Rating:B+
Really Really Good
View Film Preview Rambo 4: Pearl of the Cobra
Starring: Sylvester Stallone
Screenplay: Sylvester Stallone
Director(s): Sylvester Stallone MPAA Rating: Unavailable
Reviewed by: El Mayimbe - 12.12.06
RAMBO 4: PEARL OF THE COBRA
Written By Sylvester Stallone
Draft dated 11/06/06, 109 Pages
Oye mira! El Mayimbe aqui!
Nothing is over! Nothing! You just dont turn it off!
Those words were uttered famously by Stallone in the first Rambo movie and have everything to do with the new Rambo movie.
You just dont turn it off.
Ever since they announced a new Rambo movie, I have seen most of the drafts of the new script come through the pipeline with different writers but held out reviewing the scripts for the simple fact that I knew Stallone himself would eventually rewrite the script when he finally had the time.
Besides being revered around the world as a movie star, Stallone is an Oscar nominated writer and a damn good one at that. Folks, you have to respect a writer who is responsible for giving birth to not one but TWO of the most recognizable and iconic movie characters that have hit film in the last 30 years Rocky and Rambo.
Sure, he has made some bad choices along the way, I mean who hasnt, but the popularity of Rocky and Rambo will endure for years to come hence why the movies of these two characters are still being made.
Ive heard nothing but good things about the latest ROCKY BALBOA. I read the script a year ago and really liked it. I just never got around to reviewing it for the site.
A lot of his fans around the world have been asking me when I was going to review the latest Rambo script and here it is. Along with the superhero stuff, Rambo is one of my biggest requests and I am glad to finally deliver because it has been worth the wait.
I will admit I was a little worried at first because the earlier drafts from the other writers, well those stories werent really working.
So finally what is PEARL OF THE COBRA really about?
It is no secret really but I am here to confirm that it is indeed the following:
The next chapter finds Rambo recruited by a group of Christian human rights missionaries to protect them against pirates, during a humanitarian aid deliver to the persecuted Karen people of Burma. After some of the missionaries are taken prisoner by sadistic Burmese soldiers, Rambo gets a second impossible job: to assemble a team of mercenaries to rescue the surviving relief workers.
Classic Joseph Campbell/Heros Journey
The story hits all the Campbell beats in order and quite nicely.
So what is the verdict on the script? Is it as good as ROCKY BALBOA?
The answer is a resounding yes. It is really, really good, hence the B+ rating.
Action fans of Rambo will be happy to know that the 2nd half is pure action and yes it is an extremely violent and gory. Not Apocalypto gory but pretty damn close. The violence by the sadistic PA TEE TINT and his soldiers is disturbing but from what Stallone himself said in his awesome recent interviews over at AICN - the violence is merely a reflection of the reality in that region.
Lets take a quick sneak peek at the 1st half.
When the script opens we are shown a map showing the countries of Vietnam, Cambodia, Thailand and Burma.
We are told that for over fifty years, The Karen people of Burma, consisting of peasants, mainly farmers, have fought for survival against the oppressive ruling Burmese military. Torture, murder, rape, mutilation and wide spread executions of ethnic minorities have forced a million people into refugee camps and millions more to flee into the forests and mountains to fight a losing battle for their survival. The United Nations has called the systematic destruction of the Karen people a slow but certain genocide.
The struggle between the Karen freedom fighters the ruling Burmese army is the longest running civil war in history.
After a brief montage of the actual violence happening in the region that is narrated by journalists, we open to our ORDINARY WORLD scene and meet the sadistic Burmese major in his 30s and the main bad guy of the piece PA TEE TINT. We also meet his right hand LT. AYE and watch in horror as Tint and his 10 Burmese soldiers take bets at the expense of the lives of the 5 Karen prisoners in a rice paddy.
