Campus Confidential

By Adam Abramson

In the many hours of my life I've wasted playing Dynasty Mode on the various years of NCAA Football by EA Sports (dynasty mode in 2005 is by far the best, by the way) with my roommate, we have thought of ways we would recruit athletes, given the chance.

And we've had some great ideas.

But most of them entail tactics to show them how much we want them to rule at our University. You know, like hire a guy to come in and rip phone books in half and say "When you leave UTEP, you'll be able to do that."

Just tactics that are so over the top that kids can't help but commit to my school.

And I've recently thought of a new way. And that way is 'Rambo.'

I went to see it last Friday. I spent an egregious $11 to see the 12:20 a.m. show after work, but it was worth it.

Long gone are the movies that feature people who flat-out rule. There was a time when films like "Predator", anything pre-Texas Ranger Chuck Norris, Bruce Lee masterpieces and actually anything featuring Arnold Schwarzenegger pre "Junior".

But Sly Stallone said "Forget that, it's time to bring back movies that once were a fixture in pop culture."

Put the children to bed and go see "Rambo" and get in touch with your testosterone. Don't be afraid.

Don't be afraid of insane amounts of blood, limbs disintegrating, heavy explosions, heads disappearing, etc.

Remember what it was like to pay money to see a flick that had basically no plot but tons of action. Don't be afraid.

My cohort, Mark LaMonica, inspired me to come up with my new recruiting tool. He basically trashed "Rambo" for every reason why it's worth seeing.

What's going to happen when you show up at a Blue Chip's house with a copy of "Rambo" and sit down to watch it with him? He's going to be so fired up afterwards that he decides to bring his skills to your University. That's how much "Rambo" ruled.

I'm going to take as step out on a little twig and say that Stallone had more on screen kills than lines in the movie. And, you know what? I'm OK with that.

And don't think I'm some junkie for action, blood, combat, etc. The atrocities in Burma the film brings to light are disgusting and did make me cringe, but it's the truth. Stallone brings to the forefront what war lords spend millions of dollars trying to hide.

In a time of lame movie after lame movie, a time of action plots fused with some idiotic romance plot, I'm just not afraid to embrace a film that gets it.