RAMBO

With great trepidation I went to see a sequel. I was terribly afraid of wasting my money on another worthless sequel. Most movie sequels are a waste of time and the ticket price. They are nothing more than a way to garner money from uneducated, unsuspecting moviegoers who have no clue that the sequel is low-budget, poorly-scripted, and created for the sole purpose to make money and to bilk the public out of their hard-earned cash. So I went to see Rambo wondering into what I’d gotten myself!

Now, to be honest, I very much enjoyed the first Rambo movie. It was well written, about a disgruntled Viet Nam Vet, which was fairly filmed; and although it had a somewhat hokey ending, it had meaning. As a veteran from the Viet Nam era, I could relate!

Rambo II and III sucked out loud; they were typical shit-ass sequels full of stupid themes and hokey one-line sayings not to mention poor writing and acting, and a story line that was just too ridiculous to believe. So, I went to this Rambo with several grave reservations. First of all it was a sequel’s sequel. Secondly, it involved a movie star in his early 60’s (albeit my age), and third, would it be “current”? As someone in his early 60’s I could relate to the physicality of the move if one kept in good shape, which made Sylvester Stallone’s character believable to me .

I was pleasantly surprised! This one is actually GOOD! Let me qualify what I just said. It’s as good as an action flick can be. It only had one hokey saying in it ("Live for nothing, die for something"...I was like “SPARE ME”!). The acting was good, the action was excellent, and you know what surprised me more than anything? It had an amazing score. Not just an action film score, but the kind of score you'd find with Lord of the Rings. It caught my ear after about the first ten minutes of the movie. I was amazed. I actually sat through all the credits to hear the rest of the score. In any case, I say again, this was a good action movie.

The simple synopsis is that John Rambo is living in Northern Thailand. In Burma, there is a civil war that has been going on for 60 years. Missionaries come to Rambo to ask if he’ll take them up-river to help the people of Burma, specifically, the Karen Tribe. The land route has been closed off because of extensive mining. Sarah (played by Julie Benz), one of the missionaries convinces him to take them. She gets a taste of what’s ahead when a Burmese river pirate ship attacks their boat, and Rambo is forced to kill all the pirates. Two weeks later, a pastor Arthur Marsh, finds Rambo and tells him the aid workers did not return and the various embassies have not helped locate them. He’s mortgaged his home and raised money from his congregation to save them. Rambo is hesitant, but given his past, and knowing what he must do, he agrees to take a mercenary force into Burma to rescue the missionaries.

This is an action movie, so one would expect lots of shooting and killing and a not-great script. However, it does have its “human” elements: an introspective John Rambo; a group of missionaries who believe that any killing is abhorrent (an interesting perspective when one of them is forced, in the end, to kill someone to save his friend), and an indictment on the killing that has gone on in Burma for so many years. The scenes are graphic and very well done, while being gruesome. The final 30 minutes of the move had me sitting on the edge of my seat (having experienced some of the particulars of combat), while the combat scenes were very realistic.

I have to say this: while the ending could have been very hokey (I won’t reveal the ending), it was very well done. I found myself reaching for a hankie at the end. Sit at least half-way through the credits just to hear the amazing score done by Brian Taylor and the amazing long-shot of the ending.

There Will Be Blood

This is a story about greed, obsession, and ultimate betrayal. It is a dark, brooding film. There is a saying that greed is dangerous, greed and obsession are worse, but greed, obsession and money is unstoppable. This is what this movie is about. It is loosely based on the novel by Upton Sinclair, published in 1927, called “Oil”. The book was written in the context of the Harding Administration’s Teapot Dome Scandal. Sinclair was labeled a “muckraker” because of all the books he wrote about corporate abuse. Arguably his most famous, and a “must read”, was The Jungle, about the food industry abuses at the turn of the century. This book resulted in Congress creating the Food and Drug Administration.

“There Will Be Blood” stars Daniel Day Lewis as Daniel Plainview, a down-and-out silver miner, and heavy smoker and drinker, who gets into the oil business in California. One of the workers is killed and leaves a small child which Plainview adopts as his own and raises him as his son. Plainview learns the oil business very quickly. He also learns that, in order to get oil rights, he needs to convince many people that they should lease him their land. A young man, Paul Sunday, comes to him one day and clams that, on his family’s land, there is oil. Plainview is skeptical, but pays him a small amount for the information. On the guise of quail hunting, he and his “son”, H.W., scout the land and find it to be oil rich. They then convince the owner of the land to lease it to them. The owner’s son, Eli Sunday (played by Paul Dano, of Little Miss Sunshine fame), a fundamentalist Christian and young preacher, argues that money should be donated to the church. Plainview agrees. It is obvious from this point that Eli and Plainview will be at odds.

