Tuesday, January 29, 2008

Rambo: Fourth Blood



(click to view the depressing stats counts)

12 comments so far. What are your thoughts?

the violent femme said...

oooo, I wince.

Jackie M. said...

Obviously the problem started with Syl taking his shirt off.

David Moles said...

Clearly they know their audience.

You know, in the book the first film was based on, Rambo was killed in the end. I can't help but think that all of the 1980s would have been better if they'd just stuck closer to the book.

Jackie M. said...

I gotta ask, though: if they were the same movies with the same stats but Rambo was a scary-ass woman... would you feel the same way?

Unknown said...

hmmm Jackie has a point lol..

Yeah but does the movie actually make the others look better or worse?

I haven't seen it yet.

Kameron Hurley said...

And see, and I think Travis asks the real question here: do these stats add up to a better or worse movie?

I mean, would it really have been better if he kept his shirt on throughout all four movies?

I mean, the death count would have been better, for sure, if he'd just have kept his shirt on (and I'm not sure who Jackie's comment is to - me or David?).

I mean, I like a good blood fest, but Blood Rayne was a pretty horrible movie, even WITH Michelle Rodriguez, so.

I haven't seen this one yet either!

Jackie M. said...

I'm asking you. David likes his female protagonists 3-dimensional, competent, and even dangerous, true--but he doesn't have a history of complaining about the pronounced lack of powerful, scary-ass women.

Jackie M. said...

Which, okay, wouldn't make a bad movie into a good movie. But I guess what I'm asking is: would you view that bad movie differently?

Kameron Hurley said...

To be honest, I think I would be *even more disappointed* by a bad movie with a scary-ass female protagonist.

In fact, I'm trying to think of... Ah, yes: "Enough" with jennifer Lopez, where she goes off and learns Krav Maga? Terrible movie. Worse because it was pitched to me as being about a buff-ass woman who was not buff.

Blood Rayne? Terrible movie, even worse because it had Michelle Rodriguez in it and I was really hoping that I'd at least get to see her kick a lot of ass.

Resident Evil?

Awesome movie all around, in part because it had kick-ass female protagonists.

Terminator 2? Alien and Aliens? Same thing. Great movies, but even greater cause the heroines kicked some major ass.

Someday, they may even do so as something other than a size 4. That'll be pretty kewl, too.

But shitty movies with kewl female protagonists? Even shittier because I'm disappointed more.

Jackie M. said...

But do you see how you keep defining "disappointing" as "a movie in which you were led to believe a scary-buff female would kick lots of ass but then she didn't"?

None of those examples you gave precludes my theory (in fact, they seem to support it) that you would actually quite enjoy a movie which featured a buff-ass, PTSD female Rambo racking up an ever-increasing body count. Even if the movie in question was absolutely terrible by all other objective standards.

Kameron Hurley said...

Um, Jackie, you realize you're asking somebody this who's seen The 300 half a dozen times, right?

And if that protag was a kick-ass woman?

Oh yeah, baby. Oh YEAH.

I love me some slash and hack. I read old Conan novels, you know.

Jackie M. said...

Oh, yeah. Yeah, I realize.