Word: rambo
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...smart of Boyle to court him for the part, brave of the actor to take it. Let's have a new kind of action star, one who calls into question (as the character and the film do) the very need for violent action movies. That's DiCaprio here: less Rambo than Rimbaud; a wild child back in the jungle. And, like Arnie and Hank and the Kid, a little boy lost. But the role doesn't play to all his strengths. He's most seductive when in repose; here he is on the move, reacting to trouble rather than causing...
...Vietnam comes round again for one of its periodic encores in the American mind. The war used to make these reappearances like the ghost of Hamlet's father as played by an adolescent--overacting, howling at the universe: think of the Rambo movies or Apocalypse Now. But the American flashbacks get more reflective as the years pass. This time the war revisits in the form of two documentary films, radically different from each other (one is utterly masculine, the other completely feminine). Both bring to the subject a wisdom earned the hard...
...have a problem with the sound of my name, Alan, and I've never been crazy about my middle name, Eric. After running the choices by some of my co-workers on the ferry, I briefly considered ditching the names on my birth certificate entirely, and switching to Rambo or Fabio or something I thought might be a little more fitting. I gave up on those two pretty quickly, but still, the idea of coming to Cambridge with a different name was appealing...
Despite numerous phone calls and the admittedly unconvincing promise of "cool, reasonably priced uniforms," none of my friends want to join my army. But who needs an army, anyway? If I do it alone--no allies, no armies, no diplomacy, just me, mano a mano, Rambo-style--they'll have to give me the nod over the other world leaders of the century...
...Even the Rambo-esque ending cannot save this movie. The audience does at least get to root against the new military (commanded, ironically, by a handful of ridiculously-foppish officers) and cheer when Todd lands a punch. Despite the gory violence, the predictable plot and obvious themes in the film are, in some ways, more painful experiences for the audience. A respectable performance by one actor and the creation of a stunningly vast garbage heap constitute the highlights in a film that cannot last very long in theaters where only the best films survive...