Rambo, And Why I Disagree With The Popular Opinions

Sylvester Stallone solidified his name and career off of Rocky, and, in 1982, added another mammoth franchise to his portfolio.  In First Blood, Stallone played the part of John J. Rambo, a Vietnam special forces veteran that makes a mess of a small town.  I have always found it confusing that there is a great deal of acclaim for First Blood, and not much love for the sequel, Rambo: First Blood Part 2.  I'm fine with bringing criticism down on my head by saying the first film wasn't much, and the sequel is an iconic gem.

When I was much younger and I saw First Blood, I couldn't quite tell why it was supposed to be a 'good' film.  Rambo freaks out and snaps under the weight of mild abuse from local cops, beats them all up, escapes, and a giant manhunt ensues.  Not to justify the actions of the police, but Rambo was a bit of a dick and brought a lot of it on himself.  Then, when people get injured and someone dies, Rambo protests that he didn't do anything, making himself the victim.  This never sat for me, as the actions and reactions weren't those of a victimized hero.  The 'antagonist,' a sheriff played by Brian Dennehy, spends most of the film saying very common sense things, and, to tell you the truth, he is the relatable character in the film.

Personally, I think part of the problem is that Stallone seems to like to be the hero.  Ten years ago, when I got around to reading the book First Blood, by David Morrell, I understood why I had my issues with the film.  In the book, John Rambo is not a hero.  He isn't even a good guy.  The story is simply of an escalating vortex that two people, Rambo and the sheriff, find themselves in.  The decision to make Rambo the hero in the film is at odds with the story itself.  In short, this just isn't the type of structure that allows for a straightforward protagonist, and shifting the Rambo character towards being a good guy doesn't fit.

On top of this, we have one of the worst, cheesy, characters of that decade.  Rambo's former superior, Trautman (Richard Crenna) is nothing but a walking billboard for John Rambo.  He can't get enough of gushing over Rambo, and, whenever given the chance (and many often when not given the chance) he dotes over the god like abilities of Rambo.  My eyes roll with almost everything he says, essentially every line equating to, 'it turns out he's not just a cook' (sorry for the reference that some may not get).  It's like a kid who is five years old and finally got to meet Santa at the mall and just cannot shut the heck up about it.  He talks about it the entire ride home from the mall.  He talks about it while in the bathtub.  He talks about it while trying to brush his teeth.  Yes, we get it.  Rambo is tough.  Yes, no number of cops, national guard, or soldiers will even be close to good enough to handle Rambo, John J..  Trautman was in the book, but not like this.  SPOILER, at the end he literally blows Rambo's head off with a shotgun.

Now, the second film, oddly called First Blood Part 2, since there can never be another 'first' blood.  Any blood after that would be, second blood, or Rambo: Yet Another Blood.  Anywho, this is the movie that is in my opinion the pinnacle of the franchise, and one of Stallone's best films.  Sadly, the reason I say this is not for the same reasons that Sylvester Stallone was shooting for with this movie.  The script, penned by James Cameron and Stallone, is a fast moving, tightly told action story about Rambo being sent into Vietnam to take pictures of what is suspected to be an abandoned POW camp. When he finds American soldiers held captive there, he nabs one and makes his way to the extraction point, only to have the slimy suit in charge of the operation, Murdock (Charles Napier), abandon him.  This means two things.  First of all, John Rambo is mad.  Secondly, the only solution is explosions.

The reason why I hold this up as the better movie is that it perfectly represents everything that 80s action films were about, and everything that went along with the 'one man army' story (Commando would be the other film to sum up everything of that decade).  There is super-cool music now (because Rambo is going to explode pretty much everyone and everything).  There are muscle porn shots of his vascular body parts as they are forever in a state of flexing for some reason (well, that reason is because Stallone loves his body).  Our specially trained hero can wildly wave an assault rifle around and droves of villains die instantly.  And, on that topic, for being such a highly skilled and trained warrior, why the heck is Rambo seemingly allergic to aiming down the sights of his gun? Our 80s action heroes like shooting from the hip, because, you know, that's not completely dumb at all when you sit down to think about it.  The poster even goes as far as to show Rambo about to shoot an RPG from the hip.

