If you thought Rocky Balboa was a return to form for Sylvester Stallone, then just wait until you get a gander at the newly released footage of his return to the Rambo series, titled simply John Rambo. And if you're sitting there giggling, thinking "Great, is he gonna run through all of his old characters now?" then you haven't watched the footage.

Sly's in a weird place in his career. After a decade of terrible films and flops he returned to the well to try and make a deep, soulful ending to the series that made him a star. And when given a very limited budget to promote it, he decided to turn to the web to sell it. Having met and become friends with Harry Knowles on the set of Spy Kids 3, he called him up and asked if Ain't it Cool News would be interested in doing something on Rocky. The result was a 20 day, 20 question a day marathon in which average internet folk had their questions answered by the man himself - who then did something unprecedented. He joined Talkback and had real conversations with anyone who wanted to join in.

And in the uncontrolled, anything goes environment of the net (a place publicists stress to their clients to avoid entirely) Stallone proved himself by being honest and forthcoming while freely trashing his own terrible work. And he earned a mess of new fans. Fans who in turn made his new film a success. Advice he would then pass on to his good friend Bruce Willis who just last week joined in talkbacks to do the same for his new film, causing one hell of a stir on the net.

So just as Stallone returned from shooting in Thailand, he knew what he had to do. He went right back to his new friends online and gave them the first look at the new film a three and a half minute trailer (not suitable for work) giving us a peek at just how far back to the well Stallone is willing to go. This Rambo isn't the one I grew up with, it's not the bulked up, glistening commie killer of the 80's. No. This is the natural progression of the John Rambo from First Blood. The guy who shot up a whole town just because they pissed him off. That scary as hell creep who was so screwed up by the war that he had no place to return to but the jungle. That guy.

And this footage shows exactly what happens when that crazy bastard gets pushed to the edge again. This footage is insane. It starts off innocent enough, something from your standard Rambo film. But then at the two-minute mark, everything changes. The film becomes gritty, raw and bloody. Heads explode, that's if they're not lopped off first. People get gutted. Bullets spray blood everywhere. All of a sudden this isn't a Rambo movie, it's a 70's revenge film about what happens when that vet snaps again. Kinda like Rolling Thunder if it were directed by Quentin Tarantino rather than just worshiped by him.

Words cannot express my excitement about this film. For years many of us have dreamed about films that grew up with us, the movies of our childhood coming back with an added maturity the times we grew up in wouldn't allow. This looks like that film, a film entirely about the horrors of war and what they do not just to those caught up in it, but to the minds of those that survive. This ain't light fare. This ain't gonna be uplifting. This is gonna be dark. Stallone is drawing references to Heart of Darkness when he talks about this. John Rambo meets Joseph Conrad by way of 70's exploitation filmmaking? Dude. I am so ready for this.

Recommend (0)

|  Comments (0)

|  Email

|  Share

Share  Facebook Digg del.icio.us