I’m not going to say that most critics missed the boat in roundly condemning Rambo as, in one critic’s words, “mindless action porn” … but they did. It’s not a perfect movie by any means, but it is endlessly fascinating in the way it revises the character of John Rambo from the cartoonish Cold Warrior he was 20 years ago to a hulking avatar of the scars of war, and also in the way it confronts the audience’s bloodlust with a full-scale onslaught of viscera that is simultaneously discomforting and exciting—a tricky paradox that genuinely sticks in your gut. If Sam Peckinpah were still alive, he would understand. (Hollywood Jewel 16, Waco, TX)