Sylvester Stallone has cemented himself as one of the greatest action movie stars of all time, but his choice for his favorite action movie of his own may surprise fans. While Stallone found his breakout role in the inspiring sports movie classic Rocky, he built a career as a Hollywood star by appearing in some of the biggest and most entertaining action movies.

Stallone’s iconic character of John Rambo launched its own franchise, and he followed it with popular hits like Cobra, Demolition Man, Cliffhanger, and more. Stallone even maintained his action movie credentials long into his career, with The Expendables franchise paying homage to the type of movies that started his rise to fame.

With such a legendary career in the genre, every fan will have their own choice for the best Stallone action movie. However, the favorite of the actor himself is one that is not as iconic as some of his other тιтles and is not beloved by everyone.

2008’s Rambo Is Sylvester Stallone’s Favorite Action Movie

Stallone Returned To One Of His Most Famous Roles

While First Blood is the movie that launched the Rambo franchise, it was the sequel that arrived decades later that Sylvester Stallone considers his best action movie. Rambo was released in 2008, long after fans thought the franchise was over. Stallone returns as the Vietnam veteran who is hired to transport a group of missionaries into war-torn Burma.

When the missionaries are taken by a vicious warlord and his army, Rambo teams up with a band of mercenaries to go rescue them. In an interview with The Hollywood Reporter, Stallone expressed his pride in the movie, both as a pure action spectacle and how he saw it as daring to take on the brutality of a real-world situation:

One film I’m truly proud of — it’s the best action film I’ve ever done because it’s the most truthful — is Rambo IV, dealing with Burma, where they’ve had a civil war for 67 years. But I got excoriated because the movie’s so violent. And it is violent. It’s horrifying. It’s children being burnt alive. That’s what makes civil war worse than anything: It’s your neighbor, all of a sudden, killing you. I was really happy with that film, and I never thought it would ever reach the theater. I thought, “They’re never going to show this.”

The Rambo franchise has dealt with real-world issues many times before, including the Vietnam War and the war in Afghanistan. Rambo takes on a lesser-known conflict with the civil war in Burma and certainly doesn’t hold back in its depiction of the violence. The movie came after Stallone had successfully brought back his other iconic character in 2006’s Rocky Balboa.

Rambo Was Met With A Mixed Reaction From Critics

The Brutal Action Turned Off Some People

Rambo is a somewhat surprising choice for Sylvester Stallone’s best action movie, as it was not received as strongly as some of his other genre classics. The movie earned a mixed response from critics, earning 38% on Rotten Tomatoes. Much of the criticism did point to the brutal violence in depicting the real-world conflict, which was mixed with over-the-top action mayhem.

However, the movie was a box office success, earning $113 million on a budget of $50 million (via Box Office Mojo). Even more notable, the movie was also embraced by the rebel forces in Burma, who are depicted in a heroic light in Rambo. The soldiers were even reported to use the movie’s quote, “Live for nothing, or die for something,” as a slogan (via The Telegraph).