thoughts on Rambo

"Rambo?" my girlfriend questioned. "Isn't he the guy who went up the steps of the Philadelphia Art Museum?"

Now THERE is a movie. Rambo, machines gun blazing, riding a tank up the Art Museum steps, gunning down tourists along the way.

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As the discussion inevitably continued, someone inquired whether the new Rambo was a remake of the original Rambo. Silly fools.

You see, there was no original Rambo. The "first Rambo" is actually called First Blood. Rambo was the lead character of this movie. But by the time the sequel came out (I assume despite being totally uninformed and having done no research), the character had become more of a brand than the movie title, thus, First Blood 2, was called Rambo: First Blood 2. Now here is where it gets tricky: what should have been "First Blood 3", or possibly, "Rambo 2: First Blood 3", was called, simply -- and gracefully might I add -- Rambo 3 (officially making it the most illogically numbered movie franchise outside of The Naked Gun movies, whose odd numbers were done purposefully for comedic effect).

At this point, the producers obviously realized that the name Rambo was still wide open for taking (since it was previously tagged with "First Blood 2"), thus "Rambo 4" was christened nothing more than Rambo.

So lets review, the "first Rambo movie" is called First Blood, but is widely referred to as Rambo. Since "First Blood 2" was less marketable than Rambo: First Blood 2, the second film is also called Rambo (no one is going to say Rambo: First Blood 2 in casual conversation). Rambo the third is called Rambo 3, despite there officially being no Rambo 2. And Rambo 4, once again for marketing purposes in an effort to restart the franchise is also just called plain old Rambo.

Meaning, essentially, you have a four film movie franchise that is called, in order: Rambo, Rambo, Rambo 3 and Rambo.

Good work guys.

Oh, number of these movies I have actually seen: 0.
Thus nothing I said may be accurate. Shrug.