Rambo
He is no longer fresh with First Blood. Still, Sylvester Stallone slipped into John Rambo's shoes again, in his flipping 60's, to bring us tough and gruff action. When I first heard about it, I was intrigued. Sure, Harrison Ford also took on a role from the '80s this year, but John Rambo is a different sort of hero -- one who relies on muscles and strength, not whips and sidekicks. However, I quickly began to giggle, because the look didn't seem as natural as it used to. But now, methinks this film should be marketed to the weekend warriors of yesterday, and anyone who is feeling a bit anxious about their age. How can you complain about 30, 40, or 50 when Sly is kicking butt at 60?

In this installment, a group of missionary workers disappear, after now-boat man John Rambo dropped them off in Burma. While he has given up violence, he joins some mercenaries to rescue the workers from the Burmese army. What follows is action, and lots, and lots, and lots of carnage.

There's a good deal of extras for this release. Aside from the obligatory commentary with Sly, there are a bunch of featurettes that cover everything from the struggle in Burma to Rambo's weapons, as well as deleted scenes and a digital copy.

Check out Peter's and Patrick's Reviews | Buy the DVD

Other New DVD Releases (May 27)

Shelter
Cassandra's Dream
Cleaner
The Walker

(As Son of Rambow opens today, here's Cinematical's review from the 2007 Sundance Film Festival ...)

After a week of high-power documentaries and wrenching dramas at Sundance, there's a strong chance I may have been extra-susceptible to the charm and sheer exuberance of Son of Rambow, the newest film from director Garth Jennings and the production team known as Hammer and Tongs. But I don't think so; the giddy, goofy and heartfelt creativity of Son of Rambow would stand out regardless of where, or when, one had the good fortune to see it. In 1980's Britain, young Will Proudfoot (Bill Milner) is a good-hearted, slightly burdened young boy, grieving his lost father, constrained and supported by the humble Christian community his mother finds solace in. The group shuns television and films; they live with simplicity, piety and grace. None of which, it seems, can compete with Sylvester Stallone....

After a spot of bother at school, Will winds up not-quite-friends with troublemaker Carter (Will Poulter), a scamp with slight troubles. In the storage shed at Will's family's business, Will is exposed to a pirated VHS copy of First Blood. Will's never seen a movie, or heard a story not taken directly from The Bible. It is, to him, a revelation of the highest order and leads to Will and Carter collaborating on a camcorder epic, Son of Rambow. The fact that Will seems to be working out some issues with his absent father is fairly obvious, as is the tension between Will's sacred teachings and his more secular desire to run through the English countryside pretending to commit acts of derring-do.

Not many people care to admit it, but Hollywood is run by fear. Fear is an emotion generated by things that are not known or understood, and in the movie business, no one ever knows what's going to happen. (William Goldman was right when he said, "Nobody Knows Anything.") All those accountants, producers, publicists, entertainment TV shows, ad campaigns, etc. are all an attempt to get a handle on the unknown, an attempt to control the uncontrollable. Anything can happen. The world's biggest movie star can jump up and down on a couch and suddenly become a weirdo outcast. Or the star of a dismal turkey like Showgirls can turn around and find herself cast in a Woody Allen film. This fear, in essence, is why so many movies are so bad. The more investors and business people try to control their investment, the more they clamp down on it, and the more it gets smothered.

See, movies can live and breathe like an organic life form, but they have to have a chance. If brave producers step back and let the movie come to life in the hands of a genuine artist, they could wind up with something extraordinary like Joel and Ethan Coen's No Country for Old Men (229 screens), a film that somehow pleased critics both highbrow and middlebrow, won a handful of Oscars and has nearly grossed $75 million. This film has already entered the cultural canon as a classic of cinema. More or less the same can be said of Paul Thomas Anderson's There Will Be Blood (224 screens), which, having lost the Oscar for Best Picture, is now in a position of being an underrated underdog. But those are exceptions to the rule. No one is immune to the fear: a few years back the Coen Brothers teamed up with sleazy producer Brian Grazer, of all people, and came up with their first dud, Intolerable Cruelty.

