Stallone, Lionsgate Follow Meat Loaf’s Lead and Charge Into Hell

Written by: Tony Lazlo, CC2K Staff Writer

Lionsgate Pictures apparently didn't want audiences to get confused by two Sylvester Stallone swan-song vanity projects. In the wake of the success of Stallone's surprisingly solid Rocky Balboa, Lionsgate has changed the title of Stallone's fourth First Blood from John Rambo to Rambo to Hell and Back.

I've seen this title on a few sites, and so far it looks as goofy as it looks. No, seriously, read the title again:

Rambo to Hell and Back.

Notice anything weird? OK, I'll tell you what's weird about it after the jump.

The title should be this:

Rambo: To Hell and Back.

But it's not. It's Rambo to Hell and Back, a title whose cadence makes me think of the Four Seasons song "Workin' My Way Back," as if Stallone could Rambo his way into hell and then come back.

But let's stop snarking about the title and instead start preparing ourselves for the sinus-clearing ultraviolence that awaits us.

To wit:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p8KBySFKF8o

Yes, that's right. Rambo points an anti-aircraft gun at a dude and liquefies him. Someone had to write that stage direction into the screenplay – "Rambo trains the anti-aircraft gun on the guerilla soldier and fires. The soldier explodes in a bloom of gore and gristle" – and then they had to make it happen.

Well, at least Julie Benz is in it!