Bonus Episode: Rambo (2008)

My dream is to be that British person whose sole purpose is to take the piss out of everyone. 🇬🇧

FIRST BLOOD WAS SO GOOD. The book was amazing too. Though I have to admit for obvious reasons that I am on the author's side in wanting to make more money with the film agreements/novelizations that he pumped out afterwards. Copland was really good as was Rocky. The man would be a great actor, even a great writer, if he just chilled out a bit. That being said the new Rambo looks like it is the worst one yet and I hope he keeps making them

Lions Led By Donkeys Podcast

Ok, I’m going to be THAT person. Ugh. Apologies in advance. Rambo’s middle name can’t be Spencer or any of the others y’all suggested, since it’s James. We’re told in First Blood it’s Rambo, John J. and it’s on his duffle. Rambo did once have a love interest (for about 2 minutes) in Rambo II- his contact in Vietnam is a young intelligence agent named Co-Bao. He agrees to take her back to the US with him after she infiltrated the camp where he’s being held and helps him escape (she is killed almost immediately afterward). Before she is killed, she gives him her necklace, which he is still wearing at the start of Rambo III and eventually gives to a boy with the Muhajiheen in Rambo III. Those were just the first couple things I noticed that I felt compelled to set right- after that I got too bummed out and stopped listening to this episode. I’m the first to admit that the movies in the Rambo franchise get progressively worse after First Blood, but First Blood was an Oscar-caliber film. It had an alternate ending, available on newer box sets, that would have ended the series with Rambo’s death at the end of the first film (and arguably would have preserved First Blood as a truly great film without the others that followed). I also feel compelled to point out that although Stallone has indeed made a lot of truly crappy movies, he wrote the original 1976 Rocky screenplay and also co-wrote the screenplay for First Blood. He also gives one of the best performances of his career in Cop Land in 1997, putting on 40 pounds a la De Niro in Raging Bull. It’s easily in my top 20 favorite films and I’ll bet you a liter of good vodka you’ll like it too if you watch it. I’m good for it too.

Amanda Kerbrat