Rambo Box Set (First Blood / Rambo: First Blood Part II / Rambo III )

Good dvd set

This review is based wholly on the Blu-Ray box set. There are many Rambo box sets out there and rest assured there will be more. I chose to upgrade to this set because the collection with all 4 movies does not contain the new Rambo Extended Cut. If you don't know Rambo's story than you are either A. a tree hugging hippie, B. a monk, or C. born within the last 10 years! First Blood is a 5 star movie based on the book by David Morrell. It tells the story of a Vietnam vet looking to find a place in America. Unable to hold a steady job and tormented by POW nightmares, Rambo moves from place to place. When he finds himself in a nowheresville USA, he quickly catches the eye of the town sheriff. Told that his kind isn't wanted there, he is taken out of the town limits and told not to return. Rambo defies the order and is arrested. Rambo is then beaten by the local police while in holding which triggers his instincts to fight back. What happens next is the start of a film icon! First Blood Part II is a 5 star action movie! I would say this may be the first Blockbuster Action Film ever made. Now in prison for his town romp, Col. Trautman returns to give Rambo an out. A mission to go back to 'Nam and confirm the possible existence of POW's. Rambo accepts and utters these words "Do we get to win this time?" Ordered only to take pictures, Rambo defies orders (see a trend here) and saves one of them instead. The backstabbing politician running the whole thing freaks and aborts the mission leaving Rambo stranded and now a POW. Alas, held by his captors and tortured by the Russians running the camp, Rambo endures more punishment that only fuels his rage. What happens next is probably the greatest one man army display ever filmed! From the jungles scenes to the finale, you will feel the rush and cheer! First Blood Part III is a 3.5 star action movie. This time Rambo is living a peaceful life in Thailand. Col. Trautman finds him and asks for his help on a mission he is leading in Afghanistan. Rambo claims his war is over but that all changes once his only ally becomes a POW. Rambo asks to go in and save his friend. What happens next is he finds himself drawn to the Afghan freedom fighters and decides to pick up their plight against the Russians. This is by far the weakest of all the films but still ranks better than most action movies today. BLU RAY THOUGHTS: I wasn't expecting much but all 3 films looked amazing. No this isn't like Avatar amazing but these films are over 20 years old and they looked brand new. Sound was excellent as well. SPECIAL FEATURES: Everything from the previous releases are here. Including the alt ending where Rambo kills himself as in the book. FINAL THOUGHTS: THIS IS A MUST UPGRADE!

Well, when the Rambo movies were re-released on VHS a few years ago in all new packaging and in widescreen for the first time, I jumped on that set when I found it. But now that I got a DVD player I have been wanting to get these movies on DVD. Now there's been a Collector's set available for some time using the same prints that were released on VHS. They were also, I noticed, only in Dolby 2.0 and from what I have read the picture quality wasn't very good. I was even going to buy that set because it had a great price, but ironically I waited. I then went back to check out the Amazon link and found that it was no longer available directly from Amazon and I was like, "What?" Well now I know. This new Special Edition is going to rock! Hopefully. :) Remastered in both Dolby 5.1 and DTS, the Rambo movies should sound the best ever. With an additional disc to the 3 movie set that is loaded with mucho extras that it will keep you busy for quite a while featuring many new documentaries that tie in the events of the movies with today's post-9/11 world with a documentary on Afghanistan. This should be the Ultimate Rambo DVD collection. And with rumors that Stallone is working on a new script for a Rambo IV that takes him back to Afghanistan to fight the Taliban, it should be interesting and nostalgic to watch these movies again. And if the Rambo movies come across as patriotic propaganda now, so what? Get over it. Why one would feel shame for having strong feelings for one's country is beyond me. Besides, I'm anxiously awaiting to hear that Rambo theme in 5.1 Surround.

I am an avid fan of the Rambo movies and have owned the original Region 1 boxset for many years which I got whilst in the states back in the early noughties and thought it was time to update so purchased this bluray boxset and WOW what a difference the picture and sound quality is excellent. They have obviously gone to a lot of trouble in cleaning up the movies and it shows. I can highly recommend for all Rambo fans.

