Reviews for Rambo

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1 - 20 (sorted by date)
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The orgy of violence, as ghastly as in any video game, should go a long way toward erasing whatever goodwill Stallone earned with his sentimental Rocky Balboa.

Full Review Source: Chicago Reader | comment 1 Comment
12/16/08
J. R. Jones
J. R. Jones
Chicago Reader
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

As the current obsession with Reagan suggests, it's back to fantasyland!

Full Review Source: Village Voice | comment Comment
01/29/08
J. Hoberman
J. Hoberman
Village Voice
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Well-shot and well-edited violence porn.

Full Review Source: Chicago Sun-Times | comment Comment
01/25/08
Mike Thomas
Mike Thomas
Chicago Sun-Times
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No longer is Rambo killing for a cause, but for kicks. And his portentous blather, even by Rambo standards, becomes unintentionally hilarious.

Full Review Source: Washington Post | comment 1 Comment
01/25/08
Desson Thomson
Desson Thomson
Washington Post
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

"So they send in the devil to do God's work," says a hulking Australian mercenary, part of the rescue attempt. "It's ironic, isn't it?" Highly ironic. The implications of that irony are not explored in the movie.

Full Review Source: Toronto Star | comment Comment
01/25/08
Philip Marchand
Philip Marchand
Toronto Star
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This violence contains a movie, but only intermittently.

Full Review Source: San Francisco Chronicle | comment Comment
01/25/08
Mick LaSalle
Mick LaSalle
San Francisco Chronicle
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If bringing back Rocky and Rambo opens him up to more ridicule from the likes of me, it’s also the kind of challenge at which he excels. Idiotic as Rocky Balboa was, the punches landed, and Rambo works on its own debased terms, too.

Full Review Source: New York Magazine | comment Comment
01/25/08
David Edelstein
David Edelstein
New York Magazine
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The enemies so comically monstrous and their deaths so gory, that you may just throw your head back and roar with laughter.

Full Review Source: New York Daily News | comment 4 Comments
01/25/08
Jack Mathews
Jack Mathews
New York Daily News
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Rambo hits his stride in the film's second half, meting out justice in an unjust world and ultimately the movie works best when warbling its out-of-tune greatest hits.

Full Review Source: Los Angeles Times | comment Comment
01/25/08
Kevin Crust
Kevin Crust
Los Angeles Times
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

It's an unfortunate ending for a once-great screen character who deserves to be known for more than the waste he laid to others.

Full Review Source: Detroit News | comment Comment
01/25/08
Adam Graham
Adam Graham
Detroit News
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Stunningly, unrelentingly violent.

Full Review Source: Dallas Morning News | comment Comment
01/25/08
Tom Maurstad
Tom Maurstad
Dallas Morning News
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None of this is beyond what you'd expect -- or fear -- from a Rambo movie. What is inexcusable is the moral self-congratulation the movie trades on, attaching itself to the plight of the Burmese people.

Full Review Source: Boston Globe | comment Comment
01/25/08
Mark Feeney
Mark Feeney
Boston Globe
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Never, not even in the aftermath of Pearl Harbor, has Hollywood depicted Asians with more prejudice. To what end?

Full Review Source: Globe and Mail | comment 2 Comments
01/25/08
Stephen Cole
Stephen Cole
Globe and Mail
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

The mouthiest mercenary, a surly Brit, is given the best line to snarl at our hero: "You can drop that thousand-yard stare. I've seen it all before, and I'm not impressed." We couldn't have said it better ourselves.

Full Review Source: USA Today | comment 1 Comment
01/25/08
Claudia Puig
Claudia Puig
USA Today
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This time, it's impersonal.

Full Review Source: New York Post | comment Comment
01/25/08
Kyle Smith
Kyle Smith
New York Post
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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. Welcome back.

Full Review Source: New York Times | comment Comment
01/25/08
A.O. Scott
A.O. Scott
New York Times
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

The movie is neither cathartic nor entertaining.

Full Review Source: Salon.com | comment Comment
01/24/08
Stephanie Zacharek
Stephanie Zacharek
Salon.com
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It’s not a movie. It’s an adrenaline pump and purveyor of raw carnage.

Full Review Source: Philadelphia Inquirer | comment Comment
01/24/08
Carrie Rickey
Carrie Rickey
Philadelphia Inquirer
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The movie might satisfy bloodthirsty action fans, but for most people, this is one Stallone do-over we could have done without.

Full Review Source: Associated Press | comment Comment
01/24/08
David Germain
David Germain
Associated Press
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

Sorry Sly, not this time.

Full Review Source: Hollywood Reporter | comment Comment
01/24/08
Michael Rechtshaffen
Michael Rechtshaffen
Hollywood Reporter
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1 - 20 (sorted by date)
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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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