Rambo

Briefly: Rambo is living in Thailand where he is hired by a group of missionaries to transport them up the river into Burma. Tragedy strikes. Rambo is then contracted to lead a group of mercenaries up the river to save the missionaries.

I saw First Blood the day it opened in 1982. Ever since, I have been a fan of the Rambo character. Now, the fictional superhero returns after twenty years of absence (since 1988,when we last saw him killing Soviets in Afghanistan in Rambo III).

This installment is low on plot (not very much plot was needed,anyway) and big on mayhem. Also, the characters are not given time to develop. This would normally spell doom for a more artistically presented work, but in this case it really isn't a problem. The only character that matters is John Rambo, and he's already been developed quite thoroughly in First Blood. The rest are merely props in the short story line.
Once the story gets moving, and it doesn't take too long, the crescendo of violence begins. More blood,limbs and intestines fly through the air in this chapter than the three previous films combined. I loved every minute of it.

View the trailer here.

An observation: It appears Sylvester Stallone is attempting to write the final chapters in his two biggest character creations. We've already seen the completion of the Rocky series (and Rocky Balboa was a well done film) with nowhere else to take it. Now it looks like he may be doing the same with John Rambo, bringing him around full circle,returning him 'home' after coming to self-realization with just who/what he is. Although the ending does leave some room for taking the character back up again later, I suspect this is the last we will see of him, though I sincerely hope not.

All in all, worth the price of admission. On a downside, all those who bought the DVD trilogy collection will now have to shell out for the fourilogy collection coming soon to a Wal*Mart near you.