Are films political? Do they fall into left-wing and right-wing camps? I would imagine that not all films have an agenda. Some films can be considered "great uniters," in that they bring together agreeing audiences from all over, films like the $200 million hits I Am Legend (264 screens) and National Treasure: Book of Secrets (177 screens) or a critical favorite like There Will Be Blood (339 screens) that has pleased nearly everyone who has seen it. Of course, There Will Be Blood is about a snaky, sinister, blustery oil baron willing to sacrifice his family, country and humanity for the allure of black gold, which may or may not have a little something to do with current events. (Not to mention that director Paul Thomas Anderson dropped the word "Oil" from the title of the source novel and replaced it with the word "Blood.")

In recent years it has been determined that film critics are a liberal bunch, educated, well-read men and women of letters, who can see and comprehend the human condition in films from different cultures all over the world. Or, they're sometimes known as pompous, ponderous, pretentious, conceited, snooty know-it-alls, lacking in good old-fashioned horse sense. "Why can't you just enjoy the movie," is a question very often asked of critics. Rambo (201 screens) is a fascinating case. It's impressively violent, but very grim and not much fun. Rambo debuted and reigned during the Reagan era (Rambo: First Blood Part II grossed three times the amount of the new film, even with 1985 ticket prices). Bringing him back in a decidedly different political atmosphere didn't seem to work, though the film was screened for the press and earned a few good reviews. It's now starting a downslide, and it's still shy of breaking even on its $50 million budget.

Now that John McClane, Rocky Balboa and John Rambo have made their return to the big screen -- with Indiana Jones on his way -- the question seems pretty obvious: Who will be the next 1980s action hero to come out of retirement and enjoy one last explosion of mindless mayhem and crazy carnage? I have a few suggestions...

Marion "Cobra" Cobretti (Cobra, 1986) -- After the original First Blood, Stallone went a little insane and not only directed the hilariously bad Staying Alive ... he also starred opposite Dolly Parton in Rhinestone. So obviously it was time for A) Rambo 2, B) Rocky 4, and a powerfully mindless cop flick called Cobra. It grossed only about $50 milion, but that's pretty solid in 1986 money. Oh, and Stallone's subsequent movie? The arm-wrestling one. Other options for Sly: Gabe "Cliffhanger" Walker (which is apparently already in development), Frank "Lock Up" Leone, Lincoln "Over the Top" Hawk ... and (of course) Detective Ray Tango.

"Dirty" Harry Callahan (Dirty Harry, 1971; Magnum Force, 1973; The Enforcer, 1976; Sudden Impact, 1983; The Dead Pool, 1986) -- Pretty damn unlikely, but I'd love to see Dirty Harry polish off the pistol just one last time. Hell, send him after the terrorists! (Another, more realistic wish: Clint Eastwood will deliver at least one more western in the vein of The Outlaw Josey Wales, Pale Rider, or Unforgiven.)

He's resurrected Rocky. He brought back Rambo. And now Sylvester Stallone might be continuing the trend by reprising his role as rock climber Gabe Walker for another Cliffhanger film. Remember that one? Stallone plays a rock climber who accidentally drops his best friend's gal off a mountain, then returns to stop John Lithgow from stealing a bunch of money? It's a pretty good film -- and anytime you have Lithgow play the villain, you won't go wrong. According to PR Insider, "Sony executives are in negotiations with Stallone to revive the character for The Dam."

Uh oh, does that mean there will be lots of water involved this time? Stallone first played the character back in 1993, and the film did pretty well at the box office (I believe it came in at somewhere in the $85 million range). One imagines Stallone will be the only one returning for The Dam, and his Gabe Walker character will be up against a new enemy. Here's my question: How many characters is Stallone going to revive before enough is enough? It's an odd trend; one that's making him money, sure, but Gabe Walker is no John Rambo or Rocky Balboa. What do you think about another Cliffhanger flick? Good idea, or should Sly stick with something a tad more original his next time out?

While we may not be looking at another Rambo sequel, Sylvester Stallone has made it known that he's definitely not ready to give up the action roles. According to The Hollywood Reporter, Stallone has struck a deal, along with his Rambo producers over at Nu Image/Millennium Films, to star and produce two action films, neither of which appear to be sequels to Sly's very lucrative Rambo and Rocky franchises. So what are the films and what will they be about?

