CRITIC'S CORNER
'Rambo' almost lives up to reputation
By DNA Smith
"Rambo" Running time: 93 minutes MPAA rating: R

For the second time in recent memory, Stallone brings back one of his famous former characters in John Rambo.

Sylvester Stallone appears to be spending the twilight of his career revisiting the roles that made him famous. In 2006, he gave us the rather good "Rocky Balboa." This year it's "Rambo." At this rate, by 2010 we'll be treated to "Stop! Or My Mom Will Shoot Again!"

"Rambo" finds John Rambo working as a boatman and parttime blacksmith somewhere near the border of Thailand and Burma. A group of Christian missionaries hire Rambo to take them into Burma, which is in the midst of a savage civil war, so they can give aid to the victims of the war.

Naturally, the missionaries are captured and taken to a prison camp. So, Rambo is hired once again to travel into Burma - this time with a group of mercenaries hired by the church to rescue the missionaries.

"Rambo" is almost an OK movie. For a film that's about 90 minutes long, the action really doesn't kick in until near the one-hour mark. That might be acceptable for a low-budget action flick where the filmmakers need to spend the lion's share of their budget for a boffo finale. But this is a Rambo movie, for cryin' out loud! We should have stuff Blowin' Up Real Good from the opening credits to the end.

I'm also uneasy about Stallone's use of actual news footage of the atrocities in Burma. The most disturbing is a very close-up and graphic shot of a dead child (maybe no more than 3 years old) with a swarm of flies on its corpse.

Not only that, how could anyone with a conscience watch the opening sequence of that reallife footage and then bring themselves to enjoy the fake carnage that ensues in the final 20 minutes?

Rambo movies are exercises in cartoonish, over-the-top violence. They aren't message movies. I think Stallone wanted to do both, and he ended up with neither.

GRADE: C- (c) 2008 King Features Synd., Inc.