Now, folks, time for another history lesson. Just a few short weeks ago I introduced some of the younger readers to an archaeologist called Indiana Jones (played by an actor called Harrison Ford) who featured in three fantastic Steven Spielberg movies almost twenty years ago and who, this May, is returning for a very eagerly awaited fourth adventure.
This week another movie 'hero' of the eighties returns to the silver screen, and his name is John Rambo.
John Rambo is the second most famous creation of Sylvester 'Sly' Stallone - the most famous one being the boxer Rocky Balboa.
In the past John Rambo was a modern day warrior - a freedom fighter who would let nothing, or no-one, stand in his way.
Often gruesome, always bloody violent, Rambo films consisted of high action with even higher body counts as Rambo used every conceivable weapon (including his bare hands) to kill as many of his enemies as was possible in ever more horrible ways. You really didn't want to mess with this guy.
Anyway, some twenty years after 'Rambo III' (1988) Mr Rambo - to you and I - is now retired to somewhere in Thailand where he is living peacefully running a riverboat business and this is where the simply titled 'Rambo' begins.
Despite his reputation as a warrior of almost mythical proportions Rambo has managed to stay away from wars and violence for the past two decades. It's surprising George Bush hasn't come looking for this guy because he really is a 'weapon of mass destruction'. Just a few miles down the river from Rambo's peaceful life is Thailand's border with Burma where a long running civil war - between the Burmese and Karen people - has been raging for almost sixty years. Despite a constant stream of people of all persuasions going along the river towards this war Rambo is uninterested. That is until a group of human rights missionaries come in search of John Rambo seeking his help. Their request seems relatively simple - the Burmese have laid landmines and so it's too dangerous for them to bring aid to the warzone over land.
So, they ask if Rambo will take them down the river and deliver them safely into Burma where they will go to the aid of the Karen people.
Weeks later Rambo learns the people he delivered never returned and this pisses Rambo off a little bit. And you really, really don't want to piss Mr Rambo off.
Before long Rambo has reacquainted himself with all manner of knifes, machetes, cross-bows and guns and he's killing people like it's going out of fashion.
Honestly, even if you don't enjoy this film which, it has to be said, is extremely violent try and count how many people are killed here. You'll lose count, or simply pass out with the sight of more blood than you'd expect from an episode of 'ER'.
Two years ago (2006) Stallone brought back Rocky for one last hurrah and now, for 2008, he brings back Rambo.
The difference between the two characters couldn't be more stark. While Rocky was a boxer who came good but then encountered problems at least he was a regular guy who you could like. Rambo, on the other hand, is little more than a former soldier who's turned into an unstoppable killing machine and, ultimately, is impossible to like or feel anything towards him. And this is really the problem here.
The Rambo character may sit well in a computer game but, at the cinema, people want some humour, some sign of humanity or anything which might make them care whether such a character lives or dies. Sadly, no such signs exist here which is why Rambo is a dinosaur who should have been left in extinction.
