Blu-ray Movie Reviews

The next chapter finds Rambo recruited by missionaries to protect them during a humanitarian aid effort on behalf of the persecuted Karen people of Burma. After the missionaries are taken prisoner by Burmese soldiers, Rambo gets a second impossible job: rescue the missionaries in the midst of a civil war.

Stallone has done an amazing job bringing back his classic characters for solid send offs. Rather than cashing in on a quick payday, Rambo and Rocky Balboa do their origins proud and deliver solid stories and productions. Lionsgate delivers the extended cut of Rambo, titled John Rambo in the credits, but the new cut doesn’t really offer anything new to the story. Most of the cuts are actually unnoticeable unless you had just watched the film back to back with the theatrical version. I didn’t find anything that changed the tone of the film or the storyline enough to even justify it. But I still found this last chapter in the Rambo story to be a great one with a solid performance by Stallone and a big improvement over the last film.

The A/V presentation is largely identical to the previous version with a solid video and audio outing. Fine object detail is superb in close up shots and the jungle backdrop makes for some lush depth and dimension. Some of the longer shots can be a tad soft, but the photography has a very natural quality to it that shows wonderfully in high def. The DTS-HD soundtrack showcases some insane dynamic range with plenty of action to fill the room and kick your gut. Definitely no complaints here.

This new edition ditches the previous extras and includes a behind the scenes production diary with Stallone that delves into the story, the production and the cast.

Ultimately this seems like a rather useless cut. The original cut was already quite good and this just doesn’t add much to it. It is still a great film though and if you haven’t given it a look yet here is another great opportunity.