As a young kid growing up in the ’80s, I remember watching Rambo: First Blood Part II on television. All the ultra-violent parts were edited out, but in an odd way that made it even more brutal. My young, impressionable mind was imagining (in great detail) the kind of pain John J Rambo was inflicting on his victims – and I thoroughly enjoyed it.

Sylvester Stallone is the epitome of what it means to be an action star. He’s in countless flicks filed under the ‘Movies for guys who like movies’ category, and you always have to root for him, as he’s constantly outnumbered or outmatched.

After his successful return to the ring with Rocky Balboa, Stallone decided to continue the story of one of his other iconic characters, the troubled Vietnam War veteran John Rambo.

The franchise started in 1982 with First Blood which featured Rambo trying to adjust to civilian life. In a nutshell, he’s given a hard time by a local sheriff and arrested for crimes he didn’t commit. What results is the ultimate survival film, in which Rambo goes into war mode and escapes to the forests, where he sets up a series of booby traps.

There were of course sequels, in which Rambo was assigned by the government to break into hostile areas and do what he does best – kill the bad guys and rescue the good guys.

The violence increased with each subsequent film, as did the body counts. It’s that whole issue of violence in media desensitising us, so the next time around it has to increase in order to provide the same level of shock. Apparently the same model is still in effect, because Stallone’s latest sequel, the bluntly named Rambo has taken bloodshed to an all-new level.