RAMBO: FIRST BLOOD PART II (1985)

After blowing up half the town of Jerkwater, U.S.A. in the first film, Vietnam War veteran John J. Rambo is tossed in the slammer where he passes the time breaking rocks with a sledgehammer.  Three years later, he's offered a pardon if he accepts a mission to sneak into Vietnam and locate some suspected American prisoners of war.  He accepts, but it's not until he's about to take off on his mission that he learns he's only suppose to photograph the American prisoners, not rescue them.  Things don't go quite as planned.

RAMBO: FIRST BLOOD PART II is one of the best 1980's action movies of all time.  Great acting, awesome explosions, badass sound effects, tons of people getting shot and stabbed and blown the fuck up, torture, memorable bad guys, a very well-written script that keeps the story moving along at a lightning pace, explosive arrows, leeches, strong cast full of familiar faces, a helicopter dogfight, a pit full of pig pee-pee, the guy from Cobra Kai getting kneed in the nuts.  It's awesome!

I could go on about this film for hours, but nobody wants to hear my ramblin' ass bullshit.  If you're interested in the history of action movies and / or American Cinema, then double-feature FIRST BLOOD followed by this film.  Or...if you really want to explode yer ballsack up through the roof of your mouth...double-feature Rambo 2 with DEADLY PREY.

Part 1 - First Blood (1982)
Part 3 - Rambo III (1988)
Part 4 - Rambo (2008)
Part 5 - Rambo: Last Blood (2019)

HOT SHOTS! PART DEUX (1993)

The story this time is pretty much RAMBO III where Topper Harley (Charlie Sheen) is now a ripped Buddhist monk/stick fighter in Thailand.  A military Colonel Walters (played by Richard Crenna, who also played Colonel Trautman in RAMBO III) asks Topper to sneak into Iraq and save some POW's.  He initially refuses, but after Walters himself is taken prisoner at the same camp, Topper agrees to go in.  Along the way he runs into his old flame from the first film, Valeria Golino, but by now he's having a fling with a supersexy CIA operative Brenda Bakke.

Part Deux is, of course, directly related to the original HOT SHOTS!, but since they shifted gears away from TOP GUN and parody more on the Rambo franchise it feels really fresh with tons of new material to mine for jokes.  The humor is more absurd, the story broader, Charlie Sheen is probably the funniest he's ever been, Lloyd Bridges is hilarious, even Richard Crenna (who I've never thought of as a comedic actor) was surprisingly funny and the beautiful Brenda Bakke's presence didn't hurt anything...except the tensile strength of my pants in the crotchitoldal area!

As enjoyable as the first film is, I think Part Deux might be just a little bit better.  Just to be sure, I better go rewatch them both.

Part 1 - Hot Shots! (1991)