THE STORY: The movie First Blood introduced John J. Rambo. It was a good movie. Then they made this sequel. Rambo changed from a capable ex-green beret, into a veritable one man army. In First Blood, Rambo was a good fighter, in this one he was a superhuman! For those of you who have never seen First Blood, Sylvester "Sly" Stallone portrays John Rambo, a Vietnam vet who is brutally mistreated and arrested by a small town sheriff. Rambo manages to escape the small town jail and a deputy is killed. In Rambo's defense the deputy was illegally trying to shoot him so it was self-defense. However the sheriff and a whole bunch of cops go hunting for Rambo in the woods with the intent to do him in. Rambo uses his skills as a guerilla warrior and army commando and pretty much kicks everyone in the ass.The only thing that makes Rambo surrender himself to the authorities is the appearance of his former commander, Colonel Sam Trautman.

After the events in First Blood, Rambo is in jail. but his former commander, Colonel Trautman offers him a chance to earn a pardon by going on a secret mission. Rambo is t go back to Vietnam and take photographs of a POW camp to prove that there are still American soldiers being held there. Murdock, a sleazy bureaucrat is in charge of the mission.

A Vietnamese babe whose name I can't remember (so we'll just call her The Cute Chick) is Rambo's guide. Rambo finds the camp and finds POW's there. He frees one of them and heads for the rendezvous point. unfortunately Rambo doesn't know that Murdock didn't want proof of POW's. He and the government knew they were there! The camp was thought to be empty and the 'proof' was to be used to quell the public's concern for soldiers still being held in Vietnam. Murdock orders the pilot of the rescue copter to abandon Rambo.

Well, if you've ever seen a Rambo picture, you'll know that this doesn't sit too well with Rambo. He's captured by the Vietcong (sp?) and their soviet allies. The soviet commander, Colonel Potovsky takes delight in torturing Rambo. He forces Rambo to contact the US base on the radio. Dummy. He should never have freed Rambo's hands. The Cute Chick sneaks into the camp to help Rambo, but Rambo pretty much kicks some commie ass and makes a break for it. the cute Chick blows away a few soldiers and they head for the hills.

Rambo is great at war but unlucky in love. The cute chick gets blown away. This only pisses Rambo off more. He pretty much kills almost all of the VC troops by himself. The Russians don't fare too much better. Rambo kicks a big russkie's ass and takes the helicopter he was in. Using it he returns to the camp to kill whatever VC soldiers are still there and free the POW's. Yeah, the soviets try to stop Rambo with another helicopter and they almost succeed. Rambo manages to pull a LAW out of seemingly nowhere and destroy them. Landing back at the base, Rambo goes into the HQ and shoots it up. then he scares the crap out of Murdock and warns him that if he doesn't do something to free the other POW's he'll come after him.

Well, this movie has a lot of explosions and guys getting shot. Still, its not as violent as I remember it being. Colonel Trautman is actor Richard Crenna. Crenna was also the doctor in the movie leviathan. He's been in a few b-movies so he'll pop up from time to time. The helicopter pilot, Ericson, was actor Martin Kove. Kove was the bad karate teacher in the Karate kid and he was in the Karate kid IIand III. Kove has a knack for playing real dickheads.

Best Lines: "You know there's more men out there...you know where they are...find them, or I'll find you!"- Rambo threatens Murdock.

1.) Colonel Trautman's uniform looks like an old Vietnam era uniform. I'm not certain, I wasn't in the military in 1985, but weren't those uniforms phased out by then? (I'm 99% sure they were)

2.) I've never been electrocuted but I've had a bad shock before. It was pretty unpleasant. judging from how much a small shock sucked for me, I'll never be a Rambo...Rambo gets a few thousands amps run through him and he's still able to break free and beat up a bunch of guys. How the hell could we have not won that war if there were guys like Rambo on active duty?

3.) I've heard people comment on it, I'VE commented on it before, and anyone who has served in the Army or the marines probably realizes you can't fire a LAW without making sure the back blast area is clear. (A LAW-A light Anti-tan weapon is like a small bazooka for you civilians.) Rambo fires one inside the helicopter to destroy his pursuers. I guess its possible that the back blast didn't roast the POW's he had behind him, but still...aw, I'll let 'em have that one. Rambo can kill an entire company of soldiers singlehanded, so why not? A bigger question is where'd he get the [unwrite]ing LAW? Did he have it in his pocket? He's in a commandeered Soviet Helicopter!!! Why would the commies have an American weapon in there?

4.) After Rambo lands the copter back at base he takes the M60 machine gun off of its mount to go get revenge on Murdock. Hey, the belt on that M60 was almost all gone when he rescued the POW's...but when he lands its twice as long as it was when he first used it! What the hell? Did the bullets clone themselves? Did they procreate and have baby bullets? How'd that ammo get there?

NUDITY AND SEX: None

HUH?: Colonel Trautman says that the computer gave three candidates that could probably accomplish this mission and Rambo was one of them. so why only send Rambo? Why not send at least one other guy with him? (Then again, you only need ONE Rambo!)

One of the coolest scenes is when Rambo hides in the mud and takes a soviet soldier by suprise. Its cool because Rambo must be the fastest laundry Man in the world! He's covered himself in mud, killed a guy, then in the very next scene he's clean as a whistle! Even his pants! He looks like they were just laundered and he took a shower! How'd he do that? Ancient Chinese secret? Cheer?

THE TALLY: If you turn your mind off for 96 minutes, this movie is good fun. Stallone doesn't have too many lines and the action is pretty good. Of course, Rambo is larger than life since he defeat an infinite number of guys shooting at him. How he never gets hit is beyond me. As brutal as it may seem, I remember cheering for Rambo as a kid watching this movie in a theater for the first time. Testerone.