"Bring any weapons?"
"Of course not."
"You ain’t changin’ nothin’."
For about two minutes, the Cannes John Rambo showreel, currently being hosted by our pals over at Ain’t It Cool News, is muted, melancholy and contemplative – a nice companion piece to last year’s Rocky Balboa. Then… well, I don’t know how else to put it: Rambo goes Rambo. Next thing you know, there’s a beheading, a guy being exploded by the point-blank assault of a truck-mounted machine gun and a would-be rapist getting his throat ripped out ala Billy in Road House.
As Harry says, this ain’t PG-13.
But is it NC-17? If Alexandre Aja’s The Hills Have Eyes remake was "R", I’d like to think John Rambo will be, too, even though the violence in Stallone’s movie is the absolute definition of "gratuitous". What I love about this extended trailer is that the tone is 2007, while the action is vintage 1985. I also love that it’s awesome. I was worried Stallone was going to overdo the nostalgia business with this one; now, I’m pleading with Sly to not hold this for 2008. I want to see more people getting knocked back by the force of an arrow into a land mine and blown up real fucking good this year!
Once you watch the trailer, I think you will, too. Unless you’re a rapist.
And hurry up, because Harry’s taking the trailer down on Monday.