Review Detail
9.5 22 10
Overall rating
9.4
Audio/Video Quality
10.0
Audio Editing
8.0
Visual Editing
10.0
Narrative
9.0
Enjoyment
10.0
Here we have John Rambo narrating his own life's story. The edit uses a variety of sources and some cgi to bring this to life. It works very well for the most part but I had two issues. Another reviewer had mentioned the narrative going from parody to being very dark. I would agree with this and it sort of throws things off.
Personally what did not work for me is when it went into slapstick Airplane/Naked Gun comedy territory for one short segment. Sure Hot Shots (or its sequel) were used for this, but felt very out of place when watching the edit as a whole
The second issue I had was with the audio levels. I am not sure if this was done purposely ( Gieferg's edit Star Beast had something similar with the audio levels), but it came across like a badly mixed 5.1 and when down converted to a 2.0 has the music and effects loud and vocal track very low. This is close to what occurs here. Rambo's narration is loud. Some of the added in music and FX audio are loud. The actual source film audio especially for any dialog tracks is very low. The vocal/film audio should have been upped by at least 5 decibels or had the narration, dubbed music and effects lowered by at 4db and this would have blended it together much better. On my end I had to constantly raise and lower the volume. The actual audio editing itself was fine.
The Rambo voice over narration was a blast and this is what truly brings the whole story together. I'm not sure if it was a program that converted the voice this way or if he found someone to do it, but nice job!
I also wonder if the original 3 hour cut of First Blood was similar to this edit? On the commentary Stallone had mentioned they ended up hating the film so much and had no idea what to do with it that they wanted to break into the studio to burn the actual print. It was the distributor who ended up editing and giving us First Blood. Too bad they did not have a time machine to see Gieferg's edit. Perhaps it would have given them some idea on how to bring that original cut together in a different way. Some of the deleted scenes (including one with Stallone and his army crew at a whore house) from First Blood make it into this edit. This edit shows how well it could have been mixed in
I never like giving spoilers to projects like this. Its worth your time to check this out and even if you were not a fan of Rambo type films, it may draw you in anyway
Hmmm. You know, you could even technically make a total serious toned version of this edit because it would still work--Gieferg, maybe something to think about
Personally what did not work for me is when it went into slapstick Airplane/Naked Gun comedy territory for one short segment. Sure Hot Shots (or its sequel) were used for this, but felt very out of place when watching the edit as a whole
The second issue I had was with the audio levels. I am not sure if this was done purposely ( Gieferg's edit Star Beast had something similar with the audio levels), but it came across like a badly mixed 5.1 and when down converted to a 2.0 has the music and effects loud and vocal track very low. This is close to what occurs here. Rambo's narration is loud. Some of the added in music and FX audio are loud. The actual source film audio especially for any dialog tracks is very low. The vocal/film audio should have been upped by at least 5 decibels or had the narration, dubbed music and effects lowered by at 4db and this would have blended it together much better. On my end I had to constantly raise and lower the volume. The actual audio editing itself was fine.
The Rambo voice over narration was a blast and this is what truly brings the whole story together. I'm not sure if it was a program that converted the voice this way or if he found someone to do it, but nice job!
I also wonder if the original 3 hour cut of First Blood was similar to this edit? On the commentary Stallone had mentioned they ended up hating the film so much and had no idea what to do with it that they wanted to break into the studio to burn the actual print. It was the distributor who ended up editing and giving us First Blood. Too bad they did not have a time machine to see Gieferg's edit. Perhaps it would have given them some idea on how to bring that original cut together in a different way. Some of the deleted scenes (including one with Stallone and his army crew at a whore house) from First Blood make it into this edit. This edit shows how well it could have been mixed in
I never like giving spoilers to projects like this. Its worth your time to check this out and even if you were not a fan of Rambo type films, it may draw you in anyway
Hmmm. You know, you could even technically make a total serious toned version of this edit because it would still work--Gieferg, maybe something to think about
T