Did you realize there was a Rambo movie made in the 21st century? Seriously. You could buy a ticket and see it in a movie theater and everything. The idea that a character that had become so enmeshed in the pop culture landscape of a particular time period could try and make a comeback fascinated me. Or sort of fascinated me since I didn't bother to go see the movie in the theater and instead waited for it to come to DVD before I watched it. Anyway, since I saw the fourth(!) Rambo movie I figured I might as well say a few words about it.

Eschewing the "First Blood" moniker altogether this latest film is simply titled Rambo. There's a certain simplicity to that direct name. People are tuning in to see Rambo so they might as well just stamp his name on the posters and be done with it. That, and when people are watching Rambo I doubt they want to spend too much time doing something as difficult as reading words. My only concern about this is what problem might come up if Rambo is enough of a hit to justify yet another film. What will they call the next movie- "Rambo 2.0?" Or will they shorten it even more so it's just "R?" I'll leave that to the brain trust that thought up this latest Rambo revival.

In addition to shedding excessive words from the title Rambo also drops any sort of American angle to the film's politics. It's not the ridiculous levels of violence that have caused the Rambo films to be such a lightning rod, rather it's the political subtext that causes people to get a bit antsy. In the first film he was a displaced veteran who dealt with his ostracization from society by blowing stuff up. In the second one Rambo essentially tried to redeem America's sense of swagger after it's involvement in Vietnam by blowing stuff up. In the third movie Rambo branches out a bit by trying to broker peace in the Middle East or some crazy thing by blowing stuff up. If you were paying attention you might have noticed a common denominator throughout these films. But besides the obligatory blown up stuff all the films were very much rooted in the interests of the United States. The discourse on international relations was as blunt as only a movie featuring an oiled up muscleman with a machine gun can be which only made the whole thing more weird. Whether the films were some sort of simplistic catharsis for a portion of the population, silly wish fulfillment, broadly aimed propaganda or whatever, the one thing that was certain in the series is that Rambo never met a problem he couldn't shoot an exploding arrow at. Although Rambo continues his pre-occupation with world conflict in his latest outing, the presence of the United States is muted. I'm not even sure I saw a single American flag in Rambo. When the United States was mentioned it was only as a location, much the way one would discuss the city of Toledo or directions to the nearest Burger King. Perhaps some of the dialing back of gung-ho patriotism comes from the current standing of America in its own eyes and in the view of the world at large. Or perhaps it comes from wanting to make sure Rambo can connect with as large an international audience as possible. Whatever the reason that Rambo's world is less focused on the United States it is still just as packed with explosions. Considering that had always been the main selling point anyway it's probably just as well.

One tradition that Rambo does keep is John Rambo's attempts to remove himself from society by heading off to the most ridiculously out of the way places possible. If they make another movie I hope that Rambo sequesters himself in the center of the Earth or the Moon. This time out Rambo has shuffled off to Thailand and is working at an exotic snake show. Hey, it's a living. While Rambo is minding his own business the world's most naive group of missionaries ask him for help in smuggling them into Burma. In real life I suspect missionaries are much better prepared but these characters -much like the soldiers Rambo mows down- are straw men who only exist to make the hero look good. Did I mention the movie is written, directed and stars Sylvester Stallone? In many ways Rambo is a vanity piece masquerading as an action movie. Anyway, since the missionaries suck they get captured by the goons who run Burma. A group of mercenaries are then brought in to extract the church workers. If you ever wondered where the money from collection plates passed around during church service goes, you now know that some of it goes to fund private contractors. Once again, Rambo is hired to tote more people up the river into Burma. Even though Rambo tags along with them the mercs end up sucking as well and it's up to our hero to once again save the day. Well, save the day by ruining everybody else's day but a man's got to do what a man's got to do.

Speaking of the main character, I should say a few words about Rambo himself. By the time the second Rambo movie came out Stallone had beefed up to absurd proportions. He was so large and so strange looking that he didn't even look human and resembled a walking, talking -well, mumbling- plastic soldier toy. But that was back in the 1980's and time takes a toll on everything, even the chemicals and non-organic matter that Stallone is stuffed full of. In Rambo our reluctant psycho now looks like a cheap discount store knock-off toy soldier or maybe a toy soldier that got a bit too close to the business end of some fireworks. I don't know how but he somehow looks both waxy and oily at the same time. While I appreciate that Stallone made the other characters treat Rambo no differently than anyone else it's still surprising that nobody seemed the least bit surprised at seeing such a big, bizarre man lumbering around Southeast Asia. At least Rambo does the world a favor and keeps his shirt on for the entire movie.

Except for some niche fetish types nobody goes to see these things for a chance to see Rambo's plastic muscles; instead it's all about the violence. But what should be the guilty pleasure that drives the film is so split it's hard to tell what anybody involved was thinking. The violence in the first half of the movie details the gruesome horrors inflicted on the people of Burma by the people controlling the country. It's hard to enjoy an escapist action film when I'm watching toned-down and thrillingly filmed real life atrocities. After dwelling on the terrible things man can to to his fellow man Rambo then turns into a whoop-ass revenge fantasy. That's quite the double bill but I'm not sure it's entertainment. While I can understand the need to explain why Rambo is doing his thing I was never certain whether I was supposed to be outraged or entertained by the violence. That could be an interesting theme for a measured, intelligent piece of cinema but this is Rambo we're talking about here. A side note, but it seems the fictionalized depiction of the horrors being suffered by the people of Burma in Rambo annoyed the actual thugs controlling the country so I guess something good came out of the whole thing.

Speaking of the violence, I would be remiss if I didn't mention the ending. Yes, I'm going to spoil the climax of the film but if you don't know that the movie is going to end with Rambo shooting the bad guys you have no idea what these films are about. The mercenaries and missionaries all make it down to the edge of the river but because of their earlier established sucking they get captured by about two hundred Burmese soldiers. Now that I think about it the river should have received co-star status in Rambo since it did more than most of the actors. As the Burmese army aimlessly mills around on the beach Rambo jumps into the back of a jeep and commenders a huge ass machine gun. Rambo then proceeds to shoot this stationary gun at the army for the next fifteen minutes. It's extraodinary. The soldiers never try to circle around him, shoot back en masse or even try to get out of the way. Instead they all run around in circles while Rambo stands in one place for a quarter of an hour and guns them to pieces. Since the movie is only ninety minutes long a sixth of the film's running time is devoted to Rambo standing there shooting a gun.

So has Rambo lost something over the years by being stripped of his patriotic fervor? Or is this streamlined grindhouse killing machine the pure essence of Rambo? I don't know, but if you're in the mood to watch Rambo continue with his proud tradition of blowing stuff up then Rambo is the movie for you.

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