The drilling starts. Eli asks to bless the first well, to which Plainview agrees; but when the well is started, Eli is ignored. After several wells are started, H.W. is sitting on the roof of a well-building when it let’s loose with a huge rush of gas and then erupts. H.W. is made permanently deaf from the accident. In the meantime, an imposter shows up claiming to be Plainview’s half-brother. Plainview finds him out and kills him. Before killing him, Plainview admits to trusting no one, liking no one, and being completely a loner.

H.W. reacts to his infirmity with great distress. Plainview can’t relate to him, and ignores him. H.W. acts out, ultimately setting fire to the bunkhouse in which his father and supposed uncle sleep. Plainview ships him off to a home for deaf children. The oil wars go on. Plainview is in a constant struggle with Standard Oil. Union Oil agrees to help him pipe his oil to the coast. Eli leaves town to go on a mission.

Plainview’s drinking gets worse. He makes more money, becomes more successful, but his life is in a downward spiral. His son comes back with a mentor, teaching him to sign, but the link between father and son is not there any more. Years later, Plainview builds his dream home on the coast. It is an example of opulence and overindulgence. It even has a bowling alley. His son, at this point, is about 23. He comes to his “father” and asks if he can leave the business and start his own oil business in Mexico. Plainview, at this point, is so paranoid he accuses his son of betraying him. He also tells the young man that he really isn’t his son, and that the only reason he kept him was for a cute face to help him buy land. The son, shocked, leaves.

Eli shows up from his mission, begging for Plainview’s help. He has lost everything and needs some financial support. This leads to the final confrontation and incredible ending of the movie.

This is a classic study of a sociopath. Daniel Day Lewis plays this part so well, it is actually better than Anthony Hopkin’s portrayal of Hannibal Lecter. It is an amazing tour de force! Paul Dano does an amazing job as a fundamentalist preacher. This movie is not for everyone. If you want a relatively accurate portrayal of history from the early 20th century, and an amazing job of acting, I would recommend this movie. It is dark, brooding, and humorless; but it is excellent. On Jim’s scale of 1 – 10, I’d give this an 8.

The Bucket List

This is a "chick flick", but in a way, it's for guys. First of all let me say I loved it. Bring hankies. I cried all the way through it. How can you lose on a movie with Jack Nicholson and Morgan Freeman? How can a movie miss with Rob Reiner as the director?

This is a movie about life and facing death and friendship between two completely different people. Morgan Freeman plays Carter Chambers, a man who, 45 years ago, had to marry his girlfriend and drop out of college because she was pregnant. Chambers comments that he can't believe how fast 45 years has passed. Jack Nicholson plays Edward Cole, an irascible corporate billionaire who sees everyone as idiots and views only the bottom line on anything. Life has passed him by without any joy, with the exception of a very expensive gourmet coffee. The two meet in the hospital, both suffering from terminal illnesses. At first Cole is very unfriendly. Chambers is very laid back and ignores the digs and snide comments. As the time passes in the hospital, they slowly warm to each other. One day Chambers is writing something. Cole wants to know what it is, but Chambers is reticent to tell him. While Chambers sleeps, Cole finds the paper on the floor ands reads it. When Chambers wakes up, he asks him about it. Chambers explains that, as a Freshman, his philosophy professor suggested that his students compose a "bucket list", a compilation of all the things they wanted to do before they "kick the bucket". They discover that between themselves they had two things in common: an unfinished need to figure out who they were and the life choices they'd made, and a pulsing desire to spend the time they had left doing many of the things they had always wanted to do. Against the doctor's advice, and Chamber's wife's objections (she's a nurse and realizes the gravity of the situation), they take off on a wild roller coaster adventure. They visit places they've always wanted to visit and do things that they've always wanted to do. As all this happens, they become close friends. After prodding from Chambers, Cole confesses to an estranged daughter that he is sure hates him. Chambers comes to realize that family is very important and cuts their romp short.

I don't want to spoil the ending. It's obvious that, with terminal illnesses, they both die. Cole gives one of the most moving eulogies I've ever heard (right up there with the eulogy from 4 Weddings and A Funeral). The ending is a tear-jerker. Both men finally realize the importance of friendship and family and ultimately act on that revelation.


This is a phenomenally good movie. It won't be a classic, and it probably won't win any awards; but it is damn good. This is one of the few films for which I'll buy the DVD when it comes out. I heartily recommend it. On Jim's scale of 1 - 10, I'd give this an 8.5