When I said there were explosions in the film, that statement doesn't do it justice.  EVERYTHING shall explode.  It is this over the top nature that syncs this film with the pulse of that decade.  Bamboo huts?  Yep, they will blow up?  Evil man with a pistol?  Yep, he will blow up, and his boots will remain.  Anything and everything is done in this film to amplify the bad-assedness of John Rambo, and to turn up to eleven all that he is capable of.

Judging by the end of the film, Stallone really thought that there was a serious message to this movie. Really, a serious message to a film where a submerged man can leap straight up out of the water and land with his feet on a helicopter hover about four feet above the surface.  Yes, that is the proper vehicle for making some kind of political statement.  Stallone flexes eternal, Russians and Vietnamese soldiers blow up, and Murdock is the ultimate bureaucrat.  As far as having a suit in a film like this, Napier brings it full force and sets the bar.  Even Trautman isn't as annoying as in the first film, and he has some good exchanges with Murdock.

Many love First Blood, and I don't get it.  A good friend of mine once pointed out that Dennehy's character (who 'cruelly' tries to keep Rambo out of his town) is completely proven right in his worries that Rambo would cause trouble.  The 'hero' causes a poop-storm.  In the second film, under the great direction of George P. Cosmatos (who also directed the awesome Cobra, although once again it was awesome not for the reason that Stallone wanted), we are treated to essentially a live action cartoon.  There is no way at all to take Rambo: First Blood Part 2 seriously, but that's okay.  I am positive that Cosmatos didn't want that.  He created an over the top film that would go on to be a perfect time capsule for an entire decade.  And did I mention explosions?

REVIEWS: Escape Plan & Escape Plan 2: Hades

The ultimate dream of any 80s action fan was to see Arnold Schwarzenegger and Sylvester Stallone in the same movie.  Both had their loyal fanbases, and to see the two of them rocking the same plot would have caused some sort of fanboy apocalypse.  The closest we got at the time was in Last Action Hero when Arnold was in a video store and stood beside a cardboard cutout of Stallone in Terminator 2, and claiming that he loves that guy.  The Expendables in 2010 gave us a bit more of them, and the second and third movies would provide even more.  But then in 2013 we had Escape Plan hitting theatres.  It was twenty years too late and a plot that didn't court their 'one man army' personas that they equipped in their early years.  I understand that they are older and it would be less believable, but did we really want to see them finally teaming up in a movie where all they were doing was trying to escape from prison?  Tim Robbins and Morgan Freeman work that game, and the characters don't need to be muscled up hulks.

The first movie starts off with Ray Breslin (Stallone) in jail, planning to escape.  Part of his plan succeeding means that he has to get placed in solitary confinement.  He sees that happen and then works his magic, getting out of the prison through some convoluted means that kind of get explained later.  The police chase him down, and when he gives himself up it turns out this wasn't just a normal prison break.  Vincent D'Onofrio meets the prison warden and explains that Breslin is a security expert who is hired to enter prisons and assess their weaknesses by breaking out.  'Aw shucks, you got me,' seems to be the warden's attitude, for some reason forgetting that Stallone's method of getting into solitary was that he killed multiple prisoners.  That's right, he murdered people, but it is okay because he wasn't really supposed to be in jail.

Breslin then gets an offer to try out a secret black site, a prison that is off the books and is a solid pay day.  Breslin can't resist, and he is captured and brought to this intense prison.  However, when he gets there he seems to freak out at the fact that the prison walls are glass and he uses the safe word given to him to end the program within about an hour of being there.  It turns out that they don't accept the safe word, and now Breslin is really trapped and needs to work his way out.  A friendly fellow prisoner named Rottmayer (Schwarzenegger) joins forces with Breslin, and the two aim to get out.

