Rambo (Blu-ray Disc)

Back when Meet the Spartans narrowly edged out Rambo at the box-office I asked, "Seriously, did Fox just buy all the tickets?" Obviously this is sarcasm in an article headlined "America Proves Its Stupidity as 'Meet the Spartans' Wins Friday Box-Office," but as it turns out this may not be too far from the truth.

No, it wasn't Fox out there snatching up tickets for their own film, but according to a comment on the featurettes on the Rambo Blu-ray almost $2.5 million of the $18.7 million Meet the Spartans earned its opening weekend may be due to underage kids buying tickets to the PG-13 Spartans just to see the hard R-rated Rambo. Makes sense to me, and the world begins spinning again, as I had the chance to once again revisit what may be the best Rambo feature to date. It all really depends on your mood. Should it be a day for nostalgia, First Blood definitely rises to the top, but Rambo is a film that depicts the journey of one man's hell. No matter where he goes he can't seem to avoid ripping someone's throat out or sticking an arrow right through a bad guy's dome. Lucky for us, it was all caught on camera.

I am not sure if it is the high-definition video from the Blu-ray I watched or I just wasn't paying close enough attention in the theaters, but while I knew this film was bloody I didn't realize just how bloody it really is. As it is said in the featurettes by Editor Sean Albertson, this movie was submitted and they expected an NC-17 rating - they got an R and rolled with it. So, despite rumors that there may be a director's cut around the corner; according to the comments on this disc you got everything they intended to show you in this version.

During the audio commentary (which can also be enhanced on the Blu-ray version to include a pop-up video) writer/director/star Sylvester Stallone takes you through the making of the film, and should there ever be an extended cut of the film it isn't going to be much as he points out a few things here and there, but then mentions how they can all be found in the deleted scenes, which aren't exactly all that great. The commentary is decent, but the true bonus to this release is the featurettes, which played as one runs about an hour and 10 minutes.

The featurettes are just as R-rated as the film and it gives them something of a more relaxed, less structured and cliché feel to them. A lot is made about the savagery in Burma and how even one Burmese cast member was risking his family's security by being in the film, which was ultimately banned in Burma. The features cover everything from story, how an earlier version of a fourth Rambo had Rambo heading into Mexico. You see information on the weapons used and once again see Nationalist Army soldiers getting mowed down by a gun they say actually ripped the back out of the Jeep it was bolted to.

This movie and its features on a whole were a lot of fun. Should you choose to buy the Blu-ray or 2-Disc Special Edition you will also get a second disc, which has a digital copy of the film and if you do buy the Blu-ray let me warn you right now - if you have a Playstation3 and that is how you watch your Blu-rays DO NOT USE THE MOLOG FEATURE. I don't know what the hell this thing is supposed to be (some kind of chat function?) but it had me ejecting, stopping and starting several times and I now hate it. Other than that, pick this one up, it's a lot of fun to watch Stallone succeed in yet another one of his classic roles.