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Rambo

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Rambo (2008)

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Reviews Counted:140

Fresh:52

Rotten:88

Average Rating:4.8/10

Consensus: Sylvester Stallone knows how to stage action sequences, but the movie's uneven pacing and excessive violence (even for the franchise) is more nauseating than entertaining.

Australian Rating: R18+ [See Full Rating] High level violence

Runtime: 1 hr 33 mins

Genre: Action/Adventure

Australian Theatrical Release:
Feb 21, 2008 Wide

US Box Office: $42,724,402

Synopsis: Twenty years after the last film in the series, John Rambo (SYLVESTER STALLONE) has retreated to northern Thailand, where he's running a longboat on the Salween River. On the nearby Thai-Burma... Twenty years after the last film in the series, John Rambo (SYLVESTER STALLONE) has retreated to northern Thailand, where he's running a longboat on the Salween River. On the nearby Thai-Burma (Myanmar) border, the world's longest-running civil war, the Burmese-Karen conflict, rages into its 60th year. But Rambo, who lives a solitary, simple life in the mountains and jungles fishing and catching poisonous snakes to sell, has long given up fighting, even as medics, mercenaries, rebels and peace workers pass by on their way to the war-torn region.

That all changes when a group of human rights missionaries search out the "American river guide" John Rambo. When Sarah (JULIE BENZ) and Michael Bennett (PAUL SCHULZE) approach him, they explain that since last year's trek to the refugee camps, the Burmese military has laid landmines along the road, making it too dangerous for overland travel. They ask Rambo to guide them up the Salween and drop them off, so they can deliver medical supplies and food to the Karen tribe. After initially refusing to cross into Burma, Rambo takes them, dropping off Sarah, Michael and the aid workers...

Less than two weeks later, pastor Arthur Marsh (KEN HOWARD) finds Rambo and tells him the aid workers did not return and the embassies have not helped locate them. He tells Rambo he's mortgaged his home and raised money from his congregation to hire mercenaries to get the missionaries, who are being held captive by the Burmese army. Although the United States military trained him to be a lethal super soldier in Vietnam, decades later Rambo's reluctance for violence and conflict are palpable, his scars faded, yet visible. However, the lone warrior knows what he must do...

Sylvester Stallone writes, directs and stars as RAMBO, filmed on location in and around Chiang Mai, Thailand. Also starring are Julie Benz (Dexter), Paul Schulze (The Sopranos), Matthew Marsden (Resident Evil: Extinction, Black Hawk Down), Graham McTavish (HBO's Rome), Rey Gallegos (American Wedding), Tim Kang ("Third Watch"), Jake La Botz (Ghost World), Maung Maung Khin and Ken Howard. RAMBO is produced by Avi Lerner, Kevin King Templeton and John Thompson. Executive producers Randall Emmett, George Furla. Executive Producers Jon Feltheimer, Peter Block, Bob Weinstein, Harvey Weinstein. Executive Producers Andreas Thiesmeyer, Josef Lautenschlager. Executive Producers Danny Dimbort, Boaz Davidson, Trevor Short. --© Lionsgate
[More]

Starring: Sylvester Stallone, Julie Benz, Matthew Marsden, Graham McTavish

Starring: Sylvester Stallone, Julie Benz, Matthew Marsden, Graham McTavish, Rey Gallegos, Jake LaBotz, Tim Kang, Ken Howard

Director: Sylvester Stallone

Director: Sylvester Stallone
Screenwriter: Sylvester Stallone, Art Monterastelli
Producer: Sylvester Stallone, Avi Lerner, John Thompson, Kevin King
Composer: Brian Tyler
Studio: Lions Gate Films

[See More Credits]

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Reviews for Rambo

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1 - 20 (sorted by date; Australian critics are listed first)
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There is next to no dialogue in the film's final 30 minutes %u2013 just a torrent of killing, blood and violence. The film's target market of young testosterone-charged males will no doubt be eager to immerse themselves in this blood-fest of stunts and sp

Full Review Source: Urban Cinefile | comment 1 Comment
02/14/08
Urban Cinefile Critics
Urban Cinefile Critics
Urban Cinefile
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

Those going in knowing what to expect will likely welcome this send-off

Full Review Source: Dark Horizons | comment Comment
02/04/08
Garth Franklin
Garth Franklin
Dark Horizons
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

Sly may be a crass tyrannosaurus, but he's not a fake

Full Review Source: CinePassion | comment Comment
08/27/09
Fernando F. Croce
Fernando F. Croce
CinePassion

Light on plot, heavy on violence - Rambo isn't for everyone, however I think it perfectly appeals to the video game crowd.

Full Review Source: 3BlackChicks Review | comment Comment
08/03/09
Kamal  'The Diva' Larsuel
Kamal 'The Diva' Larsuel
3BlackChicks Review

Do you want disembowelment and decapitation with your popcorn? Is gore glorious? Is brutality orgasmic? Is spurting blood the fountain of fun? If so, Rambo is 4 U.

