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Tuesday, September 15
Sylvester Stallone put his career back on track by reviving his most popular characters in Rocky Balboa and Rambo. The success of both brought him the chance to make The Expendables, a movie he both wrote and directed that's about a group of mercenaries who overthrow a dictator. .
Stallone has assembled a massive cast of action stars for Expendables, including Jason Statham, Jet Li, Steve Austin, Mickey Rourke, and Dolph Lundgren. At the Venice Film Festival, Stallone described the movie as a throwback to action movies past.
I wanted to do a film that was more about men and just doing things that we did back in the '80s and '90s with films that were a little bit more men on men, and actual physical stunts and also a story that isn't super-gigantic. And the thing was to find certain personalities that never would ever work together normally and put them altogether. It's like a dream team.
Bruce Willis is also joining the male action fest. Stallone says Willis will appear with another action star, Arnold Schwarzenegger.
Arnold, Bruce and I will be working together for the first time, maybe in two weeks, so I had to grow back my beard and get ready to film it in Los Angeles. It's very difficult to get us all together at the same time. It's impossible to get all those egos in the same room.
Once The Expendables is complete, Stallone will focus his attention on Rambo 5, a movie initially described as a rescue movie before the storyline changed to one that pits Stallone against a genetically modified creature. Retitled Rambo V: The Savage Hunt, Stallone believes the storyline change will put the Rambo franchise in a new direction.
I don't want to keep repeating myself and just doing films about war. This is a very psychological film about sophisticated man fighting primitive man. It's actually possible today, with all the cloning and stem cell research, to actually have some experiments that don't work very well and get out of control.
Once Rambo V is complete, Stallone will continue writing and directing, even if he doesn't appear in the movies.
What's very unusual in my life is that I'm now, at this age, starting to develop what I should have done 20 years ago which is more directing and writing and especially not the movies I am in. The key will be to direct other people and write for other people. Then that cycle will be broken.
Posted 9/15/2009 by Ryan
Related: Sylvester Stallone | Rambo | The Expendables | Rambo 5
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Monday, September 7
It was only announced in August that Sylvester Stallone would be returning to star in and direct the fifth installment in the Rambo franchise, so when Stallone recently revealed the plot had changed from rescuing a girl from human traffickers to preventing the creation of super-soldiers, the Internet buzzed with rumors and speculation about what this means for the future of the franchise.
So many comparisons to the plot of the 1992 action movie starring Dolph Lundgren and Jean-Claude Van Damme, Universal Soldier, were made that apparently even Stallone could feel the backlash because he picked up the phone to try to set the record straight. In a recent voice message, Stallone said:
It's not a Universal Soldier, it's not me fighting some super-soldier, it's actually a feral beast. It's a thing, it's this amalgamation of fury and intelligence and pure unadulterated rage. It's before men became human. This is when they were still inhuman. And, so, what he confronts is everyone's virtual nightmare ... he's going against a feral beast that has absolute cunning and intelligence and a will to survive that is only matched by Rambo's, and that what makes it uniquely different. It's like man's conscience fighting his dark, dangerous, uncontrollable sub-conscious.
It's your worst nightmare. You're battling your primitive self, which has a lot more cunning and power than than you could have ever imagined."
The locale of Rambo V: The Savage Hunt, initially described as being along the U.S.-Mexico border, has changed to the Pacific Northwest. Filming was expected to begin in the spring and there is no word if the changes in plot and locale will affect the start of production.
Posted 9/7/2009 by BrentJS
Related: Rambo: First Blood Part II | Rambo III | Rambo: First Blood | Sylvester Stallone | Universal Soldier | Rambo | Rambo 5
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Monday, August 31
Variety reports that Sylvester Stallone is returning as John Rambo for a fifth time. Stallone will also direct the movie, just like he did for 2008's Rambo.
The end of Rambo found Stallone back in the United States, but in the fifth installment Rambo will head south of the U.S. border to fight drug lords and human traffickers to rescue a young, kidnapped girl. And since the last movie went back to the original moniker, we can't help but wonder what this one will be called. Rambo II? Rambo: Third Blood Part II? Just plain Rambo again?
Rambo 5 (or II, or whatever) will start production next spring. Currently, Stallone is finishing post-production on The Expendables, a movie filled with action stars like Jason Statham, Jet Li, and recent addition Bruce Willis.
Posted 8/31/2009 by Ryan
Related: Sylvester Stallone | Rambo | The Expendables | Rambo 5
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Tuesday, May 27
Sylvester Stallone's musclebound mercenary Rambo arrives on DVD today, available in both standard and two-disc special editions. Also debuting are John Cusack's Iraq War drama Grace is Gone; Woody Allen's sibling rivalry drama Cassandra's Dream; Chinese director Jieho Lee's trippy crime drama The Air I Breathe; and the searing documentary Darfur Now.
