Rambo IV Plot Has Depth
When you heard they were making a fourth Rambo movie, I bet you thought it was going to be another lame money-making attempt to squeeze the last blood out of First Blood with another two hours of Sylvester Stallone running around shirtless in a headband with an automatic firearm. Well, smart ass, you couldn't have been more wrong. I mean, I'm sure he's doing the gun and headband crap, but he's also leading a team of "young guns" that will appeal to today's youthful audiences!
So, the script that emerged -- a '"first draft"' Stallone has written with Art Monterastelli (The Hunted) -- finds Rambo living a monastic lifestyle in Bangkok and salvaging old PT boats and tanks for scrap metal. ("It's like he's stripping himself down," says the actor, pensively. "That old piece of military equipment.") When a group of volunteers bringing supplies into Burma disappears, a relative of one of the missing missionaries begs Rambo to find them. He heads off with a team of young guns, a plot point required by the financiers, who wanted to hedge against Rambo's possible mono-generational appeal.
They say they're worried about a mono-generational appeal, but shouldn't they really be more worried about a complete and utter lack of appeal? I've never met the person who saw Rambo 1 through 3 and felt there was a lot more story to tell. As if, as Rambo III came to a close, there was a guy saying, "Wait, why is he putting his shirt back on? That's it? I swear he had more guys to shoot. They'd better pick this one back up in a couple decades."
Come to think of, I've never even met the person who's seen Rambo 1 through 3 at all. I bet he has a lot of flashbacks.
