Black Rambo

Rating: 6/10 (14 June 2020)

This movie was announced shortly after Blakkklansman came out, and I've been waiting a year-and-a-half for it; so after such a long wait, I suppose it's only to be expected that I would be somewhat let down. This is Spike's second war movie, after Miracle at St. Anna (2008) (which amid all the slog, inaccuracy, pacing issues and flaws did have good scenes), and I hoped Spike would've learned from all the criticisms of that movie and presented a more polished war picture, but no such luck. Same trappings, 'present day' framing device intercut with flashbacks, melodramatic presentation present in half his movies, beating you over the head with the same exact Spike Lee-isms (we get it, Spike, you've been making the same point over and over the last 35 years), and, as usual, Zero attempts at subtlety (the in-your-face abrasive attitude worked for Do the Right Thing and Blackkklansman, but falls flat everywhere else). Seriously, it wouldn't kill him to show some restraint. The movie is over-long as well, clocking in at an unnecessary two-and-a-half hours, when two or so would've sufficed - the set-up alone takes an hour, with some unnecessary scenes and plots crow-bar'd in there.
The few action sequences there are are pretty typical Hollywood shootouts you've seen in countless action videos, and essentially the movie tries to present itself as an anti-Rambo, while at times coming close to sorta boiling down to a black version of Rambo. The plot centers around four vets who go back to Vietnam in present day to dig up a dead friend killed in combat, and more importantly, find a cache of buried gold a la Treasure of the Sierra Madre (they find the body, but then kinda just leave it there?). The references abound, most noticeably Apocalypse Now, which he fully embraces, and Delroy Lindo's death towards the end reminds me of the ending of The Thin Red Line, though that may have been unintentional; also, that was a jarring moment that threw me off - Delroy wanders thru the jungle, comes to terms with his friends' death, then abruptly cuts to him digging his grave at Vietnamese gunpoint. I was hoping for more of an 'epic', especially given the running time, but instead it's essentially a repackaging of Miracle at St. Anna, with the same themes and all (also, a Vietcong chick on the radio telling them they're country doesn't give a damn about them, exactly like the radio Nazi chick towards the beginning of St. Anna), and it ends with a shootout in a single location while they're pinned down and injured, exactly like St. Anna. I didn't hate St. Anna, but I was hoping for a different war movie this time around. What we get is Spike stuck in his ways.