Rambo
Twenty years after the last film in the series, John Rambo (Sylvester Stallone) has retreated to northern Thailand, where he's running a longboat on the Salween River. On the nearby Thai-Burma (Myanmar) border, the world's longest-running civil war, the Burmese-Karen conflict, rages into its 60th year. But Rambo, who lives a solitary, simple life in the mountains and jungles fishing and catching poisonous snakes to sell, has long given up fighting, even as medics, mercenaries, rebels and peace workers pass by on their way to the war-torn region. That all changes when a group of human rights missionaries search out the "American river guide" John Rambo.
When Sarah (Julie Benz) and Michael Bennett (Paul Schulze) approach him, they explain that since last year's trek to the refugee camps, the Burmese military has laid landmines along the road, making it too dangerous for overland travel. They ask Rambo to guide them up the Salween and drop them off in order to deliver medical supplies and food to the Karen tribe. After refusing to cross into Burma, Rambo changes his mind and takes them, dropping them close to one of the Karen villages.
Less than two weeks later, he receives a visit from a pastor tellng him the aid workers did not return and the embassies have not helped locate them. The pastor has mortgaged his home and raised money from his congregation to hire mercenaries to free the missionaries, who are being held captive by the Burmese army. Although the United States military trained him to be a lethal super soldier in Vietnam, decades later Rambo's reluctance for violence and conflict are palpable. However, the lone warrior knows what he must do...
Tears of the Sun
Lt. A.K. Waters (Bruce Willis) and his elite team of Navy SEALS have their work cut out for them when they are dispatched to war-torn Nigeria with orders to rescue an American citizen, Dr. Lena Kendricks (Monica Bellucci). The mission is pretty cut and dry except for one glitch: Dr. Kendricks will have to abandon the natives to whom she has been providing healthcare and those that work in the mission where her rudimentary hospital is located. Of course, Dr. Kendricks refuses to leave without her people, forcing Lt. Waters to choose between completing his orders as directed or putting the lives of his men on the line by helping the refugees cross the border to Cameroon on foot. To complicate matters, the group is being pursued by militant guerillas who destroy everything in their path. Willis is in top Die Hard form as Lt. Waters, a touch-as-nails military man who confronts his conscience and makes decisions that surprise even him as he finds himself influenced by the stubborn Dr. Kendricks. Directed by Antoine Fuqua (Training Day), this film offers an enlightening and disturbing look at the conditions that permeate war-torn countries.
Black Hawk Down
On October 3, 1993, Army Rangers and members of the elite Delta Force participated in a covert operation in Mogadishu, Somalia that went horribly wrong. Sent to abduct two lieutenants of a vicious Somali warlord, the soldiers found themselves surrounded by hostile militia. Two Black Hawk helicopters were shot down and many men lost their lives. Mark Bowden of the Philadelphia Inquirer told the story of the battle in his exhaustively researched, critically acclaimed book, Black Hawk Down, and filmmaker Ridley Scott (Gladiator) and screenwriter Ken Nolan have done an amazing job of bringing the dramatic story to the screen. Like Bowden's book, the film does not thoroughly examine the context of the conflict, but gives a detailed and intense blow-by-blow account of the fighting. The outstanding ensemble cast includes Josh Hartnett as a competent but nervous Ranger sergeant leading his first mission, Ewan McGregor as a "desk jockey" who excels when sent into combat, Eric Bana (The Incredible Hulk) as a cocky and enigmatic Delta, and Ron Eldard as a downed Black Hawk pilot. The violence of the film is brutal and nearly constant. Scott unflinchingly captures the chaos and mayhem of battle with tremendous visual finesse.
