The end of the last Rambo movie left things wide open for a potential sequel to this long running series. Stallone's got some more miles in him than many thought. When Rambo ends the last film, he's killed off what seems to be half of the population of Burma and rescued the damsel in distress. He takes her advice and decides to return back to his home in Arizona, apparently to see his father.

It's not likely that the next Rambo film will be a heart warming exploration of a father son relationship. If it was something more like Tuesdays with Morrie than First Blood, it would be the most surprising turnaround in Hollywood history. While Stallone has gone on the record saying that there will be another Rambo film, the details have been tight. He's said that he's still writing the script, and that it won't be a war movie. This doesn't make too much sense, as Rambo is all about war films - could Rambo be taking up kick-boxing or something? Who knows.

He's intending to shoot the next film in Bulgaria, but there's no telling what that indicates. All that's really known is that it's going to be set in Arizona. The previous film did reasonably well worldwide, earning $105.8 million relative to its budget of $44 million. Stallone will presumably reprise his role as Rambo, and perhaps get in some character development to one paradoxically known for its complete lack of depth and focus on mindless action. 

The new Rambo film has far higher production values than the previous efforts, which were B movies at best. Sylvester Stallone's latest effort is probably his best polished. He's become more mature as a film maker, even if his movies haven't. In Rambo, the titular character is working as a snake catcher down the river from Burma, having left his history as a war hero behind. He has few thoughts of returning to the United States or of battle until he is asked by a group of missionaries to ferry them up the river to Burma to help them provide food and medical aid to the Karen minority group.

The trip goes well until they are stopped by a cadre of machine gun toting river pirates. When they ask to take one of the female missionaries into slavery, Rambo flips out and shoots all of the pirates in seconds like the a quick draw cowboy straight out of a spaghetti western. Later on, he lets the missionaries off at their destination, confident that they will be killed.

Rambo's intuition proves mostly right when the missionaries are either killed or captured by the Burmese military, which goes on a rampage in the village that they're providing aid to. When a representative of their missionary group contacts Rambo later asking him for help to rescue them (along with a group of surly mercenaries) he grudgingly agrees. What follows are another hour and a half or so of Rambo and his newfound friends killing Burmese soldiers to save the day in one of the best extended action sequences in any movie since the original Matrix.

There Will Be Blood is one of the most critically acclaimed movies of 2007, winning two academy awards. Daniel Day-Lewis picked up Best Actor, and Robert Elswit for Best Cinematography. Although it hasn't been talked about much, the movie was based on a novel by Sinclair Lewis entitled Oil! which told the story of an oil entrepreneur starting up his business during the boom years in California during the late 19th and early 20th century.

Day-Lewis plays Daniel Plainview, a silver prospector who manages to stake his claim to an oil well in the boom years of California. He gradually expands his business, paying low prices for the oil rights at a variety of ranches, homes and churches around California. The work is dangerous, and many workers die in industrial accidents, causing some in the community to raise concerns about Plainview's business practices. Screenwriter Paul Thomas Anderson made it a story of how one man basically became the wealthiest man in town by making shrewd business deals with the surrounding population and by cutting corners on safety and labor costs.

The movie largely won acclaim thanks to the frightening intensity of Day-Lewis' method acting. He stayed in character even off set, and spent months just working on getting his accent right. The movie also plays on conflicts between religion and business, with Plainview murdering a faith healer out of spite at the end of the movie. His dramatic line "I Drink Your Milkshake" actually refers to the process of oil extraction from a standing reservoir.

The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian has been released to favorable reviews at theaters around the world. This sequel to the Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe follows the further adventures of the Pevensie children in the magical realm of Narnia. The sequel might be a bit much for younger viewers, as it focuses more on violence than the original, which was more about the exciting exploration of a fantasy world.

The story takes up a year after the events of the original. The Pevensie children have returned to war torn London, but the bleak environs are not enough to keep them engaged as they imagine the verdant fields and breathtaking struggles that envelop the world of Narnia. They return to find that the world was not in the peaceful state in which they had left it - the creatures that they had befriended in the first movie have gone into hiding while vicious monsters run the world. The children soon meet Prince Caspian, who joins them in a quest to liberate the downtrodden intelligent animals of Narnia.

Prince Caspian as a whole is more like the final scene of the last movie in which an apocalyptic computer generated battle acted as its climax. Rather than discovering the magic of the world as they were in the first movie, the children in this sequel are trying to bring back the world that they know and love despite opposition from a frightening cast of monsters and evil men.     

What Happens in Vegas... takes the gambling capitol of the world's slogan and essentially makes it into a feature film starring Cameron Diaz and Ashton Kutcher. The plot is rather similar to Knocked Up in that it involves a couple that get together thanks to the socially lubricative properties of alcohol and proceed to fight one another for jackpot winnings, somehow falling in love during the entire messy and combative process. The movie, released on May 9th, was not well reviewed - but then again, neither are most romantic comedies.

Ashton Kutcher is something of a divisive figure among movie goers and women in particular. Some love him. Others think that he is the worst human being on the planet. That should dictate whether or not you enjoy this movie, which is only novel thanks to its setting. Diaz and Kutcher play characters that have just come off the rebound of a messy set of romances and have headed to Las Vegas to obliterate their brains and dump out their bank accounts. As it's a movie, they manage to win big at slots after one uses the other's quarter. The rest of the movie involves them struggling to lay claim to the winnings.

They do end up getting married - while drunk - and try to make the best of it. People stuck in torture chamber marriages might find this movie hits a bit close to home in that way, even if they haven't gone through the Britney Spears route of having Elvis marry them at a Vegas drive through.