Both Farmer and I have a soft-spot for the Rocky movies and for Sylvester Stallone. As we have pointed out, the theme of redemption figures strongly in the Rocky series.

See this excellent review of Rocky Balboa by Farmer, which contains this paragraph on the original Rocky movie:

But this is a story of redemption. The opening shot frames the story under a giant wall painting of Jesus, who stares down upon a fight matching a hulking Rocky, sleep-walking through another bout, on the way to his twenty-first career loss, against a less-gifted opponent, Spider Rico. But Rico makes a mistake. In control of the fight, he intentionally and gratuitously head-butts our hero, which brings Rocky alive to quickly pummel the offender into a stupor.

I wrote about Stallone's recent return to the Roman Catholicism of his upbringing in this post. The opening paragraph: Sylvester Stallone is reaching out to the churches to publicize his new movie. As he does this he is sharing his story of faith and redemption. A report and response to a conference call with Stallone here from Focus on the Family. Link from Drudge.

Now comes word that another Stallone character, John Rambo, may be seeking his own redemption. The Daily Mail (UK) summarizes the upcoming Rambo movie thusly.

In the latest instalment, Rambo finds himself recruited by a group of Christian human rights missionaries to protect them against pirates, during a humanitarian aid delivery to the persecuted Karen people of Burma. After some of the missionaries are taken prisoner by sadistic Burmese soldiers, Rambo gets a second impossible job: to assemble a team of mercenaries to rescue the surviving relief workers

Story here. I look forward to Farmer's review of this movie when it comes out. We'll see if John Rambo finds peace.