After the credit sequence, we finally catch up with JOHN RAMBO and his TWO SNAKE CATCHERS in a longboat. Though having matured, the long-haired outcast still resembles the one-time super soldier whose monastic lifestyle has kept his body strong. Around the neck of the hulking Rambo is an amber pearl 3 centimeters in diameter. Its called SRI NAGRA MANI The Pearl Of the Cobra.
Rambo now catches poisonous snakes for a living.
Rambo later heads back to the Snake Village and later meets MICHAEL BURNETT for our CALL/REFUSAL OF THE CALL TO ADVENTURE SCENE where the missionaries want to rent Rambos boat and be taken up the river to Burma. Rambo tells Burnett that it is a war zone. Burnett explains to Rambo that his church is part of a pan-asian ministry located in Colorado. Burnett and his missionaries are all volunteers who around this time of year bring in medical supplies, prayer-books, and support to the Karen Tribes people.
SARAH MILLER, one of the missionaries makes her pitch. Rambo has to think it over.
Afterwards, LT. AYE and MAJOR TINT abduct 12-16 year old boys from a Karen village and put them onto trucks to join the Burmese army.
Later at Rambos simple living quarters, we get our MEETING WITH THE MENTOR scene where Rambo is visited by ED BAUMGARDENER and told not get involved and take those missionaries up the river.
The next morning Rambo takes the missionaries up the river. He makes small talk with Sarah and we find out Rambo is from Arizona. We find out about what The Pearl Of The Cobra really stands for. The scene reminds me of Rambo Part II when he talks to his love interest of that film going upstream in the river.
We the later get our CROSSING OF THE FIRST THRESHOLD scene where RIVER PIRATES want Sarah. This is after the scene before where Rambo pays the River Pirates to let him and the missionaries pass.
Rambo pulls out his .45 and smokes all the river pirates with quickness to the dismay of Michael and the missionaries.
The next day, they make it to the shoreline and EIGHT KAREN TRIBESMAN help unload the supplies the missionaries have brought.
Rambo leaves the missionaries to do their work while he goes back to disposes of the bodies of the dead river pirates.
Sarah, Burnett, and the rest of the missionaries make it the Karen Village and eventually get ambushed by MAJOR TINT and his sadistic men. What happens to the missionaries and the villagers is downright horrible. The reaming missionaries are taken by Tint.
A week later, Baumgardener and REVEREND ARTHUR MARSH run into Rambo at Dukes Restaurant.
Marsh and his congregation are upset that the missionaries have gone missing.
Rambo now has to go back for the missionaries.
Baumgardener hooks up Rambo with 5 mercenaries to go back and get the missionaries.
They are DIAZ (A Latino! Oh ****!), LEWIS, SCHOOL BOY (my favorite and wait till you see why), REESE, and EN-JOO.
I wont give the descriptions of the mercs because last month, my boys over at joblo.com put the casting breakdown up at their wonderful site. The breakdown is accurate with the exception of DICK O GARA who is now the character of ED BAUMGARDENER.
Same character, different name.
To read the breakdown, click over
HERE.
The breakdown also contains accurate spoilers of what happens so read at your own risk
NOTE: the only exception to the spoilers is that one of the mercs lives but I wont spoil which one.
That ends our sneak peek at the first half of Pearl of the Cobra.
The 2nd half is all pure vintage Rambo that we know and love as he lays the smackdown with his .50 cal ordinance to the sadistic Burmese army.
Cant wait to see it.
A really good script and it is good to see Stallone have his resurgence again.
HASTA EL PROXIMO CAPITULO
YO SOY EL MAYIMBE!
Note from Ronnie: I chose to post the image above for two reason. First, I took this pic of Sly on Sunset Blvd. at the Newstand across the street from the Chateu Marmont. I don't often admit to once being a paparrazzi photographer, so I thought, why not? Second, when you see Rocky Balboa, you'll get the joke behind Rocky's comment on how to pose for pictures. I think I was the only one who laughed out loud in the press screening.
(big muscle, shirt or mostly no shirt, lots of big guns and cool ways of killing the bad guys. (yes the bow!!) )
That's what he was criticized for back in the `80s.
