'You made it Rambo!': 'First Blood: Part II' ridiculous in a good way

Sylvester Stallone in Rambo: First Blood Part II

It literally starts with a meaningless explosion. This movie lets you know what it is from the very first second. It's going to be big and dumb. But fun.

Rambo: First Blood Part II is one of the most glorified B-movies I've ever seen with such unabashed right-wing jingoism it's not even funny, except of course when it is.

It looks cheap -- even though this was the biggest box office hit of Sylvester Stallone's career. It features perhaps the least convincing Vietnam ever put on film and the same goes for the actors portraying Vietnamese people.

The movie spells out everything for us. The bureaucrats are the bad guys and Rambo is the noble warrior, constantly betrayed by those pesky liberals back at home. Comically he is sprung from prison in the opening (asking "Can we win this time?") and asked to just "take pictures" of POWs trapped in Vietnam. Part of the fun of this movie is embracing how ridiculous the first act is.

Everything about this movie is overheated and at times the movie seems to be a homoerotic homage to Stallone's formidable physique and yet there are some really enjoyable action scenes here.

Even though First Blood showed us Rambo sneaking up and taking out his enemies in increasingly elaborate ways, Part II ups the ante.

He never killed anyone in the first film (at least not intentionally) but here he revels in his mercenary tactics and we, the audience, get a charge out of the mayhem.

"Why are there Russians here?" my girlfriend earnestly asked me while we watched this. I paused, and then offered, "Cause they're Communists?"

That's the absurdity of this film. It doesn't even try to attempt any kind of realistic portrayal of 1985 Vietnam. It's no surprise that a Rambo cartoon came out not long after this movie exploded because this is pretty much a comic book movie without the super powers.

At this point the Rambo movies found their formula. Rambo is given a mission (or chooses one) and is rapidly betrayed, he is captured and tortured (preferably in as little clothes as possible) and then he breaks free and single-handedly wipes out an army of foreigners.

Oh yeah, and you gotta add a beautiful female sidekick who speaks very broken English lest someone think our hero is gay.

Rambo doesn't haven't to be as resourceful in this movie as he was in the fist movie. He has enough artillery to just blow everyone away. And boy does he ever. If you're like me and you laugh out loud when someone is blown up via bow and arrow -- this is the movie for you.

Is this a good movie? Obviously no. But It's really entertaining. The scenes where Stallone is more "stealthy" Rambo, as my girlfriend describes it, are still pretty badass. And the moment when Rambo tells the bureaucrat Murdoch "I'm coming to get you!" right before he goes berserk on his cruel captors is 80s-era classic cheese.

And I am happy I took a bite. Although I could do without that last Rambo speech. Yikes.