LiveFromKyoto
Member
The first Rambo is a bit over the top, but it's a halfway decent movie about a Vietnam vet unable to reintegrate with American society.
But the second one is just absurd. Like, way out, over the top Monty Python kooky, I couldn't stop laughing at it. I can't get my head around the fact that a bunch of real, thinking adults with access to 40 million 1985 dollars got together and made this thing. It definitely belongs in a "best worst movies ever" category.
It won the following Golden Raspberry awards:
Worst Picture
Worst Screenplay
Worst Actor (Sylvester Stallone)
Worst "Original" Song (Peace in Our Life)
The song at the end is especially awesome, it's an 80s power ballad sung by Frank Stallone about how tough it is being a vet...and world peace. Keep in mind this rolls after Rambo has just made 800 people explode. Here's the video on youtube:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IqkEpbZpvow
As if to underscore the difference from the first one, his knife goes from just being huge in the first movie to being a fucking serrated broadsword in this one. Even the film's title is over the top absurd: Rambo First Blood Part II - how do you write that on a script cover?
The movie poster is borderline hilarious:
There are so many crazy things about this movie. The screenplay was written by Stallone and James Cameron, and it's like they got together, got stoned and had conversations like:
Sly: So uh, what if like, Rambo blows up a whole town?
James Cameron: Nah, already did that in the first one.
Sly: What if he does it with like, just a bow and 5 arrows?*
Cameron: Duuuuude! No way! That would be AWESOME!
(*This actually happens.)
The dialogue they give the Vietnamese chick with the phony accent is ridiculous. It's like, she knows all these English words like "LZ" and "extraction point," but not "the".
"LZ up river! You find extraction point there! Excellent vantage point to bang bang! You take me America now?"
(Incidentally, she is the only female with a speaking role in the entire original trilogy.)
The film is really a sensitive portrayal of the Vietnamese as human beings. If you watched the first Rambo carefully, he never actually kills anybody - not directly. Even the 50 year old sheriff he shoots point blank 8 times with the M60 is alive at the end. But hey, they're Americans, so they count as people, right?
But then in the 2nd movie, it's okay for Rambo to invade Vietnam during peacetime, kill 7000 of their soldiers and blow up an entire innocent farming village full of children, monks and the elderly and burn their crops. Because hey, American soldiers are being held prisoner! One of them even gets shot towards the end, golly, it would be a tragedy if he doesn't make it, better shoot some more innocent people to make sure he gets out! (Don't worry, he does).
Of course, the film's subtext is that naturally Asian people couldn't pull this off themselves. For some reason, the POW camp in the middle of the Vietnamese jungle 10 years after the war ended is under the control of a sadistic Russian Colonel and his elite Spetsnaz squad. I guess there was nothing else for them to be doing. But hey, Rambo gets to win the Vietnam war AND kill evil commie Russians at the same time, so it's all good! The Russians are bad and evil and enjoy killing, which really has you cheering as Rambo kills them. Dozens of them.
Col. Trautman is my favourite character. His whole purpose in these movies is to be a walking advertisement for how awesome Rambo is. "You don't know what you're getting yourself into! Rambo's a machine! If you send 200 men up that hill, 400 of them will die!"
Actual Trautman quote:
"Pressure? Let me just say that Rambo is the best combat vet I've ever seen. A pure fighting machine with only a desire - to win a war that someone else lost. And if winning means he has to die - he'll die. No fear, no regrets. And one more thing, what you choose to call hell, he calls home."
YES!! And he talks like that all the time.
There's no end to the amazing scenes in Rambo II.
In this movie:
A waterfall explodes then lights on fire.
Rambo fights a Russian attack helicopter and wins USING ONLY HIS BARE HANDS.
Rambo is surrounded on a small boat by Vietnamese pirates with machine guns. He grabs a pump action shot gun and manages to pump off four shots and kill them all before anybody can fire a shot.
Rambo shoots up a US military base, threatens his superior with a knife, and is allowed to walk away without any of the soldiers noticing (they're all outside, I guess).
My favourite scene, and I wish I could find this on youtube, is where the Vietnamese CO is shooting at Rambo who is standing on top of a rock at a waterfall in plain view. He sprays machine gun fire until his clip is empty, missing Rambo completely.
Rambo doesn't move, stands stock still, then draws his bow.
The CO then takes out his pistol, and empties most of the clip at the unmoving Rambo. He misses with every single shot.
Rambo stays still, arrow pointed at the guy.
He then starts to run away, then turns, aims and fires one last shot at the unflinching Rambo. He misses, then turns to run again. Finally, Rambo's made his point about how much more awesome he is than this wimp, lets his explosive-tipped arrow fly AND MAKES THE GUY EXPLODE INTO A MILLION PIECES FUCK YEAH USA!!!
