Rambo: The First Great Remake?

Just like you I waded through all the hype. Just like you I read all the articles. "Will it be a faithful remake?" "Should it even be remade at all?" "Can Sly pull it off?" dominated the headlines of Variety, the Hollywood Reporter, etc. for months.

Well, faithful readers, I'm here to testify to you that he did it. Sylvester Stallone not only remade Rambo from the classic, Hot Shots: Part Deux, but he reimagined it with freshness and originality.

The story is more or less the same: The hero (John Rambo / Topper Harley) lives alone in Asia and does not want to be a part of any war or modern society. Do-gooders get captured and tortured by the bad guys. Mercenaries come in to rescue the do-gooders and they take Rambo along. Bad guy bodies pile up -- do-gooders get saved -- everyone learns a lesson about war (it’s hell / it’s fantastic!).

That is one of the major contrasts about Rambo vs. Hot Shots: Part Deux -- the hell vs. fantastic war theme of the movie. In Hot Shots: Part Deux war was fun. People got hit in the face by boxing-glove shooting bazookas; eyes got poked by two-finger bayonets; people got twisty-tied to torture racks. But different societies wage war differently and Sly knows this, and he knows you know this, and he knows we know he knows this. So he shows you how the Burmese do war. It’s much less fun (people get blowed the hell up -- a lot.), but arguably just as effective. This makes the movie fresh.

I haven’t yet read a single review for this movie, but I can hear the critics now: “Why not stick more to the original story, Sly? Hot Shots weren’t broked so why fix it?” Well, it’s funny because these are same critics that complain when remakes don’t bring anything new to the table. For shame.

To sum up: Rambo is a faithful remake of Hot Shots: Part Deux with something extra: a fresh outlook and a different take.

I give Rambo 3 and ½ bad guys getting their windpipes slowly torn out out of 5.