Our DVD pick of the week is the Blu-ray edition of Rambo: The Complete Collector's Set. Buy it now and revisit every spectacular kill in sparkling high definition. The picture is so clear that astute lip-readers can now make out much of Stallone's previously indecipherable mumbling.
Posted 5/27/2008 by reelz
Related: The Air I Breathe | Rambo | Grace Is Gone | Cassandra's Dream | Darfur Now
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Thursday, May 15
The most recent chapter of Sylvester Stallone's Rambo franchise had the monosyllabic mercenary escorting aid workers into war-torn Burma (aka Myanmar) and then slaughtering the country's ruling military junta almost single-handedly. Who would have thought that buried beneath the film's cartoonish gore was a theme of surprising prescience, with the Myanmar junta's resistance to foreign aid currently compounding the devastation caused by Cyclone Nargis?
"It was a ticking time bomb waiting to go off," Rambo co-star Julie Benz told us at an event yesterday promoting her latest project, the horror flick Saw V. "Stallone was very smart about setting the movie there. He did a lot of research to find out where the most volatile place in the world was...I do a lot of work for the U.S. Campaign for Burma because of my experience making Rambo."
Wanna help? Head over to uscampaignforburma.org.
Posted 5/15/2008 by reelz
Related: Julie Benz | Rambo
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Monday, February 4
Raising the bar for Angelina Jolie, Bono and other celebrities who resort to such wussified methods as "advocacy" and "diplomacy" to help various beleagured developing nations, muscle-bound Rambo star Sylvester Stallone has offered to take on Myanmar's (aka Burma's) brutal, repressive regime all by himself.
"I'm only hoping that the Burmese military, because they take such incredible offence to this, would call it lies and scurrilous propaganda. Why don't you invite me over?" Stallone challenged in a recent interview with Reuters. "Let me take a tour of your country without someone pointing a gun at my head and we'll show you where all the bodies are buried... Or let's go debate in Washington in front of a congressional hearing... But I doubt that's going to happen."
Looks like you just got served, Myanmar.
Stallone is hard at work on a fifth Rambo chapter, and is rumored to be planning another Rocky as well.
Source: Reuters
Posted 2/4/2008 by reelz
Related: Sylvester Stallone | Rambo
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Monday, January 28
Meet the Spartans scored a slight upset at the Cineplex over the weekend, edging out the blood-soaked epic Rambo for first place at the box office. The critic-proof parody tallied $18.7 million in its first three days of release, while Sylvester Stallone's latest comeback vehicle trailed close behind at $18.1 million, according to boxofficemojo.com. Katherine Heigl's rom-com 27 Dresses placed third with a $13.6 million take, followed by monster movie Cloverfield at $12.7 million -- a precipitous 68% percent drop for J.J. Abrams' much-hyped flick. Rounding out the top five was Diane Lane's thriller Untraceable, which took in a respectable $11.2 million.
Posted 1/28/2008 by reelz
Related: Rambo | Untraceable | Meet the Spartans
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Friday, January 25
After a 20-year layoff, iconic Cold Warrior John Rambo returns to the big screen. But does Sylvester Stallone's muscle-bound mercenary have the stuff to take down the mighty Cloverfield?
A rundown of our reviews of this weekend's new releases:
Rambo 
"Fans of the first three Rambo movies will likely love it, as will fans of irony, absurdity and unintentional comedy." [Full Rambo Review]
Meet the Spartans 
"Arriving a bit late to the "300 is gay" comedic feeding frenzy, Meet the Spartans hungrily devours the few remaining table scraps." [Full Meet the Spartans Review]
Untraceable 
"If you’re aching for your next dose of suspense drama adrenaline, Untraceable may just do the trick." [Full Untraceable Review]
How She Move 
"Contains barely enough entertaining material for a thirty second trailer; the rest is perfunctory filler." [Full How She Move Review]
Also opening: U2 3D, The Air I Breathe, 4 Months, 3 Weeks, 2 Days
Posted 1/25/2008 by reelz
Related: Rambo | How She Move | Untraceable | Meet the Spartans
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Last night ReelzChannel caught early fan reaction to the first showing of Rambo. Early critic reaction has been a mixed bag; now see what regular movie fans had to say as they left the theater.
Up next week it's tween time when we'll be at the midnight showing of Hannah Montana/Miley Cyrus: Best of Both Worlds Concert Tour.
Posted 1/25/2008 by Dack
Related: Rambo
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Thursday, January 24
After a 20-year absence, bulletproof soldier of fortune John Rambo returns to the big screen this weekend for another epic bloodbath in Rambo.
Set in the war-torn Southeast Asian nation of Burma (aka Myanmar), Rambo chronicles the monosyllabic mercenary's efforts to rescue a group of Christian missionaries held hostage by ruthless Burmese soldiers. It could very well be Rambo's bloodiest battle yet.
We've got an early Rambo review for you today as well as an interview with Sly Stallone himself!
Next Showing: Rambo opens in theaters nationwide January 25, 2008
Posted 1/24/2008 by reelz
Related: Sylvester Stallone | Rambo