This isn't any kind of mesmerizing plot, but it isn't incredibly bland.  Other than Breslin being allowed to murder human beings in the name of security checks and the stupid looking prison guards that for some reason have extra protection over their shoulders and biceps and nothing but a black cotton/polyester blend over their vital organs, this movie isn't insulting.  Sadly, it just isn't that interesting, the twist at the end falls flat, and a character turn is spotted within the first ten minutes.  This just isn't the film that people yearned to see Stallone and Schwarzenegger in.  Both leads are likeable enough, but there is only so little that their characters do in this film.

Fast forward five years, and we have the sequel, Escape Plan 2: Hades.  The movie starts off with a hostage situation with militant Muslims, and they are fixing to kill westerners.  The good news is that it turns out that Breslin has inserted some of his security specialists into the situation, because everyone knows you can just wander up to extremists and request being put in with a group of hostages.  Also, one of Breslin's people is embedded with the terrorists, because these are obviously the types of people that would let a caucasian American become one of them so quickly without suspicion and put him in a position of responsibility.  That opening sequence and the logic behind it will hurt your brain if you dare think about it, so lets be kind and just pretend that everything in this movie is going to make sense.  That's how were are going to get through this, you and me.  We are going to pretend that it is all logical and makes sense.

As though he were Steven Seagal, Stallone is barely in this movie.  It focuses mostly on characters that we know very little about, with actors that we know very little about.  One of them was in God's Not Dead 2, which means nothing good for this film.  Trapped in a crazy implausible prison are three of Breslin's guys, and they wade through a muddled plot as they try and work out how to escape.  For some reason one of the guys waits until over halfway through the film to point out a prisoner who knows the entire layout of the prison.  This is the kind of plot that we are dealing with, instances happening without logic, only being slotted in places where the plot needs something new to happen.

One of the nicer things about Escape Plan 2: Hades is the presence of Dave Bautista as Trent Derosa, a streetwise tough who assists Breslin.  This is someone who I was really skeptical of when it came to acting.  I wasn't really on team Bautista when he was a professional wrestler, so I was certain I wouldn't dig him in movies.  It's not like he is a man for all roles, but I do have to say that there is something interesting about his presence and performances that I rather enjoy.  The really sad thing about his acting career is that he is getting into it way too late.  He is almost fifty, and I am wishing that he worked on making this transition twenty years ago.  As it is, though, he is still huge and intimidating, and he was just not in this film nearly enough.

This is a boring movie.  While the first film wasn't embarrassing, this movie serves no purpose other than to be yet another franchise that Stallone will refuse to let go of.  There is a third Escape Plan in the works.  Stallone is going to be in the sequel to Creed (he also wrote the screenplay), there is another Expendables coming, and, for some horrible reason, there is going to be yet another Rambo.  I feel like this is getting a little embarrassing.  Stallone's refusal to let go of franchises is unfortunate, as these characters are only seeming to continue to exist to provide for work for Stallone instead of existing because there are compelling stories for them.

I suppose the short of this is that while there is nothing outrageously wrong with Escape Plan, it isn't something that's going to make you feel this was the best application of action heroes.  Escape Plan 2: Hades, however, is something that people should keep away from.  Nothing to see here.  Move along, move along.

Escape Plan rating - 2 out of 4 stars
Escape Plan 2: Hades rating - 1 out of 4 stars

REVIEW: Creed

The good news about Creed is that if there were people wondering if a Rocky spin off would end up turning into a story about Rocky Balboa getting back into the ring 'one last time,' your worries are unjustified.  The story truly focuses on the tale of the illegitimate child of Apollo Creed, the man who died in the ring at the hands of the vicious Ivan Drago and who challenged and then mentored Balboa.

The young and talented actor Michael B. Jordan plays the role of Adonis Johnson, the up and coming boxer who wants to carve his own path and does not want to make it based solely on the name of his father.  The secret cannot stay hidden forever, and the moment it comes out it is the wet dream of the manager for the soon to be jailed light heavyweight champion "Pretty" Ricky Conlan, played by boxer Tony Bellew.  This is not the first time in the Rocky franchise that the choice to have professional boxers in the cast, and it pays off well as Bellew is able to adequately be the villain that is needed to our hero to face and overcome.

