2008 - Action/Adventure - Sylvester Stallone - English - 18 years and over - Jake LaBotz, Julie Benz, Tim Kang, Graham McTavish, Ken Howard, Matthew Marsden, Rey Gallegos, Sylvester Stallone more
Reacquainting himself with his second most famous creation proves much less successful here for Sylvester Stallone than in his earlier Rocky Balboa. However, Rambo IV is still a ridiculously exciting, if politically disgusting, high-octane, uber-violent romp.
Easily the equal of many of the fiercest horror films of recent times in terms of sheer gore and depravity - necks are ripped open, children are flung left and right, heads explode, innards spill to the dirt - the picture is considerably harsher than its predecessors. It is, though, just as moronic as the previous two installments in the series, even whilst obviously attempting to reclaim the gritty, survival thriller feel of the original. Where First Blood was an angry film attacking America's treatment of Vietnam veterans, each successive film in the series has been about little more than American Religious, Cultural and Military Might. Rambo IV does nothing to reverse this trend, with Stallone being very open about the film's Christian values (a shame-faced attempt to ape Mel Gibson's success with similar audiences) and the piece as a whole stands as a justification for any amount of imperialist rampaging.
That said - nauseating and barbaric it may be, but, much like the final third of Mark L. Lester's 1985 Commando, it's impossible not to get caught up in the whole deranged, demented affair. Sickening in so many ways, it's still a near-perfect example of action cinema at its most visceral.
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Action/Adventure - Director: Peter Jackson - Original Language: English - Classification: 12 years and over - Starring:Elijah Wood, Ian McKellen, Viggo Mortensen, Liv Tyler, Sean Astin, Billy Boyd, Dominic Monaghan, Andy Serkis
2008 - Action/Adventure - Christopher Nolan - English - 12 years and over - Maggie Gyllenhaal, Aaron Eckhart, Morgan Freeman, Heath Ledger, Gary Oldman, Christian Bale, Michael Caine
1993 - Action/Adventure - Marco Brambilla - English - 15 years and over - Sylvester Stallone, Wesley Snipes, Sandra Bullock, Nigel Hawthorne, Dan Cortese
1994 - Action/Adventure - Luis Llosa, Richard Donner - English - 18 years and over - Sharon Stone, Sylvester Stallone, James Woods, Rod Steiger, Eric Roberts, Antonio Banderas, Julianne Moore
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