The director, George P. Cosmatos, gives this near-psychotic material -- a mixture of Catholic iconography and Soldier of Fortune pulp -- a veneer of professionalism, but the looniness is always there.

| Sep 13, 2023

…still fun to watch despite the head-spinning hypocrisy…

| Original Score: 3/5 | Aug 23, 2022

Presents staggeringly dumb and tiresome gung-heroics, with Sylvester Stallone at his flag-waving funniest.

| Jul 22, 2022

Mountains, mud, mutilation and mortars can't keep Rambo down, but a heavyhanded plot, unrelenting violence and a screeching soundtrack deliver pummeling blows to viewers.

| Aug 13, 2021

Though it sacrifices the original film's brooding style and moral complexities for nonstop action, this second chapter manages to remain surprisingly entertaining.

| Original Score: 5/10 | Sep 7, 2020

A tedious action yarn.

| Original Score: 2/4 | Sep 22, 2019

From its whip 'em up music to its doggy cliches, the movie is a rubbish pile. Even the vaunted action scenes... don't show fresh verve or tactical flair. They're just stunts with big price tags.

| Jul 19, 2019

Stallone, an often terribly misused actor, embroiders a very physical role, very demanding, emanating fear and pain at the same time, something more difficult to do than it seems. [Full Review in Spanish]

| Apr 17, 2019

The result is entertaining if implausible as Stallone flexes his muscles for some cartoon-like heroics, rescuing American prisoners in Vietnam but discovering that he's considered as expendable as the men he's trying to save.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Apr 17, 2019

Reappraisal is not due.

| Original Score: 2/5 | Apr 17, 2019

So powerful and intoxicating is this kind of movie hero that when we see him operating in a flaw-riddled movie like ''Rambo'' we realize that heroic action can override almost any script.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Apr 17, 2019

Despite its various issues there's one thing about Rambo: First Blood Part II that trumps everything else - it's a whole lotta fun.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Nov 20, 2018

As subtle as an exploding arrow to the head... It almost feels as if this takes everything that First Blood did so well to restrict, and just throws it all at the audience double-fold.

| Original Score: 5/10 | Nov 17, 2018

In credibility, the action is as ludicrous as old Saturday-afternoon serials; in execution, the skills help it to skate over the incredibilities.

| Apr 11, 2016

An endless parade of people glowering, being pensive, skulking, but with all the sonic and visual trappings of a trashy action movie insisting that it's big noisome fun.

| Original Score: 4/10 | Oct 25, 2014

Sly shoots up Vietnam in glorified '80s actioner.

| Original Score: 2/5 | Dec 15, 2010

What makes this icon so significant is how wholly he was embraced by the Reagan era. After all, it only seems natural to respond to B-movie action stars when your president was one as well.

| Original Score: 51/100 | Jun 7, 2010

This overwrought sequel to the popular First Blood (1982) is one mounting fireball.

| Mar 26, 2009

Rambo's significant beefcake factor is so pronounced in First Blood: Part II that it practically begs to be taken as queer-baiting camp.

Full Review | Jun 14, 2008

...precisely the sort of unapologetically brutal piece of work that's sorely missing from contemporary multiplexes.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Jan 24, 2008