I forgot what a good movie the original Rambo was. I watched it through completely again, just the basic movie, and there was so much I'd forgotten. It's a great tale -- basically the local authority gets a little too loose in the use of his power and picks on the wrong guy: Rambo. Mel Gibson's "Apocalypto" is almost the exact same movie but frankly Rambo did it first and did it better (and did it with a lot less gore!). But that's not why you want this DVD set. If you just want to watch Rambo you can rent it. You want THIS set because of the extras. It was actually worth watching the whole movie AGAIN with Stallone's commentary running instead of the regular soundtrack. Stallone fills in some backstory about the characters, why the sheriff is the way he is and a whole heap of a tale about the making of the film. Did you ever wonder why films today are so clean cut and Hollywood just can't seem to produce the dark grit of films like Rambo anymore? Well, listen to Stallone tell his tale and you'll understand why films like Rambo just don't get made very often. I confess I'm doing this review without having seen the other two movies yet but the first movie with the extras has already justified my purchase. I'm really looking forward to seeing the other two and hearing what Stallone has to say about them as well. There are haters out there who hate on Rambo because it's not up to par with their level of sophistication but the loss is theirs. Rambo is a great film and Stallone's commentary adds a lot of value to this set.

I've always liked First Blood, the sequels ?( 2&3), well, not so much. They are certainly watch-able as a mindless guilty pleasure, but they aren't the greatest films. I wanted to upgrade my copy of First Blood to Blu ray, but found this box set for around the same price as the one film, so I decided to give it a shot and watch those sequels again. The Blu Ray discs come in individual cases, I was hoping for a space saving case for my library, I would have rather had a slim case with a hinged spindle instead of this bulky box set. Disc one houses the first film which looks the best it has ever looked on home video. Nice detail and a clarity I have never seen with this film. It also includes several audio options and two commentaries. The bonuses are a little thinner than the 2 disc DVD Special Editions, but what's here is very good.. A 20 + minute documentary, deleted scenes including the original ending and a nice Trivia option for watching the film. All of these are very interesting. The film itself is by far the best in the series and one of my favorite Stallone vehicles. A great supporting cast,fast pace and a good mix of action make this one worth the price of this set alone. Disc two holds Rambo II, which also looks the best it ever has, the bonuses include a 20 minute documentary and the trivia option like the first film. This sequel is fair at best, it starts off interesting and is a well made film, but the comic book over the top situations make it hard to really be engrossed in the story because we sense no danger for our hero. The man literally beats an army with a bow and arrow. That being said it only runs out of steam in the last act and isn't a total disaster. The third disc holds Rambo III which is the weakest in the series, but like the first sequel it starts off promising and runs of of gas with too many sporadic explosions and gunfire. It should be noted that I pretty much wrote the two sequels off until Stallone redeemed himself with a 4th installment named plainly Rambo which I truly enjoyed. Once again a nice upgrade from SD with a 30 minute documentary, but this one isn't all that great as it focuses mainly on Afghanistan and not so much about the movie, there is also the trivia option while attaching the movie. If you're a fan of these films this is probably worth picking up, while I like bonus features the Rambo series is not all that important to me personally the extras here are very good and informative. At the price point of one Blu Ray, it's hard to resist even only being a true fan of the original. If the last film in the series was included and this was in a slim case or multi disc case, I would have given it 5 stars, regardless it's still a good deal for three quality blu ray transfers of the first three films.

I appreciate the seller for this item!

Let me confess that in the whole period of DVD production, I've never seen such a brilliant, Spectacular & really Collector's edition (not only special edition) DVD set! It's beautiful and very well designed and produced with high quality material! It consists of a Collectable real metal outer case, Spectacular metallic and glassy inner case, booklet, and 4 DVDs. but there are two complain, movies are double sided. Widescreen sides are Dual layer with DTS soundtrack. Full screen sides are single layers without DTS soundtrack. it means that if you deceide to watch a movie in full screen, you'll unable to use DTS which is soppose to be one of the most important features of this DVD set. second complain is about the sound remasteration. in two of them, all of the sounds and speeches go through only one of five speakers! it's a real problem and it really botters when it shows 5.1 DD or DTS in audio menu but the real soundtrack is mono. it'll be good if the studio schedule a program to replace the defective DVDs! I heart of a new release of RAMBO TRILOGY, I've not seen it yet but descriptions indicate that's an ordinary DVD collection. the sound quality will be difinately better than this one but about other features, I can't Discuss yet. better of this one or not, I can say it with courage, no DVD collection will be complete whitout the RAMBO TRILOGY SPECIAL EDITION!