Sylvester Stallone

Rambo: First Blood Part II (1985)

The Great Movie Re-Watch

Rambo: First Blood Part II

Director:

George P. Cosmatos

Writers:

Sylvester Stallone

James Cameron

Starring:

Sylvester Stallone

Richard Crenna

Charles Napier

Julie Nickson

Blurb:

Rambo returns to the jungles of Vietnam on a mission to infiltrate an enemy base-camp and rescue the American POWs still held captive there.

Thoughts:

Rambo: First Blood Part II nearly killed my momentum in my movie re-watch. I was not in the mood to watch it at all. In the end, I had it playing in the background while I folded laundry and played Candy Crush. It is not as good as the first movie and is the birth of Rambo’s current image. It has a huge body count, tons of explosions, and lots of racism. For one brief moment, it seems to call out the government and its treatment of the entire Vietnam war situation, but it is not nearly as scathing as the first movie.

I own Part II because it came in a box set my partner purchased. I nearly convinced myself to skip over it, but it felt like cheating. I don’t hate the movie. It isn’t so violent that it makes me ill, like a couple of the films my partner owns. It’s just not a movie I need to watch more than once.

After the last movie’s events, Rambo is working on a chain gang when Troutman approaches him about a job in Vietnam. He’s given a choice to go back to Vietnam or stay on the chain gang. He chose Vietnam. He’s completely set up for what happens to him, and you know it’s going to happen because he points it out before he gets in the chopper to leave. They hire freaking Rambo to take pictures proving there are no POWs. It was massive overkill, even if there wasn’t supposed to be anyone.

There’s a woman in this one. Rambo kisses her, and then she dies, spurning him on for vengeance. It’s one of my least favorite tropes in action movies. The character was Vietnamese and was supposed to speak in broken English, but the actress did an awful job of it. She pronounced all of the words correctly and skipped over words to make it sound broken. It didn’t sound like anyone I’ve heard who is speaking their non-native language.

Rambo: First Blood Part II showed the flaw in my system. I’ve had urges to watch movies that I own from later years, but I’ve resisted. Having this one in my queue with no desire to watch it made those urges harder to ignore. I ended up starting a binge-watch of Life in Pieces while I kept putting it off.

Next up is Jumpin Jack Flash.

First Blood (1982)

The Great Movie Re-Watch

First Blood (1982)

Director:

Ted Kotcheff

Writers:

Michael Kozoll

William Sackheim

Sylvester Stallone

Starring:

Sylvester Stallone

Brian Dennehy

Richard Creena

Blurb:

A veteran Green Beret is forced by a cruel Sheriff and his deputies to flee into the mountains and wage an escalating one-man war against his pursuers.

Thoughts:

First Blood is my husband’s movie. I debated on whether or not I would watch it. I’ve seen it once before, and while I don’t have a problem with it, I wasn’t feeling a “deeper” movie. I know, I know calling a Rambo movie deep is funny, but First Blood is a bit different from the other Rambo movies. Yes, there are a lot of explosions and Rambo being a badass, but it starts with him just walking the highway as a Vietnam vet with nowhere to go. He’s arrested under trumped-up charges, and he’s pushed over the edge when the cop’s treatment of him mirrors how he was treated as a prisoner of war.

I haven’t read much about the seventies, history-wise, but I’ve been told that Vietnam vets were treated incredibly poorly. This is a huge contrast to how most people treat vets now. Though, it does seem as though the government has always treated vets poorly, so that hasn’t changed since then.

And now it’s time for “Random Facts from the Wikipedia Article!

-The film was shot in Canada, so the guns had to be brought from the US. Halfway through filming, over fifty of them were stolen.

-Kirk Douglas was originally cast as the sheriff but didn’t like that the ending had been changed from the book. He wanted them both to die.

-The original cut of the movie was over three hours. It was so bad that Stallone wanted to buy the film and destroy it because he thought it would ruin his career.

And that’s the end of another edition of “Random Facts from the Wikipedia Article!”

I think people forget that Stallone can act. He’s not an Oscar winner, but he’s probably the best actor out of all the big 80s action movie stars. He nails the gaze of someone who is done with life, and you believe his breakdown at the conclusion of the film.

There are a lot of complaints about how unrealistic the movie is *rolls eyes* but the most unrealistic scene for me is when the cops don’t shoot him as he’s being led from the police station at the end. I can believe Stallone surviving jumping off a cliff and being in a mine when it explodes, but the cops not continuing to be the dicks they’ve proven themselves to be, was pushing the envelope. Though, I guess there was a large media presence so that probably kept them under control.

First Blood is a good movie and one I recommend for all film fans. However, it’s not one I would choose to own. For me, it’s one of those movies that I only have to see once.

Cliffhanger (1993)

Cliffhanger (1993)

Director:

Renny Harlin

Starring:

Sylvester Stallone

John Lithgow

Michael Rooker

Janine Turner

Caroline Goodall

Michelle Joyner

Plot:

A botched mid-air heist results in suitcases full of cash being searched for by various groups throughout the Rocky Mountains.

Review:

This movie was filmed at the height of Stallone’s career. His accent is almost nonexistent and acting wise it’s pretty good. It’s an older movie and not filled with the normal action I’ve come to expect from his films, but it makes sense considering his filmography, and there’s still certainly a number of butts kicked.

I liked the fact that he got his ass handed to him a time or two, even though he did come back and win, just because it made sense for his character. He was a mountain climber, not someone who fights for a living.

The opening scene is pretty intense and my fear of falling from great heights really had this scene freaking me out. I literally knew exactly what was going to happen but was still almost driven to tears while watching it.

After what happened Stallone’s character was understandably shaken and second guessed himself for a little bit, but he didn’t let it drag him down too long once shit started happening.

There were three female characters in the movie. One died immediately. Two were pilots, one was killed by the bad guy, her lover, to prove that he’d do anything. The third was Stallone’s love interest and other than flying the helicopter was fairly useless. She was sort of just there as his romantic partner. In fact all of the women were romantic partners. Interesting.

The movie was entertaining and Stallone was great.

3.5/5

Demolition Man (1993)

demolition-man

Demolition Man (1993)

Director:

Marco Brambilla

Starring:

Sylvester Stallone

Wesley Snipes

Sandra Bullock

Plot:

A police officer is brought out of suspended animation in prison to pursue an old ultra-violent nemesis who is loose in a non-violent future society.

Review:

This is one of my go to movies, something that I’ve watched many times, and I love it. I say this a lot, but they don’t make movies like this anymore. It’s a cheesy action movie but it’s actually thought out. The world is built, there’s all kinds of little details fleshing it out, and the characters are fun. It flows well, it’s violent, and funny. Sure the tech doesn’t make sense but it’s not horrible CG either.

If you haven’t seen Demolition Man I highly recommend.

5/5

Rocky II (1979)

rocky-ii

Rocky II (1979)

Director:

Sylvester Stallone

Starring:

Sylvester Stallone

Talia Shire

Burt Young

Plot:

Rocky struggles in family life after his bout with Apollo Creed, while the embarrassed champ insistently goads him to accept a challenge for a rematch.

Review:

My husband has been trying to get me to watch this series for years and I have zero desire to watch it. Every now and then he catches me though and we’ve now finished the second movie.

I couldn’t watch the beginning because seeing Rocky be stupid with his money was just too much. It was horrible. Then any time Adrian, Talia Shire, came on the screen it was super awkward because she was so shy. Between the two characters it was difficult to watch.

The fighting didn’t really do it for me. The montage wasn’t as good as the first but it was probably the best part of the movie.

I feel kind of bad for rating this movie at all because I seriously had no desire to watch it but whatever.

2/5