Movie Review: Rambo IV

Director: Sylvester Stallone

Sylvester Stallone’s inexplicable reinvention continues as he exhumes the character of John Rambo, the all-action Vietnam vet, for one final (or do I speak too soon?) slash-and-shoot rampage. Having single-handedly killed dozens of rednecks, Vietnamese and Russians in the previous installments, Rambo turns his attention to the totalitarian regime du jour: Burma. As always, Stallone (who has written or co-written every film in the series) brings his own particular brand of right-wing flavor to a visceral and glorified view of combat.

The plot follows a group of missionaries wanting to bring medical supplies to the people of Burma. They happen upon Rambo, seemingly retired and working as a snake catcher in the Thai jungle, and hire him to guide them up the river into the heart of darkness. Inevitably the group comes under attack from the Burmese army and become separated, and it’s up to Rambo and a team of grizzled mercenaries hired by the missionaries’ church to rescue them.

Rambo IV feels like a film groping for relevance; severed limbs flail, the blood flows freely, and the body count rises to new heights as if to court a younger, more desensitized audience. The big man himself is obviously getting on in years, and at points he seems to wear every one of his 60-plus years on his face. Still, amidst the action, popcorn history lessons, and wooden acting, Stallone nevertheless manages to conjure up images of the action hero he once was – but as he is running out of franchises to resurrect, it seems that this action hero might be on his last legs.