But is the movie really about beating someone and becoming the champion?  Absolutely not.  The movie is a character story, with boxing just being the means for which our protagonist develops and learns about himself.  Michael B. Jordan flexes (pun kind of intended, I guess) his talents as he adds an enormous amount of depth to his character, with the solid script from director Ryan Coogler and Aaron Covington making for an intriguing story with an emotional character arc.

One of the best things about this film, outside of the action in the ring, that is, is the chemistry between Jordan and Sylvester Stallone who returns to play the legendary role of the Italian Stallion, Rocky Balboa.  He is a supporting character this time around, and he hits into it more naturally than any of the films since Rocky.  He is written not as a one dimensional character, and he proves to audiences once more that he can act with the right script and the right director.  There are a lot of very touching and emotional scenes between the aging boxer and the new blood who just wants to prove to himself that he is the best.

The directing of Ryan Coogler is one of the main take aways from this film.  Creed is completely stylistically different than his only other feature film, Fruitvale Station, but from what you see on the screen you would think that he had done this kind of film many times before.  He shows a mastery of using dialogue, cinematography, and score to allow the emotions of the film to ebb and flow along with the story.

The action in the film feels like first nature to Coogler.  One of the boxing matches shows incredible ambition and talent as it is made to feel like one continuous shot through out the entire battle, with the camera weaving around the action in the ring and following the boxers to their corners between rounds.  This is the incredible work of cinematographer Maryse Alberti, who also showed an skillful eye in this year's The Visit.  There may not be any talk of her being up for an Oscar for this role, but that boxing sequence alone demands that people give her respect.

Everything with this film comes together to bring audiences a fun, emotion-fueled boxing movie about an underdog working to over come.  It is not just about winning, but about knowing who you are, and what it is that you are fighting for in life.  There is just too much entertainment and talent shown in this movie to not enthusiastically recommend it.

Rating - 3.5 out of 4 stars

Box Office Predictions: The Good Dinosaur, Creed, and Victor Frankenstein

A few days ago I wrote a post on Creed, a spin off of from the popular (and aged) Rocky franchise.  After talking about the film itself, it is time to take a look through the realm of the mystics and forecast just how it will do in the box office this weekend.  Along with it, Pixar's The Good Dinosaur and Fox's Victor Frankenstein are opening as well.

This is the first time that Pixar has released two films in the same year.  Back in the summer, Inside Out became an enormous success both critically and in the box office.  It scored 98% on Rotten Tomatoes and opened to $90 million.  One could guess that this will be another knock out of the park by Pixar, but there is a chance that it won't be quite as successful as Inside Out.

For starters, it is not fairing as well on Rotten Tomatoes, currently sitting at 81%.  Now, that does not necessarily mean anything for a family feature such as this, but it is interesting to note that the audience rating is pretty much the same, with 80%.  Twitter traffic is also relatively low for a Pixar film, with BoxOffice.com reporting that the Twitter activity mirrors that of Hotel Transylvania 2, which opened to $48 million.

I won't play the standard maths and say that it will translate proportionally to The Good Dinosaur, but I will say that all things considered, it looks like this will not be the holiday weekend breakout film that perhaps Disney was hoping for.  It is Thanksgiving weekend of a fall season that has seen a lot of movies flop, but I don't think that will be the case here.  I expect a decent opening weekend for Pixar's latest.

The Good Dinosaur Opening Weekend Prediction - $63 Million


Let's pretend that the name Sylvester Stallone is not attached to Creed.  His name has meant next to nothing in the box office the past number of years, so it would do a disservice to the potential of this movie to lean on his drawing power.  He does play a role in the film, but it is not by getting in the ring 'one last time,' and instead plays a mentor, but in a movie that looks better than when he mentored Tommy 'Machine' Gunn in the fifth and cartoonish Rocky movie.

