Movie Review: Rambo: First Blood Part II (1985)

A raucous action film, Rambo: First Blood Part II features a one-man army re-fighting the Vietnam War in the name of soldiers left behind.

Vietnam War special forces veteran John Rambo (Sylvester Stallone) is serving prison time for his role in the events portrayed in First Blood. His former commander Colonel Samuel Trautman (Richard Crenna) secures his release in return for Rambo undertaking a covert mission to photograph a prisoner-of-war camp in Vietnam. The objective is to obtain proof whether or not any former American soldiers are still being held captive.

The mission commander is Marshall Murdock (Charles Napier), based out of Thailand. Rambo parachutes into the Vietnam jungle and connects with his contact Co-Bao (Julia Nickson). They make it to the prison camp, Rambo silently infiltrates the compound, and is shocked to find a large number of American POWs being used as slave labourers. Instead of just taking photographs he rescues one prisoner and heads back to the pre-arranged extraction point, only to learn that the mission is compromised and his jungle adventure is just beginning.

Directed by George P. Cosmatos with a screenplay co-written by Stallone and James Cameron, Rambo is a generally mindless, quite simplistic but also well-executed action film. At the peak of his physical abilities and boasting a superhuman muscularly chiselled torso, Stallone dominates proceedings with a dour performance that starts with scepticism and ends with outright rage at the establishment. More so that the Vietnamese and the Russians, the target of the film's fury is the home front, both for command incompetence and lack of post-war support.

Setting aside politics and messages, the action scenes are the film's lifeblood, and Cosmatos delivers slick jungle battles alternating stealth and cunning with plenty of oversized guns, helicopters and noisy explosions. The final 30 minutes feature barely any dialogue, as Rambo takes matters into his own hands, rewrites the mission and proceeds to unleash the wrath of the wronged soldier on all his foes. None of it is anywhere near credible, but the fun quotient is high.

With the Vietnamese soldiers portrayed as unworthy opponents, Russian  Lt. Col. Podovsky (Steven Berkoff) and his squad of torture-loving henchmen emerge as Rambo's real enemies. Berkoff competes with Napier and Crenna in the battle of the square-jawed supporting actors.

Rambo was a massive hit, spawning numerous knock-off imitators, and reopening questions about the American role in the Vietnam War and the post-war treatment of veterans. Although the superficial criticism that Stallone went back into the jungle and this time single-handedly won the war is valid, the film deserves credit for raising awareness about the need to the separate the treatment of individual veterans from the criticism of an unpopular war.

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Movie Review: The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo (2011)

The Hollywood adaptation of Stieg Larsson's The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo is filled with ambiance but otherwise cannot fully justify its existence.

In Stockholm, Millennium magazine investigative journalist Mikael Blomkvist (Daniel Craig) is found guilty of libel for wrongfully accusing wealthy industrialist Hans-Erik Wennerström of fraud. Mikael is carrying on an affair with his editor-in-chief Erika Berger (Robin Wright), but leaves her behind to accept an assignment from elderly business tycoon Henrik Vanger (Christopher Plummer), living in the remote northern island community of Hedeby.

Mikael in unaware that his background had been thoroughly checked by young hacker Lisbeth Salander (Rooney Mara) on behalf of Henrik and his lawyer Dirch Frode (Steven Berkoff). Lisbeth is an extremely intelligent but deeply troubled ward of the state, waging a battle for survival against Nils Bjurman, her horrifically abusive state-appointed guardian.

Henrik wants Mikael to investigate the disappearance 40 years prior of his great niece Harriet. In return, Henrik promises to reveal the real dirt on Wennerström. Henrik also warns Mikael that the extended Vanger family includes plenty of squabbling relatives, long-held grudges, vendettas and a sprinkling of Nazi sympathizers. The Vanger clan includes Henrik's deceased brother Gottfried (Harriet's father) and Gottfried's son Martin (Stellan Skarsgaard), who now runs the business, while Henrik's other brother Harald is ailing but still clinging to his fascist views.

