Sunday, January 20, 2008

Rambo data

Today's LA Times includes "Dead and deader" (by John Mueller) which summarizes the vital stats from the last four Rambo movies ("First Blood" (1982), "Rambo: First Blood Part II" (1985), "Rambo III" (1988), and "Rambo" (2008)). Reviewers are usually careful not to give away too much but this writer tells all in the way of key data. Some interesting trends are revealed.

"Number of bad guys killed by Rambo with his shirt on" 1, 12, 33, 83;

"Number of bad guys killed by Rambo with his shirt off" 0, 46, 45, 0;

"Number of bad guys killed by accomplices of Rambo acting on their own" 0, 10, 17, 40;

"Number of good guys killed by bad guys" 0, 1, 37, 113;

"Number of people killed by per minute" 1, 69, 132, 236.

There is also "Time at which the first person is killed (mins: secs)," "Number of people killed per minute from that point until the end of the film (not including the ending credits)", "Sequences in which Rambo is shot without significant result", "Number of sequences in which good guys are tortured by bad guys," etc.

As PC-game mayhem has gotten better and better (worse and worse), how could the Rambo body count go any other way?

There is also a tabulation of "Number of sex scenes. " All zeroes, no trend, not a chic flic. (Notice also that the aging Stallone does no more shirtless killing.) To be sure, we'll have to wait for the director's cut of the newest release on DVD.