BLU-RAY
REVIEW: Rambo: First Blood II
05/20/08
Trying to capitalize on the
popularity of “Rambo: First Blood II“, “Rambo: First Blood Part
II” was released 3 years later in 1985. The movie was a
world wide hit and went on to gross $300 million. So where
would writers Sylvester Stallone and James Cameron take
Rambo, where else but back to Vietnam.
In Rambo II, Col. Samuel Trautman (Richard Crenna) finds
Rambo in prison doing hard time on a five year sentence for
what he did at in “First Blood” at Hope, Washington. Col.
Trautman tells Rambo that he’ll get a full pardon if he goes
on a mission to Vietnam to rescue prisoners of war (POWs).
The man running the mission is Marshall Murdock (Charles
Napier). Murdock sends Rambo into Vietnam but only to take
pictures. He says another mission we be sent if there is any
evidence of POWs in the camp. However, the whole mission
turns out to be a stunt, the camp Rambo is sent to is
suppose to be empty, and the mission is just to satisfy the
American public that there are no more POWs. Rambo with his
contact Co Bao (Julia Nickson) finds the camp and as luck
would have it turns out not to be empty. Rambo rescues a POW
and races to the rendezvous point where he is suppose to
meet with a rescue chopper. However when Murdock is made
aware that he has a POW, he tells them to abort the mission.
Rambo is left stranded and is soon captured and tortures,
but Rambo won’t be held for long.
Unfortunately, Rambo II isn’t as good as its predecessor.
While the action has been pumped up, Stallone and Cameron
forgot to pump up the drama. Unlike First Blood, their isn’t
much meaning behind what Rambo does in his second outing.
The strain that made use feel for John Rambo, has been
removed. They also trying unsuccessfully to add a little
romance, but that didn’t work out. The relationship between
Rambo and Co Bao felt really forced.
The worst thing about Rambo II is that there is really no
interesting bad guy. The closes they get is Murdock and Lt.
Col. Podovsky, but they don’t even come close to First
Blood’s Sheriff Teasle. However, there are still some pretty
good scenes and one of my favorite is when Lt. Col. Podovsky
is trying to get Rambo to speak into the radio and
communicate to headquarters that he has been capture. Rambo
grips the microphone and says “Murdock, I’m coming to get
you”. Yeah it’s a bit corny but it’s pure fun just like the
movie.
As you might imagine the movie look even better than “First
Blood” did in high definition. The clarity of the Blu-ray
edition is quite amazing. This Blu-ray disk also includes a
trivia track that plays along side the movie and a 20 minute
documentary titled “We Get To Win This Time” about the
making of “Rambo: First Blood Part II”
Review By Milton Brayson
milton@smartcine.com
VIDEO:
16x9 Anamorphic Widescreen 1080P
AUDIO:
English 5.1 DTS HD Master Audio
French 5.1 Dolby Digital Audio
Subtitles: English and Spanish
SPECIAL FEATURES:
Audio Commentary with Director George P. Cosmatos
“Out of the Blu” Trivia Track - pop-up trivia
track that plays along side the movie. This is a very nice
feature that makes you want to see the movie all over again.
Drawing First Blood - Sylvester Stallone, Richard
Crenna and director Ted Kotcheff discuss the thoughts on the
movie twenty years later. Director Ted Kotcheff says that
the movie is a metaphors for the long term effectives of the
Vietnam war on America. (22:35)
RATING BREAK DOWN:
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