Let me get one thing clear first, it's NOT an action film like the 2nd and 3rd Rambo films were, it's more of an anti-war film that happens to feature lots of action (ala Full Metal Jacket). I think that's where the majority of reviewers got it wrong and gave it mixed reviews, they looked at it wrong.
Rambos 2 and 3 suffered from the 80's bigger and larger than life action movie era when compared to the more subdued and critically much more indepth first film. This is what I mean with the reviewers, I think people were expecting bigger asplosions and larger than life action scenes from an 80's action hero. What they got was a brutal look at goings on in less civilised and controlled parts of the world, the violence is more akin to Saving Private Ryan in it's realistic and grim depiction, just taking it a little bit further.
Rambo 4 is a return to the first film's style and meaning, a war torn special horses vet stuggling to cope with who he is and being forced to use his skills as a weapon for a goal. This alone gives it a fair amount of depth, and Stallone pulls it off well with the character he's playing, the rest of the plot just adds to the horror of the situation that's happening around him, and one he has to deal with.
Stallone directed and mostly wrote the screenplay (to my knowledge), and he did what he did with the last Rocky film, which was to make a film true to the original premise and finish off with some closure. And in my opinion, he's done an utterly fantastic job.
For this film, it's best to ignore the 3rd film (seeing as it was essentially a random excursion to Afganistan after all) and take it from the end of the 2nd where he goes and walks off into the jungle dismayed with the government. He's carved a little niche for himself as a boat owner, blacksmith and odd job man. Some Christian do-gooders on a mission want to help out the oppressed peasants in a neighbouring country, Rambo does his job and gets them to where they want to go, but is forced to go and rescue them when it all goes a bit pete-tong.
Some rather interesting scenes now populate the rest of the movie, however they all carry an undercurrent of how terrible the situation is and the horror of war and violence. It's one of the few things that makes it stand out above alot of films, it's got a real feeling behind it.
It's most definitely worth a purchase on DVD when it comes out, but I stress that if you take it as a continuation of the 80's Action Film romps you'll be dissapointed, you really do need to look at it like it's the proper sequel to the 1st film with just the final scene of the 2nd thrown in, if you really want to enjoy it and 'get' it.
I'm giving it a 8.5 out of 10
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