poe-ghostal-review-rambo-neca-head

When most people think of Rambo, they think of Sylvester Stallone, naked from the waist up, covered in sweat, and gunning down hundreds of foreigners bad guys while not getting a single scratch himself. (Right? That’s what people think of? Naked, sweaty Sylvester Stallone? Eh, maybe it’s just me.) But that’s the Rambo of Rambo: First Blood Part II and Rambo III, which were basically straight action films with a side of jingoistic political content that has aged a bit poorly (especially Rambo III).

But the original 1982 film, First Blood, is quite different from the sequels. It’s a taut thriller about a Vietnam vet with post-traumatic stress disorder who gets pushed a bit too far by a small-town sheriff and goes crazy, waging a one-man war on a small town in Washington.