This time around, the story is less about Rocky Balboa, and more about the son of Apollo Creed, Adonis Johnson (Michael B. Jordan).  It is hard to base any interest from the general public off of Jordan's name, and let's try to forget for the moment that he was in this summer's (less than) Fantastic Four.  Critics know just how talented he is, and mainstream audiences are about to find out.

Right now it is boasting a tremendous 92% on Rotten Tomatoes and has seen a very effective and emotionally stirring promotional campaign.  Audiences are loving it (giving it 96% on RT), and it is that kind of appreciation that I think could turn into good word of mouth that will give this film a boost over the course of the weekend, allowing it to exceed expectations.

Creed Opening Weekend Prediction - $30 Million


And last we have Victor Frankenstein, a movie whose trailers make it difficult to take the film's chances seriously.  Having stylized movies is a risk, and this one may not pay off at all.  Audiences are currently liking it more than critics, but I doubt that will help out the film.  Stylized reimagining may have worked for Sherlock Holmes, but something tells me that the character of Holmes is much more intriguing to the public than that of Frankenstein.

Victor Frankenstein Opening Weekend Prediction - $7.5 Million

Is Rocky Balboa Ready to be Relevant Again?

With the upcoming film Creed,  I can't help but ask if the aging boxer Rocky Balboa is really something that audiences care about at all.  The movie follows the life of Adonis Johnson, the son of Apollo Creed.  For those who are not familiar with the Rocky franchise, Apollo Creed was the challenge for the underdog Balboa to over come, turning from foe in the ring to good friend.

Sylvester Stallone is a far distance from the cinematic draw that he once was in the eighties.  In 1985, his films Rambo: First Blood Part II and Rocky IV were second and third in the box office respectively.  The characters were cartoonish, but it played well with the general thirst for cheesy action that movie goers had during that time period.

A lot has changed in the thirty years that have passed since then.  The kinds of films that Stallone was known for now have a difficult time even getting wide releases, and when they do, they end up in the dumping grounds of the winter or mid August.  The name of Stallone itself means nothing for ticket sales, with each of his three 2013 releases (Bullet to the Head, Escape Plan, and Grudge Match) all falling short of ten million dollars in their opening weekends.  Even the revitalizing franchise of The Expendables only made $15.8 million its opening weekend last year.  No matter who he is teamed up with, his films just don't have the appeal that they once did.

So, with some pretty dismal numbers leading to an undeniable conclusion that his time of being a draw is long gone, why are we about to see Rocky arrive on screens once again?  Is it just an aging actor refusing to let go?

That does not appear to be the case here.  For the first time in the Rocky franchise, Sylvester Stallone is not writing the story, but leaving that task to the film's director Ryan Coogler and Aaron Covington.  Coogler may have only one film under his belt, but that doesn't mean that he is over his head with this potential blockbuster.  In 2013 he released his first feature film, Fruitvale Station, which won over critics and audiences and showed his abilities as both a director and writer.

What made Fruitvale Station so powerful was the focus on the final day of Oscar Grant (Michael B. Jordan) in a 'based on true events' story that leads to Grant being shot by a BART police officer on new year's eve in 2009.  With a true story such as that, the audience knows exactly how it will end, with the sound of a gunshot and the lead dying.  However, even with the outcome known, Coogler gets us so invested in the character of Oscar Grant that we beg for the inevitable to not happen.

It is that skill that he brings with him to Creed, in a movie that looks to be a character story of Adonis Johnson, who is played by Michael B. Jordan, making this the second time the two have teamed up together.  With Coogler's directing and writing combined with the incredibly powerful yet nuanced abilities of Jordan, it is not surprising that critics are praising this film.

This could be the wisest cinematic move that Stallone has done in recent memory, and that involves the passing of the torch to the next generation.  It felt as though his past movie attempts were about keeping the spark of the action hero alive in him, something that the ticket purchasing public could not get into.  Now, with him playing the part of mentor for an up and coming super talent, movie goers have a Stallone movie to be excited about once again.

