Originally Posted by
boost
Wuf, I fucking love 2008 Rambo too-- but I think the reason it works lines up with the above linked video's break down of the life cycle of genres. I think of both Rambo and John Wick as sorts of ingenious subtle parody-- people who just want to tune in for a shoot em up get what they want, and those who are immersed the genre pick up on the mostly (maybe exclusively in Rambo 2008's case) dry delivery of parody and can enjoy it on that level.
It reminds me of this Pirates of the Caribbean knock off's production that I read about. It's a little different, in that it relies on multiple cuts to achieve the broad audience satisfaction, but the gyst is the same-- They intentionally filmed the movie so that it could be cut as a PG after school made for TV episodic kid's show, a Cinemax softcore, and a budget theatrical opener for Asian and South American audiences. In this example, the love for the genre is absent, but the ingenuity is similar.