Very very predictable, including the post credit scene !!!

Thanks for the memories!

I enjoyed watching this film and would recommend other to give it a try , (as I am) but this movie, although enjoyable to watch due to the better than average acting fails to add anything new to its storyline that is all too familiar to these types of movies.

what a terribly boring film. I'm sorry but this is absolutely not deserving of best picture and will be forgotten quickly. Entertaining and engaging cinema? No. Nothing performances with flat faces and mistaking silence for subtlety.

In the early eighties, the only chance you will see Rambo as a young teenager is if someone , or a classmate owned a Betamax player. That's right folks. However monstrous that player looked like ( to me even bigger than the TV set itself as I recall ) , our small gang was lucky to have a Larry, and his dad loves Rambo so we were able to taste our first blood ( figuratively speaking) For an impressionable young person at that time, my jaw literally dropped on how Rambo ( Stallone) outsmarted the berserk , small town , dictator of a police and how he whacked them all. Sylvester Stallone did a good job, though sometimes the dialogues sounds like mumbling and incoherent. From this very first of all the franchise was he at his rawest, and at his best.

The book is an amazing novel.Even if you're not American (like I'm not), you'll be extreme touched by the drama of the hero - a patriot who went to fight a super "dirty war", he got dirty, he got "injured" (mentally mostly) and when he came back to his country to find a start for a new life... he found negative feelings towards him and his brothers in arms, they treated him like criminal, etc...The book is amazing. The film is well done indeed. I don't agree about most people feelings for Stalone (as actor). I don't believe he's a good actor; that's why the film isn't a masterpiece but "just" a very good film. Also, they could portrait John Rambo even more, to get more for his character (as the book does).Generally, as a lot folks wrote, this is BY FAR THE BEST Rambo films - all the rest are jokes. This is amazing film... that COULD be masterpiece (with another main actor).

John J. Rambo, awarded the Congregational Medal of Honour for services in Vietnam. Back on US soil his friends are nearly all dead, he feels unwanted and the abuse he suffered during war has turned him into the shell of a man. In today's world he might be diagnosed with PTSD, anxiety, paranoia, violent tendencies. As he wanders through small backwater towns looking for any friends who may have survived he is the victim of abuse from a small town sheriff and he his troops. He's locked up and starts having flashbacks to the torture he received during war. Something snaps in him. He escapes with only a hunting knife and heads into the wilderness, pursued by his taunters. He is forced to survive at any means necessary which he does to great effect with his years of training and past experiences. The Rambo character was big in the 80's, becoming a cult icon and spawning spin-off's, cartoons and merchandise. However that was in the 80's, today's audiences barely just remember "Rocky" and probably aren't too familiar with Rambo. This isn't at all a family friendly film, it's more of a macho bloodthirsty action film rather than anything deep and inspiring. Stallone does a decent job as John Rambo showing that he's an onion with layers of passion and pain. The supporting cast is good and believable, especially Brian Dennehy, Richard Crenna and even David Caruso. The score is effective and drives the movie on. It gets a little cheesy in places, especially towards the end but that doesn't sour the film one bit. Like the subject of the film this is dark and misunderstood. Not the kind of film I'd watch with kids, family or a lover. While audiences have moved on to a different kind of film this offers a bit of 80's nostalgia. Worth a watch, but you wouldn't be missing a masterpiece if you skipped it instead.

Sylvester Stallone stars as John Rambo: a lonely, alienated, and troubled Vietnam vet just trying to move on with his life until he gets unlawfully provoked over a misunderstanding, and finds himself in a war against a sheriff's department and the national guard. The fight doesn't seem fair, mostly because Rambo is outnumbered, but all bets are off since he's a former Green Beret, and he's had a really hard time moving on with his life. Unlike the sequels, this one is (for the majority of the run time) more of a dramatic survival story and not a balls-out action film. I really loved the focus on stealth and guerrilla tactics over pure brute force. It's a great character study with focus on vet's rights, PTSD, and intolerance. It does get kinda preachy, but nevertheless is still very compelling and gripping. Sylvester Stallone is wonderful. He shows off his action skills, and he's great as expected, but where things really shine is with the character and the acting. The action is a main part of who he is, but he's still a flawed and rounded character. Stallone really has to act here at times too, delivering what's still the most dramatic monologue of his career that actually sees him breakdown in tears. It's not often you see something like this, much less have it actually be really powerful and moving. Bravo. For supporters, we get a young David Caruso that's kinda fun to watch, but the main support that really holds the film up is with Brian Dennehy as the determined narrow minded sheriff and Richard Crenna as Rambo's mentor- perhaps the only one capable of bringing the senseless conflict to an end. Both are great, and this is some of their best work. You sort of sympathize with the sheriff a bit, but probably not as much as you should. The film really paints it as Rambo good, everyone else bad, and that's a shame that they didn't go for a bit more complexity or moral ambiguity in that area. Things fare better with Crenna's character, but he too could have been a tad more developed. That's really my only major issue here: the film is a bit too one sided, and towards the end, things just kinda start crumbling. I get how Rambo said that if they kept pushing he'd really ramp it up, but when this all happens it just took me out of it all somewhat, and seemed a bit inconsistent. Fortunately things don't crap out too much, and the film does conclude pretty satisfactorily. It's just the lead up to the climax where it has its stumble. The film is well shot, the locations are great, there's pretty strong direction, neat ideas, and, probably most effective next to the acting, we get Jerry Goldsmith's absolutely thrilling and brilliant score. I still get chills every time I hear the opening notes to the main theme. EVERY time. Definitely check this one out.