Rambo: First Blood Part II Reviews
Rambo: First Blood Part II review
Posted : 1 year, 2 months ago on 12 February 2023 03:100 comments, Reply to this entry
Rambo: First Blood Part II review
Posted : 3 years, 10 months ago on 12 June 2020 05:22(3 1/2 Jade Necklaces out of 5)
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Rambo... Going Home
Posted : 12 years, 9 months ago on 25 July 2011 12:31Rambo: First Blood Part II starts a little after First Blood ends where John Rambo is incarcerated to hard labor were Col. Trautman comes to offer Rambo a mission to gain a pardon and help close a door of his past.
Rambo returns to Vietnam to scout out a former POW camp to capture photos of POWs that Rambo's superiors don't believe exist. Little does Rambo and his superiors the camp isn't empty but full of long forgotten United States soldiers and Rambo goes all out to save them.
Casting is actually quite good even with Stallone's acting. All the actors fit well to their characters and all of them are believable even with Rambo's larger than life persona.
Visual FX are excellent as the movie is pre-CGI everything that is now a days and so the explosions and fire effects are very believable.
Soundtrack is instrumental and only has one 80's song at the end which is one of the only bad part of the movie.
I know some think it's cheesy 80's over the top action movie but I enjoy it immensely and consider it the epitome of the 80's action movie.
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An average movie
Posted : 13 years ago on 23 April 2011 10:49To be honest, I always thought that the damned thing looked really lame but I thought I should give it a try anyway. Well, I have to admit it, even though I didnāt care much about the damned thing, I turned out to be much better than I expected. First of all, after āThe Terminatorā but before āAliensā, James Cameron did write the screenplay for this movie but it was apparently vastly changed by Sylvester Stallone afterwards. Anyway, Ā it was basically a brainless action movie which was too bad because the first instalment was actually rather thoughtful. Still, I have to admit that the damned thing was sometimes quite entertaining, at least Ā for the most part of it. What really bugged me was that even though Stallone was pretty badass, I thought that his acting was seriously below average. Above all, I thought that the ending was just really cringe-inducing to behold. Ā Indeed, it was much too patriotic for my taste and it kind of ruined the whole thing for me. Anyway, to conclude, even though it didnāt really work for me, if you love this kind of big cheesy action movies from the 80ās, you may end up enjoying this one.
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Very disappointing sequel...
Posted : 14 years, 3 months ago on 25 January 2010 04:19I personally think that Sylvester Stallone delivered a rather poor performance in this film as Rambo because for me Stallone didnt really show that this film meant anything to him whatsoever apart from earning money. I sort of knew he was going to be bad even before I saw this film because he won a Razzie Award for Worst Actor which is basically a spoof or rip-off of the Oscars. He should have made a better effort so for me it would have been as good as first one was. I thought that Richard Creenas performance was pretty damn lame aswell as Colonel Samuel Trautman. I was hoping he would be a really good supporting character but he wasnt at all. I have to say that Julia Nickson-Soul was pretty shit too because she didnt show any emotion or any stress with the situation she is in with Rambo. Her performance sort of reminds me a lot of Denise Richards in The World Is Not Enough. I mean, she is supposed to be supporting a hero but she didnt do it with the acting but she certainly did with the extremely attractive looks.
I found that the action direction was slightly better in this one than the direction in the first one. It wasnt that bad with the writing but there were a lot of flaws but there were some moments that werent really revelant in my opinion. This one was more of a graphic one than the first flick but I have to say that it isnt as action packed though. I am unsure whether Rambo III is a sequel of it. If it is like a few months or few years afterwards and follows same story then will be sequel. This disappointed me mostly because of the bad acting and the slightly bad writing. Apart from that I do think that this film was a good action packed thrill ride that will not let you breath until the ending credits roll. Not as good as first one but still a good descent film. Must watch Rambo III and Rambo IV first.
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What you call hell he calls home!
Posted : 15 years, 6 months ago on 28 October 2008 12:19Trautman: "Pressure? Let me just say that Rambo is the best combat vet I've ever seen. A pure fighting machine with only a desire - to win a war that someone else lost. And if winning means he has to die - he'll die. No fear, no regrets. And one more thing, what you choose to call hell, he calls home."
Sylvester Stallone: John J. Rambo
Richard Crenna: Col. Samuel Trautman
Rambo is in prison but fate it seems draws him back into combat, into war... His friend the colonel has a new mission back in Vietnam to gather intelligence and rescue POW s... However he is betrayed by his own soldiers and left to do the job himself... He becomes a one man army yet again and nothing can stop him...
Let's just say this is another all out action chapter as with it's predecessor, this Part Two replicates the added punch and adrenaline.
From Rambo furiously firing arrows at enemies to a helicopter all out frenzied attack against a whole army is phenomenal. The music again isn't quite as good as the first but it's still got that resonance to it.
