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Dom Robinson reviews
Momentum Pictures
- Cert:
- Cat.no: MP004D
- Running time: 91 minutes
- Year: 1985
- Pressing: 2000
- Region(s): 2, PAL
- Chapters: 20 plus extras
- Sound: Dolby Digital 2.0 (Dolby ProLogic)
- Languages: English, Italian, German
- Subtitles: 5 languages available
- Widescreen: 2.35:1 (Panavision)
- 16:9-Enhanced: Yes
- Macrovision: Yes
- Disc Format: DVD 9
- Price: £19.99 (or £49.99 for the trilogy boxset)
- Extras: Theatrical Trailer, Two Documentaries, Three Featurettes,Personality Profile on Stallone, Interviews, Behind the scenes,Photo Gallery, 8 Hidden TV Spots
Director:
- George P. Cosmastos
(Cobra, Leviathan, Rambo: First Blood Part II, Shadow Conspiracy, Tombstone)
Producer:
- Buzz Feitshans
Screenplay:
- Sylvester Stallone and James Cameron
(based on a story by Kevin Jarre)
Music:
- Jerry Goldsmith
Cast:
- John Rambo: Sylvester Stallone
Colonel Samuel Trautman: Richard Crenna
Murdock: Charles Napier
Lt. Colonel Padovsky: Steven Berkoff
Co Bao: Julia Nickson
Ericson: Martin Kove
Tay: George Cheung
Banks: Andy Wood
Pardon?No, I’m not having hearing difficulties, but after being locked up and thengiving the chance to complete a new military mission, that’s one thing hemight receive if he succeed in his task.
However, rather than break out as many American POWs being held captive ashe can, all he’s been asked to do is take photos of their plight as proof.Will he only do that, or will he stir up some shit along the way and causehavoc, ensuring none of them are left behind? Hmmm… tough choice.
In short, he has just 36 hours to get in, rescue POWs and exit. The authoritieshave other ideas as Rambo (Sylvester Stallone) is double-crossed and leftbehind enemy lines with evil Russian madman Lt. Colonel Padovsky (Steven Berkoff)to deal with and be tortured by (with a Vinnie Jones-a-like by his side), plus abit of totty, Co Bao (Julia Nickson), tagging along for the ride.
The film takes a while to get going, but you know what to expect when the trailerannounces “No man, no law, no war can stop him” and Trautman (Richard Crenna)tells big-wig admin man Murdock (Charles Napier), “What you call hell, he callshome”.
Like the first film, the picture quality is excellent with just some print scratchescausing a slight problem at times, but nothing to worry about.The average bitrate is 5.85Mb/s, occasionally peaking over 9Mb/s.
Explosions, gunfire. It’s all here in spades once the action gets going.
Extras :
There’s a lot more supplemental material on this DVD than on the first film’sand much of it is culled from on-set interviews and soundbites, blended inwith a typical ‘making of’ macho voiceover, most of which are cut down intochunks of a little over two minutes, while the second of the threefeaturettes I’m about to mention is seven-and-a-half minutes long. Theseare Creating the Beauty of War, Action in the Jungle and Preparingfor Action. Two brief documentaries are included: The Last AmericanPOW, showing the reasoning behind why the film was made since around2500 Vietnam veterans were still being held as POWs twelve years after theothers had come home and Sean Baker: Fulfilling a Dream, the tale ofa 16-year-old boy with a terminal disease who watched the first film 220 timesand apparently learned from Rambo’s strength and determination. And there wasme thinking he was going to kill loads of people.
A two-and-a-half minute Theatrical Trailer cropped to 4:3 fullscreen,plus more of the aforementioned footage is used in the Personality Profileon Stallone and Interviews with Stallone and Richard Crenna,while the Behind the scenes footage is raw work-in-progress from thedailies.
A 12-strong Photo Gallery and 8 Hidden TV Spots completethe extras line-up.
Surround sound is in English, Italian and German, with subtitles inEnglish, German, Italian, Portuguese and Turkish.
The main menu has both music from the film mixed in with clips and soundsjust as good as on the first disc. The film is quite well-chaptered with20 over the 91 minutes.
The Rambo Trilogy on DVD.This DVD in the trilogy has the most amount of extras, but the film itself does have someslow moments whereas the original used these to build up tension. It’s a great shout whenthe bullets fly though and spawned a memorable ZX Spectrum game by Manchester’s OceanSoftware back in the mid-80s…
Hmm… attribute clash… LOAD “”… jumpers for goalposts…
PICTURE QUALITY
SOUND QUALITY
EXTRAS
OVERALL
Reviewer of movies, videogames and music since 1994. Aortic valve operation survivor from the same year. Running DVDfever.co.uk since 2000. Nobel Peace Prize winner 2021.