Men have been graced with not one but two Rambo movies this year. The simply titled Rambo bulldozed its way into theaters
earlier this year, much to the delight of fans looking for some mindless, gruesome fun. It was the explosive, bloody thrill ride I wanted it to be. Jump ahead a few months and we have the second Rambo film, aptly titled Son of Rambow Unfortunately, it is not the action-packed adventure one might suspect, but a childhood film inspired by First Blood .
A British film set in the early 1980''s, Son of Rambow follows a young boy named Will Proudfoot (Bill Milner) who is naive to much of the modern world. A member of the Plymouth Brethren, he isn''t allowed to watch TV or movies, and in fact has to leave class every time his teacher shows a video. It is on one of these occasions that he meets the manipulative hooligan Lee Carter (Will Poulter). While Lee Carter first takes advantage of Will''s innocent ways, the two soon form a friendship as they set out to make an adaptation of First Blood - the first and only movie Will has ever seen. As filming continues and more and more students join in on the production, Will and Lee Carter find their relationship strained - and his family threatened with expulsion from the religious order in which he has been raised.
Having only watched blockbusters for the last month, I was looking forward to sitting down to a pleasant little British comedy. The concept sounded great; the previews were hilarious. After all, how can a comedy about two boys remaking a low budget Rambo film not be good? Unfortunately, Son of Rambow is not very good at all. As I''ve heard some glowing reviews about the movie, I have to assume that my perception was skewed the night before, but if that were the case, it must have really been skewed. Son of Rambow is mildly funny at best, yet utterly boring.