Rambo: First Blood Part II

Picking up shortly after the events of its predecessor, Rambo: First Blood Part II follows Sylvester Stallone’s John Rambo as he embarks on a mission to confirm the presence of POWs deep within the jungles of Vietnam. After learning of a double-cross by a sleazy military man named Murdock (Charles Napier), the iconic character eventually decides to ignore his orders to steer clear of the enemy and launches into a full-scale rescue mission, with the latter half of the movie revolving around his efforts to singlehandedly battle both the Vietnamese and Russian armies. Director George P. Cosmatos has infused Rambo: First Blood Part II with a distinctly broad sensibility that proves to be entirely apt, as screenwriters Stallone and James Cameron (!) place the emphasis on moustache-twirling villains and larger-than-life action set-pieces – ensuring that the end result is a film that’s far from plausible but undoubtedly a whole lot of fun. And despite the inclusion of a third-act speech in which Rambo laments the treatment of war veterans by the U.S. government, it’s clear that Stallone and Cameron have no loftier goal than to offer up an almost insanely over-the-top actioner rife with memorable kills and gloriously broad bits of dialogue (most of which, once again, come courtesy of Richard Crenna’s Sam Trautman, who, in addition to referring to Rambo as a “pure fighting machine,” offers up this choice nugget: “what you choose to call hell, he calls home”). The relentless action and mayhem that makes up the film’s third act occasionally borders on overwhelming, admittedly, yet there’s no denying that Rambo: First Blood Part II succeeds as precisely the sort of unapologetically brutal piece of work that’s sorely missing from contemporary multiplexes.

*** out of ****