Sequels are like watching a family where too many first cousins have gotten married and have kids--the genetic defects become more and more pronounced with each generation. The same could be said of sequels. What is it about Hollywood where they have to go and spoil a classic exploitation flick like "First Blood" by making sequels where each one focused on all the WRONG elements. Still the sequels are entertaining in a bad sort of way. ***

When "First Blood" rolled out beyond the B movies that inspired the film (and David Morrell's novel), there really hadn't been anything like it in quite some time. Stallone was still an A list star. John Rambo became an icon for a generation of disaffected veterans who felt betrayed by their country after coming home from war only to find themselves treated as something less than heroes. They did the right thing even if the politics were often muddled. ***

The plot of the first film is simple--Rambo shows up in a small town and the sheriff (Brian Dennehy) tries to give him the bum's rush because he's concerned that he'll create trouble. He's absolutely right. When another police officer arrests him and tries to rough him up Rambo goes into attack mode. Part of it is due to flashbacks to his experience as a POW in Vietnam and the other part is just a sense of injustice. When Colonel Trautman (Richard Crenna) his former commander shows up he has to try and convince Rambo to give up. ***

Whenever Stallone writes a sequel it loses all the subtly of the film that inspired it. That's the case of "Rambo: First Blood Part II". Based on a lean, mean script by James Cameron, "Rambo: First Blood Part II" returns Rambo to Vietnam to gather intelligence about whether or not Americans are still being held there as prisoners. The late George P. Cosmatos' direction is slick creating good action sequences but creating what amounts to a violent cartoon. ***

For his third encore "Rambo III" dreams up a plot that pushes the series into absurd land. Trautman (the late Richard Crenna) shows up again asking John Rambo to go to Afghanistan with him to help the locals fight the Russian menace. Rambo politely refuses. He gets pulled in when Trautman is kidnapped by the Soviets. The sequel is jingoistic to the point of absurdity. The action sequences are mint even if the film is unbelievable. The second film pushed the series back to its B-movie exploitative roots and this left the series there. ***

You had to know that the fourth film 2008's "Rambo" meant business and would take fans back to basics based on its sober, straight forward title (no "IV" here folks) which ties it back into the superior first film of the series. You'd be right. ***

"Rambo" finds our hero returning to his sanctuary of Thailand living in solitude. When missionaries ask him to lead them up the river to Burma he agrees but the local bad guys attack the village they make camp in kidnapping the missionaries. Rambo is called to action again. Although IV isn't a great movie it is an improvement in many respects when compared to the previous two with more realistic violence but at least a sense of purpose for our hero. While the film IS violent it takes no join in it compared to "II" and "III" and that could have been a mixed blessing. If the film was bad it would have had no redeeming entertainment value. It's not. It's an excellent film that captures the heart and soul that made the first film so effective providing a nice sense of closure for one of the more fascinating characters that Stallone has played on screen. ---

Image & Sound:

It appears that most of the films use the same transfer as the previous release with the most recent film looking sharper and with better color, crispness and more solid blacks. The first film also looks improved as it appears the master used for the recent Blu-Ray release was used here as well. Image quality is a bit sharper with nice colors and solid blacks. The best looking of the lot, though, is "Rambo" the last film in the franchise with colors as bold as the colors in a jungle and an image so sharp Rambo could use it as a weapon. ***

Audio sounds extremely good with solid use of 5.1 throughout most of the movies. ---

"First Blood" has an excellent commentary from Stallone. There is also a commentary by novelist David Morrell on the Blu-Ray edition but it is NOT on the DVD edition. ***

We have two deleted scenes and two alternate endings for the film. All three were wisely not used. ***

"Part II" features the late director George P. Cosmatos discussing the technical challenges in making the film. It's engaging. ***

"Part III" features director Peter MacDonald discussing the problems of shooting a big budget action adventure film as well as location challenges, changes in the script, etc. ***

We also get six deleted scenes and two alternate endings. ***

"Rambo" gets the lion's share of the extras. We get six featurettes on the making of the film. "A Score to Settle" features composer Brian Tyler discussing how he shaped the score in the wake of the late Jerry Goldsmith's terrific musical scores. "It's a Long Road: Resurrection of an Icon" runs 19 minutes and focuses on the genesis of the script, casting, shooting on location and allows us to see Stallone in action as a director. ***

"The Art of War" is in two parts with one focusing on the editing of the film and features Stallone along with Sean Allexander and Paul Harb demonstrating the difference in cutting a scene that can result in different ratings. The second part focuses strictly effects and how they were integrated to compliment the sense of reality in the film. ***

"The Weaponry of Rambo" features Kent Johnson who handled the guns as property master on the film. We also have footage of training the actors on how to use the weapons without harming themselves (although there weren't any live rounds using a gun with blanks can still be harmful). "A Heroes' Welcome" documents how the film was received by audiences. "Legacy of Despair: The Struggle in Burma" shows what is actually going on in that country as their civil war rages out of control. ***

We get deleted scenes which, again, don't add anything significantly to the film. Finally we get the trailers for "Rambo" as well as the film "Hamburger Hill". ***

For those folks that are interested there is also a digital version of the fourth film included that you can play on your PC and supposedly can port over to your portable digital devices. If you've got an iPod and are traveling (which I often do), this could be a useful feature. ***

The sixth and last disc includes all of the bonus features from the 2002 releases as well as the original bonus disc for the "Rambo Trilogy". These include: "The Real Nam: Voices from Within" "Guts and Glory" The Forging of Heroes: America's Green Berets" "Rambo-nomics" "Selling a Hero" "Suiting Up" "An American Hero's Journey: The Rambo Trilogy" ***

From the other release we get: "Drawing First Blood" "We Get to Win This Time" "Afghanistan: Land in Crisis" None of which I had time to watch due to time constraints.

Final Words: