From my favorite movies..

The movie's neither hopeful in contrived ways, nor hopeless in different contrived ways. Somehow it manages to be wonderful

Great example of an old-fashioned, pure-at-heart escapist event movie that doesn't pretend to be anything that it's not and has boat loads of fun being its own ludicrous self.

It is interesting even when nothing much happens, which is for most of its 3-hour running time. Read full review

As usual, Rambo didn't do first blood. Part II sets Rambo back on Vietnam for a simple mission: take pictures of a dead camp. Of course things aren't as simple as it is.It's linear 80's action. Some tough stereotipical dudes, a lot of testosterone and gun/bow/hand-to-hand fighting.Stallone's acting is good, same goes for Crenna, Napier and Nickson; the rest is acceptable-ish.A good no-brainer.

This is one of those films that was quite popular back in the 80s, but seems to have fallen by the wayside of late. Then again I suspect this it has become somewhat dated and certainly didn't attain the cult like status that some movies did. In a way, like the previous film, the main purpose of Rambo was to try and come to terms with the failures of Vietnam, and dress it up in some form of action film where the all American action hero storms in and saves the day (though it is interesting that we do learn about Rambo's heritage here).The film begins with Rambo in prison however he is approached by his former commander who offers him a way out – return to Vietnam and attempt to rescue some forgotten prisoners of war. However, things pretty quickly go pair-shaped when it becomes clear that the person pulling the strings actually has a different agenda in mind, and once again Rambo simply discovers himself a tool of some faceless, and heartless, Washington bureaucrats.Where as the first movie focused mainly on those who had returned, this movie brings out the concept of those who were left behind. Apparently an agreement was made in 1972 where the American government would pay war reparations in return for the release of their prisoners of war, and not surprisingly the Americans reneged on this agreement, and the prisoners were left to rot. However, this had the potential to explode into a public relations disaster sooner or later (and sort of went against the idea of leave no man behind). Well, this is where Rambo and his mission comes in – not to rescue the prisoners but actually prove that there aren't any there.Mind you, such a movie wouldn't have worked with simply having the Vietnamese as the enemies, so they upped the ante by bringing in the Russians. However, the one thing where this film does end up falling down is the fact that it pretty much degenerates into one massive slug fest. This is probably why I wasn't as impressed with this film as the previous one. In a way it really seemed to fall into some angry rant against the Vietnamese for not only torturing their prisoners, but not letting them go (needless to mention the fact that the Americans were trying to sweep this under the table as well).In a way this film seemed to be capitalising on the renewed interest in the Vietnam War, but really did little to address the issues. Ironically, one of the characters looked a lot like a skinny version of Churck Norris, who also made a couple of Missing in Action films which were actually of a somewhat higher calibre. Sure, this film does have its intrigue, and its untrustworthy bureaucrats, but it does really finish off all that well. In a sense it just seems to reach a point where the screen writers really couldn't work out where to take the film and simply gave Sly a gun (and a helicopter) and had him pretty much run around blowing everything up. Talking about the chopper, that last scene, where he is destroying the camp, is equally ridiculous in that he basically managed to blow up an entire POW camp without injuring a single American (as well as flying a damaged Chopper all the way across Laos only to have it fall apart when it landed at the base in Thailand).