Mikael sets up shop in a cold cabin and starts delving into family archives, police records and old newspaper reports. He finds a cryptic code in Harriet's Bible, and Frode connects him with Lisbeth to help advance the research. Mikael and Lisbeth join forces, start a passionate affair, and gradually uncover a horrific trail of crime much more complex than they ever expected.

Directed by David Fincher and arriving two years after the Swedish version, this Girl With The Dragon Tattoo exists in the name of avoiding subtitles. It's otherwise difficult to understand the artistic logic of imposing Swedish accents onto Anglo actors and recreating the same movie. Michael Nyqvist as Blomqvist, Noomi Rapace as Salander and director Niels Arden Oplev did a terrific job the first time around. Fincher adds a bit more style, subtracts some heart and plot comprehension, and lands in the same place with less authenticity.

Nevertheless, plenty of impressive visuals are on display. From the Bond-inspired opening credit sequence to the stark, frigid landscape of Sweden's remote north, Fincher creates an environment where things happen at the speed of creeping ice, and secrets lurk beneath a family's dominant blanket of power and wealth. Back in Stockholm Lisbeth dances on the edge of madness, her survival instincts kicking into overdrive in her morbid battle of excessive brutality with Bjurman. The material is strong, and Fincher extracts a stunning punk performance from Mara, Lisbeth Salander a brilliant source of coiled and angry energy.

Fincher does however bungle the central mystery of Harriet's disappearance. Too many names and locations are thrown at the screen far too quickly, and Fincher moves on to capture the next frozen pond instead of allowing the plot and supporting characters to breathe and mature.

The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo does convey the layered impact of individuals victimized by power brokers, personal tragedies covered up by a veneer of civility. But despite the professional treatment, this remains a wholly unnecessary remake.

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Movie Review: Octopussy (1983)

A tired paint-by-numbers entry in the Bond series, Octopussy rehashes familiar elements and delivers a tepid experience.

The death of Agent 009 in East Berlin and the sudden emergence of an ancient precious Fabergé egg trigger a new mission for James Bond (Roger Moore): find out who is suddenly cashing in on the sale of rare gems. At a London auction he quickly identifies exiled Afghan prince Kamal Khan (Louis Jourdan) as a middle man in the international conspiracy, along with his beautiful assistant Magda (Kristina Wayborn) and vicious henchman Gobinda (Kabir Bedi).

Bond travels to India in pursuit of Khan, and uncovers a plot whereby Khan and local all-woman cult and circus leader Octopussy (Maud Adams) are enabling the sale of jewels to finance the private warmongering efforts of Soviet General Orlov (Steven Berkoff). It does not take long for Bond to seduce both Magda and Octopussy, but putting a stop to Orlov's plan will require a manic race against time.

Directed by John Glen (his second of five Bond efforts) and featuring the penultimate outing for Roger Moore, now 56 years old, in the role, Octopussy is the oh-so-familiar mix of dry quips, chases, gadgets, stunts and travel to locations that would have been exotic 20 years prior. With the stuntmen and second unit getting the lion's share of screen time, Moore mails in a lacklustre performance, unconvincing as an agent and less convincing as a lover. In the same year a rival, almost equally geriatric Bond in the form of Never Say Never Again was released, and neither set the world on fire.

The few good moments in Octopussy feature a Mercedes-on-rails chasing a train, while former real-life tennis star Vijay Amritraj shows up as an MI6 agent in India and uses a tennis racket to swat away some bad guys in yet another perfunctory chase. Kristina Wayborn and fellow Swede Maud Adams, both about 20 years younger than Moore, pretend to be interested and add decent doses of sensuality.

But otherwise this Bond goes through the motions almost in slow motion. India is condescendingly represented with wall-to-wall stereotypes of snake charmers and sword eaters. The villain Orlov is ineffective to the point of being dispatched early in the final reverse order elimination of bad guys. With both Magda and Octopussy at least partially rehabilitated from their evil ways after the sex-with-Bond treatment, Octopussy somehow designates the smarmy Kamal Khan, a middle man, as culprit-in-Chief.

The climactic race against a ticking bomb features Bond in a full-blown clown suit, and rarely has a film so perfectly captured the sad decline of a once dangerous secret agent.

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