The body count is through the roof, the betrayals many, even a fave scene of mine of a man being blown apart by an explosive arrow really gets the blood pumping.
A romance interest, (some random lady who's wrapped up in the mission), with Rambo is cut short sadly but gives him an excuse to go ape shit which makes up for it!
Once you get to the finish you will be hungry for the third installment...
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Fun, cartoonish, brainless action movie
Posted : 16 years ago on 2 May 2008 09:18It was sheer fate that, following the box office success of First BloodĀ in 1982, Sylvester Stallone would return as John J. Rambo in a sequel, denoting the beginning of another film franchise for Stallone (his other being Rocky). For 1985's Rambo: First Blood Part II, however, Stallone and co-writer James Cameron (!) place more emphasis on the action, in the process discardingĀ First Blood'sĀ heart and depth. This is not necessarily a drawback, mind you - although it lacks the classiness and intelligence of its predecessor, Rambo: First Blood Part II is a fun, cartoonish, brainless action blockbuster which throttles forward at breakneck pace from one ridiculous set-piece to the next. Considerably upping the ante in terms of action, mayhem and body count, this sequel is wildly implausible but irresistibly enjoyable for those who enjoy this brand of '80s-era entertainment.
First Blood Part II finds Vietnam veteran John Rambo (Stallone) incarcerated in a manual labour prison following his actions in First Blood. He is soon approached by his former commander and friend Colonel Trautman (Richard Crenna), who makes Rambo a deal that could land him a presidential pardon. Rambo's mission is to head into the jungles of Vietnam to gather intelligence on a prison camp where American MIAs might still be held captive some ten years after the war ended. Thus, Rambo is dropped into the middle of the jungle, but is soon betrayed and left for dead by bureaucratic government official Murdock (Charles Napier) while surrounded by hundreds of Vietnamese soldiers. Once Rambo is set loose, bullets fly and blood is spilled. Despite the inclusion of a third-act speech in which Rambo laments the treatment of Vietnam veterans by the United States government, the meaningful subtext of First Blood is absent. There is little wonder why this film earned Razzie Awards for Worst Picture and Worst Screenplay...
Close behind Commando in the ranking of "most iconic '80s action movie", First Blood Part II continues the tradition of a one-man army single-handedly laying waste to hundreds of bad guys. Also, like Commando, Rambo relies more on his brawn than his brains. With huge muscles, even bigger machine guns, explosive-tipped arrows and the iconic Rambo survival knife, the film supports the "peace through superior firepower" mantra of the Ronald Regan era which saw the Soviet Union collapse and the Americans winning the Cold War. Nobody will mistakeĀ First Blood Part II as a quality movie from a critical standpoint, mind you, as it's predictable, lacking in original ideas, and repetitive. After all, this is merely a badass macho male fantasy which was ostensibly created to convince Americans that they could have won Vietnam if only John Rambo was let loose on the Vietnamese troops. To the credit of director George P. Cosmatos (Cobra), the action is well-handled and spectacular, while the film also benefits from returning composer Jerry Goldsmith's exciting score.
It's not often that an actor portrays more than one popular, identifiable hero. Harrison Ford notably pulled it off with Han Solo, Indiana Jones, and CIA agent Jack Ryan. But Stallone also did it, playing both Rocky Balboa and John J. Rambo (and, more recently, Barney Ross in the Expendables series). While Rocky was everyone's favourite underdog, Rambo is a character who emphasises the roots of America's resentment over losing the Vietnam War. Naturally, Americans like to win, and the Rambo series therefore provides this type of prototypical, patriotic fantasy. Rambo: First Blood Part II marked the decline of Stallone's career as anĀ actor, though - he proved his acting chops inĀ First BloodĀ and 1976'sĀ Rocky, but, as he continued to star in more action movies (Cobra, Demolition Man, Tango & Cash) and Rocky sequels, he became more of a presence than an actual actor. He also became a mainstay at the Razzie Awards, earning frequent nominations. Stallone's performance here is undoubtedly pedestrian and at times laughable, yet he's still an appealing presence and a convincing man of action. The supporting actors are mostly effective, from Napier as a shady bureaucrat to the recognisable Steven Berkoff (Octopussy, A Clockwork Orange) as a Soviet Lieutenant Colonel, while Crenna remains a superlative Colonel Trautman.
At the end of the day, Rambo: First Blood Part II is a tour de force of '80s-style action. With Vietnam in the peripheries, the movie is also similar to the Chuck Norris vehicle Missing in Action, which was released a year prior. Of course, the '80s was all about Vietnam - the notion of American MIAs still being held captive in Vietnam was the subject of several action films (Missing in Action, Uncommon Valor), while the war itself was explored in several classics (Platoon, Full Metal Jacket). Look, First Blood Part II may be as mindless as they come, but it's hardly dull. It cannot be defended as anything other than a guilty pleasure, and that's good enough as long as you have a taste for the action genre.
6.9/10
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