OK Here is the premise. After spending 20 years in Thailand catching snakes and pounding red hot metal on an anvil and making arrows and such, John Rambo is contacted by a group of pesky missionaries. It seems they want to go "up river" from Thailand to Burma. Ummmmm Sly? You may want to check your map. Its called Myanmar now.

This is hardly Oscar material. I wouldn't characterize it as a fast paced thrill ride, either. It is above average action adventure with a body count and plenty of death and distruction. All in all, worth a trip to the video store, but I am glad I passed on it at the theatre. (sigh) It's sad to see action heroes getting old. One of the missionaries actually lectures him about family, home and hearth and in the final scene of the movie, we see Sly looking wistfully at the mailbox at the end of his father's driveway in someplace rural America. It ends with him walking purposely up the driveway.

I watched Rendition with Jake Gyllenhaal, Reese WItherspoon and Meryl Streep over the weekend. Considering the controversial nature of the subject, this film was well done. I say this even though there was an obvious liberal bent to the story line. "Extraordinary Renditions" were a cover-your-ass technique developed by the Clinton Administration whereby suspected terrorists captured by us are delivered to countries that use torture to obtain confessions. In that way, there is no culpability for the USA.

All of the characterizations were well done and the film progressed well. The only flaw I could see was the fact that the flashback to a critical scene in the movie was disjointed and unless you were paying complete attention, made no sense. A standout surprise in this movie was Alan Arkin (Little Miss Sunshine) as a Senator.

All in all, this film is worth the cost of a rental.