Rambo should have left sleeping dogs of war lie

By Michael Rechtshaffen

LOS ANGELES (Hollywood Reporter) - Everybody's favorite Vietnam vet with post-traumatic stress disorder is back.

Before the smirking starts, let's not forget that they also were giggling when it was announced that the Italian Stallion was coming out of retirement, but then Sylvester Stallone silenced the skeptics with the thoroughly respectable "Rocky Balboa."

Could the first sighting of John J. Rambo in two decades prove equally rewarding?

Oh well, one out of two ain't bad.

For "Rambo," the fourth and purportedly final movie in the series that began back in 1982 with "First Blood," director/co-writer Stallone has taken a similar, stripped-down approach to the material. But what worked for the beloved underdog does the one-man killing machine no favors. By going the unplugged route, Stallone has removed the over-the-top comic-book element that made the "Rambo" movies such a pop-culture staple of the Reagan era.

What remains is a lot of hyper-realistic, brutal violence; snatches of banal dialogue; and all the escalating dramatic tension of a video game.

In short, No. 4 is one big snore.

Considering the cold shoulder given to recent war-related movies, "Rambo," with its guerrilla-style marketing campaign, could find that a blotchy iconic image might not be much of a domestic draw beyond nostalgia seekers. Given Rambo's standing as a worldwide phenomenon, however, the movie's 11 executive producers should still be pleased with those final tallies.