Please, won't someone stop the 80's?

Last week, I commented on the upcoming return of American Gladiators. Sad but true. Today while scanning through my RSS feed, I learned about the return of another 80's phenomena, Rambo. Who can forget the great 1982 movie staring Sly and Brian Dennehy that brought increased attention to the plight of our nation's Vietnam Vets through over-sensationalized, Hollywood-explosions?

Much like the great classic Rocky, Sly's follow-up films went on a downward spiral. Rambo went from being a icon of everything wrong with this country to a late Cold-War source of American propaganda. Rambo II taught us that Vietnam is still unfinished business and that we still had a job to do. Rambo III taught us that Afghanistan was overrun by those damn communists. Won't someone please help? Enter John Rambo who tells the Russian officer, "I'm your worst nightmare!"

Still, I would be a liar if I said I didn't eat these movies up. I was a teenager at the time and Hollywood was feeding me a never-ending supply of violent action movies. This was the age of Robocop, Rambo, Aliens...& Arnold reigned supreme.

So, here we are back to present day. Sly appears to be reinventing himself by going back in time. First there was Rocky Balboa.

-- tangent alert --

Admittedly, I Netflix'ed it. It was *ahem* good. I mean, I liked all of it except the actual fight. The fight was crap. Seriously, it was a story about a man mourning his wife and looking back over his life. The mood, the cinematography, the characters were all surprisingly well done. Really, if you liked the first Rocky, rent Balboa. Simply turn it off before the fight. The fight was a completely different movie.

-- end tangent --

Now there's Rambo going to Burma. Much like Rocky, the trailer suggests that Rambo has "retired" and is driven back into action by a bunch of do-gooders try to sneak into Burma --Probably a film crew-- to bring attention to the situation there. Clearly, Sly and the gang intend to do it their way. To put it another way...

"Who do you think this man is? The Lord?"

"No. God would have mercy. He won't."

Please Sly, have mercy on us. Go back to running your Hard Rock Cafe'. Don't suck me into your new Rambo movie, please!