2karl- This film I gave ten out of ten this made 300 million world wide. The best return for a sly film. at an 1hr41mins this film is all action . Rambo is released from prison and is sent back to present day Vietnam. His mission to track down an American Mias. The plan : A parachute into forbidding jungles. with nothing but a serrated knife and a bow with arrows. He is told not to engage the enemy. Just to take recon pictures. Betrayed by his own. Rambo struggling against deadly odds and wows revenge on those who made him an enemy. No man no law no war can stop him he kills 75 enimes.

david-sarkies 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).

zkonedog When the first "Rambo" film (First Blood) came out, it became an instant classic due to its gritty and political take on the negative treatment of Vietnam War vets (or the whole Vietnam War in general). Unfortunately, this sequel turns the franchise into a shoot-em-up, blow-em-up, over- blown action farce filled with shallow plots, tired clichés, and groan-inducing one-liners.For a basic plot summary, in this movie John Rambo (Sylvester Stallone) is temporarily recruited back to the service with Colonel Trautman (Richard Crenna) to help rescue Vietnam prisoners of war. However, when the mission goes awry, Rambo must once again turn into a "killing machine" in order to salvage the objectives and get the men out alive.This film should have been focused on the next chapter of Rambo's life, but it instead eschews any character growth in favor of mindless action, endless explosions, and shiny new weapons. The franchise is much the worse for this transformation, as it takes the human/political aspect of the character and throws them right out the window. The little bit of character growth that director George Cosmatos does try to nurture feels completely out of place in this smorgasbord of explosions.In terms of acting, Stallone is never really given a chance to emote like he did towards the end of First Blood. Instead, he is reduced to shouting, grunting, and growling while patrolling automatic weapons. Also, Crenna and co-star Charles Napier are quite one-dimensional and thus very difficult to form emotional connections with.Thus, I consider "First Blood Part II" to easily be the worst of the Rambo installments due to the shift from a political focus to one of pure action and little plot substance. At times, this film is so hokey that it is almost difficult to watch. You can skip it entirely and not lose out of any of the Rambo character experience.

slightlymad22 Continuing my plan to watch every Sly Stallone movie in order, I come to Rambo: First Blood Part 2.Plot In A Paragraph: Colonel Trautman (Richard Crenna) pulls some strings to get Rambo (Stallone) released from prison and reinstated into Special Forces, to go on a covert mission back to Vietnam, in search of proof they are still holding American POW's. This movie is nothing like its predecessor, which I rated a 10/10, it's so far removed from it, they should have dropped the 'First Blood Part 2' part of the title and simply called it 'Rambo'. First Blood was a tight thriller with some bits of action here and there, with politics (about how America treated its soldiers returning from Vietnam) in there too. This movie is an over the top, patriotic red, white and blue flag waving action movie that has Rambo killing 74 people (as opposed to 1 in 'First Blood') as the one man army once again goes on the rampage. And I love it. When I was younger this was my favourite Rambo movie, and I still have a massive soft spot for it. Stallone has never looked better than he does here, he is in the best shape we have seen him so far. He is once again backed up by the brilliant Richard Crenna (How did this man not get more work?) Julia Nickson is absolutely gorgeous (and is the reason I developed a bit of a fetish for oriental women) and does a great job. Charles Napier is perfectly cast as Murdoch (who gets of lightly in my opinion) unlike an under used Martin Kove who takes the brunt (Or end of a machine gun) of Rambo's anger. Whilst the one man army does take some believing, most are killed one of one, with Rambo sneaking about the jungle (like First Blood) slowly disposing of them. It's not a thinking movie, but it is an enjoyable one.Once again Stallone made changes and extensively rewrote the script. This time, one wrote by James Cameron (Terminator, T2, Aliens) who claims hardly anything of his screenplay was left in the final movie. Stallone had done this on every movie since 'Rocky' if he didn't write the movie, he made changes to the script to suit him.