The Expendables 3

A number of years ago, at Wrestlemania 17, fans of the performance art of sweaty men pushing and pummelling each other (and indeed I was at the time a great fan) were treated to the ‘Gimmick Battle Royal,’ which was a blast from the past exhibit.  Wrestlers of old, all of whom were bathed in complete, unabashed gimmick.  It was a spectacle, because this was a concept that had become a bit of a laugh and shame inducing aspect when looking back at the history of wrestling.  However, seeing a light-hearted remembrance to it at Wrestlemania 17 brought out the nostalgia and made it ever so joyous to behold.  We had Duke ‘The Dumpster’ Droese (a garbage man), The Repo Man (no explanation required), Doink the Clown (once again, I need not explain), and the pinacle of hopeless gimmicks, The Gobbeldy Gooker (a dancing and unbelievable excited Thanksgiving Turkey).

It was enjoyable for the moment.  The wrestling was awful, but that had nothing to do with the enjoyment which was based on smiling and remembering how silly all of this was.  If they did it a second and third time, the novelty would be long gone and it would need to be actually entertaining for it to work.  Such is the case with The Expendables, which came out in 2010 and is now on its third instalment.  I fondly remember seeing it with a good friend, and getting giddy about all of these names from the past being thrown onto the screen in one action packed adventure.  To be honest, the action, script, and directing were not that great.  It was the un-measurable  power of nostalgia that left me walking away giving it a delightful three stars.

And onward does time march, four years the further and one sequel come and gone.  Novelty and nostalgia have now vanished.  It happened the first time, and it is no longer just fun in of itself to see these names on the screen at the same time.  The film’s shoulders must carry the weight of projecting a passable product.  What amazes me with this movie is that fact that it seems completely unaware that perhaps the ‘if we build it, they will come’ philosophy will not always work.  Just because it is crammed to capacity with well recognizable names does not mean it will be worthy of the masses.

The film itself is built on unsparing dialogue and characters, a barely serviceable script, and action sequences that are patched together with little cohesion, making it hard to really follow the part of the movie that should be the most fun.  As well as packing lots of weaponry, Sylvester Stallone and his crew march their way into battle wielding unforgivably poor blue screen effects, as well as digitally created aircraft and explosions that are just only one level above The Asylum (the studio who brought us Sharknado).  The rumoured budget is $90 million, and one has to believe that the majority went to pay the large cast instead of creating a movie that felt like it was produced by a major Hollywood studio.

In the film, Stallone’s team of elder gents of arms (including Jason Statham - who is really not that old, Dolf Lungren, Randy Couture, Wesley Snipes, and Terry Crews) run into a roadblock in an attempt to accomplish a poorly planned mission.  I did learn from this movie that if you are ever going to break into a heavily guarded area, you just need to proceed in the open with guns drawn at a pace slightly quicker than a meandering skulking.  I was also taught that to avoid being seen by passing vehicles, all one needs to do is stand with their back flat against a wall that faces directly towards the threat.

Not being able to accomplish the mission, which they never really seemed intent on doing if we are basing it off of their actions when the stuff goes down, Stallone sends the members of his team on their way.  His reasoning is that this is a young man’s game, a realization that he obviously did not come to while looking in a mirror.  Armed with a new group of unknown and unseasoned actors (with one of them having an IMDB bio boast of his existence on Dancing With The Stars), they go on to tackle dangers and be heroes.  For not having a lot of recognition, it is the younger group of soldiers who bring a shade of life to the film.  In the case of the UFC woman’s champion Ronda Rousey, she was able to shine at moments of personality and flair.  However, the ball was dropped when she was given a weighty dramatic context that was at this point out of her element.

Maybe that is the biggest problem with the movie… so many people do not feel like they are actually given opportunity for their personalities to be properly brought to light and infuse some energy is this bullet riddled film.  Wesley Snipes and Antonio Banderas grabbed their roles and ran with them, bringing some of the only moments of joy that I had while watching it, wishing that the others had done the same.  If neither your time nor your money is expendable, save yourself the time and just Google the synopsis and you get all you need from that.

Rating - 1 out of 4 stars