Crummy action sequel, Jerry Goldsmith doing the score? There's about the least surprising thing to read in the world ever I think. Indeed, after the modestly subtle First Blood, the second Rambo film was basically an out and out action/adventure film with loads of shooting, blood, violence, unlikely escapes and virtually indestructible hero. Of course, being Jerry Goldsmith and being adept at writing great scores for films this dumb, the end result is certainly supercharged with it's fair share of excitement. There is also a smattering of romantic material and quieter parts, such as in Stories, which is quite a welcome relief.
I must say that it doesn't really start promisingly with a really quite embarrassing synth noise that sounds like a digital version of someone blowing a raspberry. However, when taken in the context of loud action sequences, it doesn't seem nearly so bad, but on its own really sounds very strange indeed. There is a brief section of oriental music to set up the film's locale, but this is short lived and we're then thrown into a mixture of loud action cues and suspense cues. There are some neat orchestral effects such as the slithery feel to the Snake which could just sound corny, but works very well indeed. From then on it's action and suspense for the remaining time with the occasional aforementioned quiet moment. It is fortunate that these are here otherwise the action would start to grate after a while.
The liner notes are interesting and the CD is very well produced. There is a mention of some deterioration in the sound since 1985, but I didn't notice it all that much, apart from when it was very quiet and it's certainly no worse than the original and isn't really anything of concern. I must admit that I don't hold this score on the pedestal that many Goldsmith fans, I just didn't find anything that made me enjoy it any more than many of his other well above average action scores. Of course, that's no reason to criticise and let's face it, a film like this doesn't deserve such a good score. I don't know precisely what it is that makes my response somewhat indifferent, but there we have it. Of course Goldsmith fans will almost certainly pick it up and since I'm obviously a totally impartial reviewer who is reviewing on merit then I'd say that technically this is an well above average action outing. The extra tracks are debatably worth having, to be honest I don't think I'd have noticed if they weren't there since they don't add any extra themes or new material, but if you don't have the original and like this kind of action/suspense orchestral and synth combo thing then I'd certainly pick it up.