Rambo: First Blood Part II: Critic Reviews

To anyone who doesn't share the camera's adoration, this sort of behavior becomes so comic that Rambo turns into something of a camp classic.

A thoroughly unpleasant project, quite apart from its creepy populist posturing (Stallone seemed determined to become the Huey Long of the movies).

Sly shoots up Vietnam in glorified '80s actioner.

What makes this icon so significant is how wholly he was embraced by the Reagan era. After all, it only seems natural to respond to B-movie action stars when your president was one as well.

Rambo's significant beefcake factor is so pronounced in First Blood: Part II that it practically begs to be taken as queer-baiting camp.

It's awesome

...precisely the sort of unapologetically brutal piece of work that's sorely missing from contemporary multiplexes.

All in all, it's a pretty offensive movie, especially to the Americans who fought in Vietnam.

Qualifies as a guilty pleasure, a good-bad 'B' movie.

A "perfect" flick for the Reagan era: a simplistic, distorted comicstrip actioner that nonetheless must have tapped into the collective nightmare that some American soldiers were still held prisoners or were missing in action in Vietnam.

The body count is rising, Sly's pecs are blowing up, and Rambo himself is becoming more of a brand-name than a character, a mascot for masochism and murderous self-assertion.

Far from credible, but a terrific, cheer-out-loud action film nevertheless. Immediately and deservedly made Stallone's John Rambo a great individualistic screen hero to rival Eastwood's Dirty Harry.

The one man demolition squad blasts away again!

Shouldn't this be called Second Blood?

A fossilized abomination, thankfully relegated to the bygone decade which spawned it.

The weakest of the Rambo trilogy, but still a fun film to watch if you're in the mood for explosions and Stallone at his muscle-bound grunting best.