Full Review Source: Fayetteville Free Weekly | comment 3 Comments
02/02/09
Tony Macklin
Tony Macklin
Fayetteville Free Weekly

The orgy of violence, as ghastly as in any video game, should go a long way toward erasing whatever goodwill Stallone earned with his sentimental Rocky Balboa.

Full Review Source: Chicago Reader | comment Comment
12/16/08
J. R. Jones
J. R. Jones
Chicago Reader

Straightforward wish fulfillment -- imagine what crimes against humanity we could punish if we had real, indestructible Rambos.

Full Review Source: Window to the Movies | comment Comment
10/01/08
Jeffrey Chen
Jeffrey Chen
Window to the Movies

It's not the perfect Rambo film I was hoping for, but it was a pretty entertaining one.

Full Review Source: Sin Magazine | comment Comment
07/22/08
Austin Kennedy
Austin Kennedy
Sin Magazine

Now we are no longer observing the icon... we are the icon.

Full Review Source: UGO | comment Comment
06/14/08
Keith Uhlich
Keith Uhlich
UGO

I know my credibility could take a hit here, but I am man enough to admit that I enjoyed watching Rambo once again don his famous headband and shoot enemies with his trusty bow and arrow.

Full Review Source: Watertown Daily Times | comment 1 Comment
05/20/08
Adam Tobias
Adam Tobias
Watertown Daily Times

(Rambo) really only has 3-4 minutes of redeeming entertainment.

Full Review Source: BDK Reviews | comment Comment
05/17/08
Kevin McCarthy
Kevin McCarthy
BDK Reviews

Suspiciously wrinkle-resistant Stallone in comeback, a Rambo in serious need of anger management and not too shy to get into a little ripping out of throats with bare hands and selective disemboweling too.

Full Review Source: NewsBlaze | comment 2 Comments
05/13/08
Prairie Miller
Prairie Miller
NewsBlaze

We need John Rambo. In an age of mistrust and bureaucratic cowardice, it is comforting to know there is a hulking great protector to keep the world in check.

Full Review Source: Mansized | comment Comment
05/13/08
Chris Laverty
Chris Laverty
Mansized

The film does for the Myanmar genocide what I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry did for same-sex marriage...

Full Review Source: MSNBC | comment 3 Comments
05/01/08
Alonso Duralde
Alonso Duralde
MSNBC

Luckily, Rambo's years away from war haven't dulled his ability to rip out a man's throat with his bare hands.

Full Review Source: Peterborough This Week | comment Comment
04/15/08
Mike Sage
Mike Sage
Peterborough This Week

'Rambo' is pure adrenaline, a frenzied rush into the heart of a jungle where the prevailing darkness is far more horrific than anything Kurtz could have imagined.

Full Review Source: San Francisco Examiner | comment Comment
04/09/08
Rossiter Drake
Rossiter Drake
San Francisco Examiner

However you parse the character's evolution, Rambo the film shows a peculiar understanding of changes in the industry.

Full Review Source: PopMatters | comment Comment
03/21/08
Cynthia Fuchs
Cynthia Fuchs
PopMatters

Quando comemorei o retorno de Stallone à boa forma artística, não imaginei que empregaria sua recém-reconquistada influência para realizar algo tão abominável quanto este Rambo IV.

Full Review Source: Cinema em Cena | comment 1 Comment
03/01/08
Pablo Villaca
Pablo Villaca
Cinema em Cena

While Rambo is certainly not for everyone, it succeeds at being exactly what it sets out to be %u2014 a nostalgic, actionpacked, gore-splattered ode to the antihero of a bygone era.

Full Review Source: Colorado Springs Gazette | comment Comment
02/28/08
Brandon Fibbs
Brandon Fibbs
Colorado Springs Gazette

I love Stallone, but this isn't any fun. I'm also concerned because he's starting to look like the Cloverfield monster. No more HGH!

Full Review Source: Tucson Weekly | comment Comment
02/25/08
Bob Grimm
Bob Grimm
Tucson Weekly
 
 
1 - 20 (sorted by date; Australian critics are listed first)
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Latest News for Rambo

September 08, 2009: Stallone Releases Synopsis, First Poster for Rambo 5 Opens in new window
You heard that the fifth "Rambo" was going to pit the titular hero against a drug-dealing slave ring, but as it turns out, Sylvester Stallone's plans for the next sequel are a... More...

August 31, 2009: Fifth Rambo Gets a Green Light Opens in new window
Sylvester Stallone will "fight his way through human traffickers and drug lords to rescue a young girl abducted near the U.S.-Mexico border" in the fifth "Rambo" installment,... More...

January 29, 2009: Stallone Mulling Over Another Rambo Opens in new window
Are you ready for more Rambo? Sylvester Stallone is -- and he's just told Extra that the only thing he needs to do is decide "whether to do it in America or a foreign country." More...

July 28, 2008: RT on DVD: Harold & Kumar, Doomsday and Dark City Director's Cut
Since we're all still recovering from Comic-Con 2008, and tons of new home video details dropped at the Largest Nerd Gathering in the World, it's time for RT on DVD: Geek... More...

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