Movies and TV Shows

Loved this movie. And they should never have made any sequels.

Stone cold classic. Can't speak for everyone else, but for me and my little friends, it really shaped how we saw Vietnam vets as victims. I'd go as far as to say it pumped GenX with the unconditional love we have for vets. Didn't want to be guilty of that shame again.

All the actors knocked it out the park. Every scene was so natural, yet the shit that went down was so inevitable. OK, Colonel Troutman overacted it all a bit, but he clearly told us who John Rambo was.

Stallone made great first movies. It's sequels that he kinda sucked at.

I'd say it's a tie between First Blood and Rocky for his best performance for sure, with Rocky being a little better as a movie overall.

Tbh though, he squandered his ability as an actor chasing being an action star. First Blood was the last movie he made that had any real acting in it.

I'm not saying that he didn't do good action movies, he did, and he still kinda does. It's the acting part that he started phoning in. Even in the Rocky series, the second one was half-assed acting compared to the first, and it went schlocky after that. It's like he was doing a caricature or impression of Rocky rather than seriously acting.

Now, again, as an action star, he was top tier. He had the moves, the look, and just enough skill to make characters pop a little.

What do you think of the original ending - where Troutman kills Rambo?

I almost feel like it would have been a more fitting end the character.

It's one of my favourite movies. I watched a walking tour on YouTube of the filming locations in Hope BC a few years back, it was pretty interesting with lots of fun facts. Nighthawks (1981) is also pretty gritty and has Rutger Hauer and Billy Dee Williams. A lot more recent and better gritty Stallone movie is Cop Land (1997) from James Mangold, saw it for the first time a few months ago and really enjoyed it.

Can you tell I like Stallone? Went and watched a whole bunch of his movies in a row not too long ago and they're really hit or miss.

edits to add that Billy Dee Williams was also in Nighthawks and that Cop Land is the better movie

For the readers- the guy who wrote First Blood also wrote a book called Creepers and it's fantastic

the film is and was awesome with the only weak spot being the inexplicably overdramatic crenna, it's cringe-inducing whenever he starts to speak. the sequels are nothing short of idiotic, starting with the headband - he wore the thing as a bandage and somehow it became his identity.

do yourself a favor and read the book. the characters are downright psychotic, the lot of them. way less action and more introspective explorations of two men descending into their own private hell, getting crazier by the hour. morell wrote it after watching reels from vietnam and talking to psychotic vets.

tarantino quipped once that he'd like to do the book, with adam driver as rambo and kurt russel as sheriff.

First Blood and the sequels are completely different beasts. Agreed on all counts it is an amazing standalone movie. And the sequels are pure 80s action movie epic cheese. Very similar to the first Rocky movie and its sequels (II to IV)