I as a little young when I first saw this, and the First Blood movie I didn't see till a few years after this, so I didn't go in with any idea about who Rambo was or what he was about. Stallone does so well as a brooding action star, always on the edge of sanity in so many of his movies. This movie came out and mixed the current (at that time) hatred for the Soviets, with the bad taste of unfinished business within Vietnam, as many people believed (and it may have been true) that there were American POW's somewhere over there that were left behind by a government that "just didn't care and wanted it all to go away".It fills all of the typical 80's action film clichés: never ending ammo, completely unrealistic gun fights where the good guy can't be hit by any rounds, while he fires wildly with two M-60's and hits everything that moves. But, who ever asked for realism, it's a work of feel good fiction anyway, right? Rambo gets beat up throughout the movie, then comes back in the end and rains vengeance upon the bad guys. Comes back, confronts the bad government guy and his lackeys, roll credits.When I rate a movie like this, I'll rate it with an idea of what was out there at that time. Very few movies stand the test of time, like The Godfather, or 2001, or The Good The Bad The Ugly. Most movies you enjoy, when it starts getting into 10 or more years since you've seen them, you wax poetic about them and perhaps remember them more fondly. This isn't really an exception to that. The Senator in the movie comes off as too much of a representation of a government that many people hated (and still do), but he does a good job of it. Richard Crenna as Col. Trautman is probably the best acting done by anyone in the movie.The unfortunate part of a movie like this is all of the bad reviews it will get from people who want to make a fictional movie into something political. If you find the movie to be atrocious and give it one star on the basis of bad acting, or poor plot, or over the top lack of realism, so be it. But the reviews going on and on about "bad bad USA, should not have been in Vietnam" or "xenophobic" or "racist", please, you need to read up about a few of the POW camps over there that were far far worse than what is shown in the movie. And even more silly: questions like "how would Americans feel if Germany had made a film like this rescuing Nazis" Uh, the Germans did, many countries make what can be construed as "anti-american movies", but we don't hear much about it here.But, I digress, enough with my annoyance about politically motivated reviews. If you enjoy Stallone's dark attitude and cliché catch phrases, combined with gratuitous meaningless hail of bullets and knife jabs, you'll enjoy this movie.

Nobody can deny that Rambo: First Blood Part II is still an enjoyable action movie to watch 30 years on. This time audiences are cheering that the now iconic John Rambo waging a one man war on the bad guys. First Blood (1982) saw a tormented John Rambo symbolically wage war on society following his mistreatment from the small town sheriff's who dismissed him as just another drifter supposedly seen as a troublemaker. This time, John Rambo has the chance to redeem himself.Rambo: First Blood Part II opens with John Rambo (Sylvester Stallone) in prison after the events of the first movie. While hard at work with prison labour, his former commander Colonel Sam Trautman (the late Richard Crenna) visits Rambo and offers Rambo a top secret mission in exchange for a pardon. The mission: to locate American POW's in Vietnam which have since been long forgotten. Rambo accepts the mission, which is being spearheaded by the condescending and seemingly corrupt bureaucrat Marshal Murdock (the late Charles Napier) who insists Rambo only take pictures and not engage the enemy under any circumstances. After Rambo parachutes behind enemy lines, Rambo is aided by an allied Vietnamese fighter Co-Bao (Julia Nickson) in his mission to locate American POW's. When Rambo and Co-Bao successfully locate the long forgotten POW's, Rambo is left behind to be captured by the enemy after Murdock orders his mercenaries Ericson (Martin Kove) and Lifer (Steve Williams) to abort the mission. Murdock the embarrassment of Rambo's discovery. After Rambo escapes the sadistic clutches of Vietnamese Captain Vinh (Dana Lee) and his Russian comrade, Lieutenant Colonel Padovsky (Steven Berkoff at his best as the icy villain). While Rambo mows down the enemy left, right and center in his single minded mission to rescue the POW's, he also swears vengeance on Murdock for leaving him behind enemy lines in order to save his own backside.Sylvester Stallone is at his butt kicking best as John Rambo. Sylvester Stallone also co wrote the movie with James Cameron (The Terminator, Aliens). The rest of the case support the movie well. Richard Crenna makes a welcome return as Colonel Trautman, Julia Nickson's acting is a bit hokey as Rambo's allied Vietnamese fighter, Charles Napier and Steven Berkoff both make quality villains, but the real star of the movie is Sylvester Stallone as Rambo. Jerry Goldsmith's energetic score is a real pleasure to hear which adds another exciting dimension to the movie.Forget all the negative reviews surrounding Rambo: First Blood Part II , it's still a pleasure to watch many years later and we will still cheer on John Rambo giving it to the bad guys on screen.9/10.