Well, we don't know right now -- HR says that several scripts are being considered, and that "the first script is expected to be locked and loaded by the fall, with production set to begin shortly thereafter." Seeing as the guy is fastly approaching his mid-60's, I imagine both films will revolve around an aging (something) who, in order to save (someone or something), must wage a private war against (these people) and save the day. I know Sly had previously talked about remaking Death Wish, so there's a chance one of the two projects will indeed turn out to be Death Wish. The other one, however, is completely up in the air. If it were up to you, what type of film would you like to see Stallone take on? (Perhaps he'll take notice of our list of seven characters Sly Stallone could sequel-ize.)

Today, as millions of (mostly) men are watching the Super Bowl, possibly witnessing the Patriots make history (sorry Erik), millions of (mostly) girls are watching Miley Cyrus (aka "Hannah Montana") make history of her own. As you read this, across the country the 3D concert film Hannah Montana/Miley Cyrus: Best of Both Worlds Concert Tour is selling out its show times for the day. Actually, it's more likely that at many theaters show times have long been sold out.

On Friday, when the Disney release opened, I took a look at the status of the weekend show times in the tri-state area on Moviefone, Movietickets.com and Fandango. Most times were already unavailable. But I had no way of knowing how recently those times had sold out, because tickets went on sale back on December 1, and many people (our own Kim Voynar and her daughter included) bought theirs way in advance. As Kim mentioned last week, Fandango announced that more than 1,000 show times had already been sold out and that theaters were trying to squeeze in more screenings. The online ticketing company also announced that since December 1, the film has been one of its top selling titles and that this past week the film accounted for 91% of all the company's online ticket sales (compared to 1% each for Rambo, 27 Dresses and Cloverfield).

Responding to Harvey Weinstein's comments last week that he would like to see more Rambo movies, since all that killing and grunting plays well internationally, Sylvester Stallone has come out and put the kibosh on that talk. The Guardian reports that Stallone has told reporters that there will be no more Rambo films after this one. "This is the last Rambo just as Rocky Balboa is the last Rocky," Sly said. "I can't go any further. It was a miracle that it even got done." Considering the dozen or so producers listed on the film's credits, that's probably true. Who knows how many people will have to get paid before this movie turns a profit. And without giving too much away, Stallone clearly went further than was necessary to put a stamp of finality onto this film, and there's really no reason other than raw greed to go any further with the adventures of John Rambo.

I'm glad of this decision, since this most recent Rambo film sucked. I wasn't quite as bamboozled as some others into passive appreciation of the severed limbs, exploding heads and dismembered torsos dished out in the film. (The squibbing alone must have eaten up most of the budget, and I'm not even kidding.) While I do respect that Stallone was making an honest attempt to reach what he perceives as a core audience who just wants to see Rambo knife people in the belly and call it a day, I'm more or less a lone supporter of the artistic integrity of Rambo: First Blood, Part II, a film that I believe surpasses even Die Hard as the exemplary action film of the 80s, and that's the bar I measure all subsequent Rambo films by. Seriously, when will George P. Cosmatos be recognized for his amazing skill as an action director? Anyway, so long Rambo.

Ah, now that Sundance is over (though our coverage will continue through the next day or so), I can finally get back to writing about things that mean something. Case in point: Harvey Weinstein is apparently so happy with the opening for Sly Stallone's latest Rambo installment that he's considering doing another one. Even though Rambo failed to take the number one spot at the box office this weekend (Meet the Spartans? Really America?), that won't stop Weinstein from gushing over the future prospects of our old man in the jungle. Deadline Hollywood tells us Harv feels Rambo will easily do $50 million domestic and about $100 to $150 million overseas. I don't know about you, but those made-up numbers certainly indicate a sequel is warranted.

Says Weinstein, "I like the idea of an older guy kicking ass. Maybe it's because I'm older, too." The big man also dished out a possible plot scenario should Rambo return once again to brutally mutilate tons of bad guys, noting that he'd be down with "bringing the character back to the United States." Yes, please -- and maybe this time it could be set in Central Park where Sly would face off against the Cloverfield monster. Now that's something I'd pay double to see. But what about you? Are you interested in seeing older guys kick ass on screen, or are you automatically attracted to much younger action heroes? And would you be interested in yet another installment in the Rambo franchise?