Rambo

Ok, so I know that I was said I was planning to post about Politics yesterday, but didn't end up blogging at all, but fear not (cause I'm sure you did) I'll get to it at some point.

I had a Darden Restaurants gift card from a contest at work. We looked at the choices listed on the card, and two we didn't recognize, and other than that there were "Red Lobster," which neither of us care for, and "Olive Garden," which is my wifes' favorite Restaurant, but doesn't do much for me. So she said to look and see there were any locations of the other two in our local area, but there weren't, the closest of either was over an hour away. So I Googled Darden to see if they had anything that wasn't listed on the card. Apparently they just bought Longhorn Steakhouse, which is awesome. I was so excited. I was sitting in front of the computer yelling "honey, they have Longhorn listed here, they have Longhorn listed here!!!!" So we called Longhorn to be sure they would take the card, and they said yes.

So, we decided to go see a movie, and have a nice dinner. My in-laws said they would watch the kids, so that was cool too. So I looked up the theater that is closest to Longhorn, and was again overcome with excitement as they were still showing "Rambo." I'm not sure my wife shared my enthusiasm, but she went along with it.

So, we dropped the kids off at her parents house, and they got pizza for dinner and got to go to the park, and found out Grandpa could still run! Even at a whopping 57 years of age! Ok, well the kids were surprised, but anyway, they had a great time.

So we went to the theater first, and got there with quite a bit of time to spare, and settled in to watch the inane program that they show in between movie showings. I'd describe it, but first I would have had to have been paying attention to it, and I can't say that I was. Anyway, and keep in mind we were seeing "Rambo," which is rated "R," which, in this case could be, "With Very Good Reason." So, we're sitting there watching other people file in, and what do we see? Some guy comes in with a kid that couldn't have been more than 5 years old. My jaw hit the floor. I couldn't believe it. I'd have trouble thinking of a more inappropriate movie for kid that young. But I digress.

Of course, once the inane show was over, the commercials started. Now, I've always enjoyed previews of other movies before the movie. I like them. But commercials? I mean, come on, and especially given that they showed around five of them. Then the previews finally started, and there were quite a few of them, everything from "Midnight Meat Train," a horror flick that I imagine I would sleep through, and likely will never bother seeing, all the way to the new Narnia movie due out in a couple of months, which we've been waiting for.

So, finally, at 4:25, for a movie that had a start time of 4:05, the movie finally got started.

I do not intend to give away any plot points here, as I don't want to ruin it for anyone who wants to see this movie, but hasn't had the chance yet. What I will say is that there was some foul language, but if you've seen the other Rambo movies, you would expect this, and there was action. Lots and lots of action. I would say that this was, by far, the bloodiest of the Rambo movies, but it was still a really good movie. If you can get past the language, and aren't too squeamish (my wife had her eyes closed quite a few times) I would highly recommend this movie.

I think that the "Rambo" franchise has gotten a bad rap over the years. Quite often I have heard lots of different people talk about any generic Rambo movie as the ultimate in senseless violence movies, but really this isn't true. If you are not familiar with the movies, bear with me for a moment. All four of the movies are intended to make a very valid point. The first one, "Rambo: First Blood," was meant to draw attention to the very poor treatment of Veterans who returned from the Vietnam War. The second movie, "Rambo: First Blood, Part 2," was intended to raise public awareness of POW's from the Vietnam War still being held in North Vietnam after so many years. I remember watching that one with my Dad, and the passionate response he had. At the end a CIA guy asks "What do you want us to do, Bomb Hanoi?" My dad jumped right out of his chair (we were at home, thank God) and yelled "YES!!!!" The third one was to make people aware of what the Soviet Union was doing to the people of Afghanistan during their occupation of that country. And this last one, simply titled "Rambo," is meant to spotlight the atrocities that are happening right now, today, in Burma (AKA Myanmar) and can be checked out at http://www.witness.org/ and is a very real thing.

I know that these are action movies, and they involve a lot of killing and such, and certainly, a lot of violence, but I just wanted to point out that this is not the full extent of what the movies are.

It's also interesting to note that the hero of the movies, John Rambo, played by Sylvester Stalone, always just wants to be left alone. He never wants trouble, never wants to get involved, but that option is never really left open for him, much to the chagrin of his eventual enemies. There is also a surprising Christian presence in this movie, as it is Christian aide workers that he goes in to rescue, and I'm not giving anything away here, you can see that much in any synopsis at any movie theater web site.

Anyway, I thought that it was a great movie, and am glad that I got to see it in the theater, but thinking back to that little kid (who did stay for the entire movie), all I can say is, I really hope they Scotch Guarded those seats!!!