Rambo: First Blood Part II (1985) |
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Rambo: First Blood Part II (1985) |
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| General | Extras | ||
| Category | Action |
Main Menu Introduction Main Menu Audio & Animation Scene Selection Anim & Audio |
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| Rating |
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| Year Of Production | 1985 | ||
| Running Time | 91:57 | ||
| RSDL / Flipper | RSDL (50:36) | Cast & Crew | |
| Start Up | Language Select Then Menu | ||
| Region Coding | 2,4 | Directed By | George P. Cosmatos |
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Studio
Distributor |
 Universal Pictures Home Video |
Starring |
Sylvester Stallone Richard Crenna Charles Napier Steven Berkoff Julia Nickson-Soul Martin Kove George Cheung Andy Wood William Ghent Voyo Goric Dana Lee Bagan Coleman Steven Williams |
| Case | ? | ||
| RPI | Box | Music | Jerry Goldsmith |
| Video | Audio | ||
| Pan & Scan/Full Frame | None | English Dolby Digital 5.1 (448Kb/s) | |
| Widescreen Aspect Ratio | 2.30:1 | ||
| 16x9 Enhancement |
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| Video Format | 576i (PAL) | ||
| Original Aspect Ratio | 2.35:1 | Miscellaneous | |
| Jacket Pictures | No | ||
| Subtitles | Dutch | Smoking | Yes |
| Annoying Product Placement | No | ||
| Action In or After Credits | No | ||
The sequel to First Blood, Rambo (now confusingly renamed Rambo 2), discards plot in favour of more action in this cold-war induced right-wing hymn to Imperial America. Co-written by Sylvester Stallone and James Cameron, apparently this was Ronald Regan's favourite movie. However, if you ignore the George Bush Jr style politics that underline it, Rambo remains an action classic, and a very enjoyable popcorn movie.
We find John Rambo (Sylvester Stallone) breaking rocks in gaol. It seems that steroid abuse is rife in this prison, as Rambo's muscles have now ballooned to absurd proportions compared to his appearance in First Blood. Or perhaps they should be marketing a Breaking Rocks Work-Out DVD? Anyway, Colonel Trautman (Richard Crenna), Rambo's former CO, visits Rambo, and promises him a Presidential Pardon if he will carry out a Special Forces mission. Rambo reluctantly agrees, and finds himself back in South-East Asia.
Rambo's mission is to travel to a remote prison camp, where it is rumoured that American POWs are still being held. Rambo is only supposed to take pictures, but when things go awry, Rambo's weapons quickly come out, and things start exploding.
Having travelled through Vietnam on holiday, and now living in a post-cold war age, the idea of Americans being held as POWs in the 1980s seems far fetched. However, in the height of the cold war in the 1980s, I recall that the idea seemed not only possible, but somehow probable. This was an important political issue at the time, and other films, such as the Missing In Action movies, also picked up and ran with the theme.
As with First Blood, the transfer is a little grainy, but good overall.
The transfer is presented in an aspect ratio of 2.30:1, 16x9 enhanced.
The sharpness of the image is okay, although some scenes look a little too soft. The black level also suffers at times, and the shadow detail is poor, especially in the darker scenes, such as at 15:02.
The colour is generally good, but whites can appear grey, and some skin tones looked a little too brown.
There are no problems with MPEG artefacts, but the grainy image sometimes does appear a little pixelated. Film-to-video artefacts are present in the form of some mild aliasing, such as the shimmer on the bamboo roof of the boat at 21:09. Tiny film artefacts appear infrequently throughout, and some edge enhancement is also noticeable at times.
Again, surprisingly, the only subtitles present on the DVD are Dutch.
This is an RSDL disc, with the layer change placed at 50:36. On my player there was a slight pause, but as the change is in between scenes, it's not too distracting.
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Originally released theatrically in Dolby Stereo Surround, and remixed into Dolby Digital 5.1 for this DVD, the audio retains much of its original Stereo Surround feel.
There is only one audio option on this DVD: English Dolby Digital 5.1 (448Kb/s).
The dialogue quality and audio sync are fine, although as before, some of Stallone's lines are slurred with his speech.
The musical score is credited to the very talented Jerry Goldsmith, and it is heavily based on his work for First Blood. Interestingly he has taken those familiar themes and reworked them using South-East Asian instruments, which helps set the scene of the story.
The surround presence and activity is still limited, but much improved over First Blood. The rear speakers are called upon for the score, ambience, and effects, such as for the helicopter passing overhead at 34:32. However, there is not much separation between the rears.
The subwoofer is heard with every explosion, for example at 73:11, but the LFE track sounds a little too booming, and lacking refinement.
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Surprisingly, as with First Blood, there are no extras -- not even a trailer!
An animated main menu, with audio.
NOTE: To view non-R4 releases, your equipment needs to be multi-zone compatible and usually also NTSC compatible.
Rambo: First Blood II has been released on DVD in Region 1 twice, initially in 1999 as a single sided, dual layered disc with a Stereo-Surround audio track. The extras included a making-of featurette, audio commentary, trailers, trivia, and a "Stallone Movie Retrospective". In 2002 the dual sided, dual/single layered Special Edition arrived.
In R1 this DVD can be purchased by itself, as part of "The Rambo Collection Pack" (the three standard DVD editions) or as part of the "Rambo Trilogy" (the three SE DVDs with a fourth bonus disc including production notes, a new 30 min featurette, "Rambo Trilogy", and trivia games).
Compared with the R1 Special Edition, the Region 4 DVD misses out on:
The Region 1 DVD misses out on:
I would have to favour the R1 Special Edition.
Rambo 2 is an action classic and fun popcorn movie that will be enjoyed for many years to come.
The video quality is reasonable.
The audio quality is also reasonable.
There are no extras.
| Video | |
| Audio | |
| Extras |  |
| Plot | |
| Overall | |
| Review Equipment | |
| DVD | Pioneer DV-535, using S-Video output |
| Display | Grundig Elegance 82-2101 (82cm, 16x9). Calibrated with Video Essentials. This display device is 16x9 capable. |
| Audio Decoder | Built in to amplifier/receiver. Calibrated with Video Essentials. |
| Amplification | Sony STR DE-545 |
| Speakers | Sony SS-V315 x5; Sony SA-WMS315 subwoofer |