What are some of your favourite Rambo First Blood Part II memories?
But the second one is just absurd. Like, way out, over the top Monty Python kooky, I couldn't stop laughing at it. I can't get my head around the fact that a bunch of real, thinking adults with access to 40 million 1985 dollars got together and made this thing. It definitely belongs in a "best worst movies ever" category.
It won the following Golden Raspberry awards:
Worst Picture
Worst Screenplay
Worst Actor (Sylvester Stallone)
Worst "Original" Song (Peace in Our Life)
The song at the end is especially awesome, it's an 80s power ballad sung by Frank Stallone about how tough it is being a vet...and world peace. Keep in mind this rolls after Rambo has just made 800 people explode. Here's the video on youtube:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IqkEpbZpvow
As if to underscore the difference from the first one, his knife goes from just being huge in the first movie to being a fucking serrated broadsword in this one. Even the film's title is over the top absurd: Rambo First Blood Part II - how do you write that on a script cover?
The movie poster is borderline hilarious:
There are so many crazy things about this movie. The screenplay was written by Stallone and James Cameron, and it's like they got together, got stoned and had conversations like:
Sly: So uh, what if like, Rambo blows up a whole town?
James Cameron: Nah, already did that in the first one.
Sly: What if he does it with like, just a bow and 5 arrows?*
Cameron: Duuuuude! No way! That would be AWESOME!
(*This actually happens.)
The dialogue they give the Vietnamese chick with the phony accent is ridiculous. It's like, she knows all these English words like "LZ" and "extraction point," but not "the".
"LZ up river! You find extraction point there! Excellent vantage point to bang bang! You take me America now?"
(Incidentally, she is the only female with a speaking role in the entire original trilogy.)
The film is really a sensitive portrayal of the Vietnamese as human beings. If you watched the first Rambo carefully, he never actually kills anybody - not directly. Even the 50 year old sheriff he shoots point blank 8 times with the M60 is alive at the end. But hey, they're Americans, so they count as people, right?
But then in the 2nd movie, it's okay for Rambo to invade Vietnam during peacetime, kill 7000 of their soldiers and blow up an entire innocent farming village full of children, monks and the elderly and burn their crops. Because hey, American soldiers are being held prisoner! One of them even gets shot towards the end, golly, it would be a tragedy if he doesn't make it, better shoot some more innocent people to make sure he gets out! (Don't worry, he does).
Of course, the film's subtext is that naturally Asian people couldn't pull this off themselves. For some reason, the POW camp in the middle of the Vietnamese jungle 10 years after the war ended is under the control of a sadistic Russian Colonel and his elite Spetsnaz squad. I guess there was nothing else for them to be doing. But hey, Rambo gets to win the Vietnam war AND kill evil commie Russians at the same time, so it's all good! The Russians are bad and evil and enjoy killing, which really has you cheering as Rambo kills them. Dozens of them.
Col. Trautman is my favourite character. His whole purpose in these movies is to be a walking advertisement for how awesome Rambo is. "You don't know what you're getting yourself into! Rambo's a machine! If you send 200 men up that hill, 400 of them will die!"
Actual Trautman quote:
"Pressure? Let me just say that Rambo is the best combat vet I've ever seen. A pure fighting machine with only a desire - to win a war that someone else lost. And if winning means he has to die - he'll die. No fear, no regrets. And one more thing, what you choose to call hell, he calls home."
YES!! And he talks like that all the time.
There's no end to the amazing scenes in Rambo II.
In this movie:
A waterfall explodes then lights on fire.
Rambo fights a Russian attack helicopter and wins USING ONLY HIS BARE HANDS.
Rambo is surrounded on a small boat by Vietnamese pirates with machine guns. He grabs a pump action shot gun and manages to pump off four shots and kill them all before anybody can fire a shot.
Rambo shoots up a US military base, threatens his superior with a knife, and is allowed to walk away without any of the soldiers noticing (they're all outside, I guess).
My favourite scene, and I wish I could find this on youtube, is where the Vietnamese CO is shooting at Rambo who is standing on top of a rock at a waterfall in plain view. He sprays machine gun fire until his clip is empty, missing Rambo completely.
Rambo doesn't move, stands stock still, then draws his bow.
The CO then takes out his pistol, and empties most of the clip at the unmoving Rambo. He misses with every single shot.
Rambo stays still, arrow pointed at the guy.
He then starts to run away, then turns, aims and fires one last shot at the unflinching Rambo. He misses, then turns to run again. Finally, Rambo's made his point about how much more awesome he is than this wimp, lets his explosive-tipped arrow fly AND MAKES THE GUY EXPLODE INTO A MILLION PIECES FUCK YEAH USA!!!
What are some of your favourite Rambo First Blood Part II memories?
