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In a desperate attempt to jog my memory about anything regarding “Rambo,” the 2008 attempt to revive Sylvester Stallone ’s other notable film franchise, I went back to the review I wrote when it came out. In the final paragraph, I wrote, “Maybe if it does well at the box office, it will inspire Stallone to write and direct a proper wrap-up for a character that has served him long and well—one that will allow him to confront the real world instead of the sub-comic book surroundings of this disappointing effort.” Well, eleven years have passed, and Stallone has given John Rambo one more go-around with “Rambo: Last Blood.” The title is perhaps the cleverest thing about it.

As the film opens, Rambo is living a tranquil life on his ranch in Arizona, where he now spends his time training horses, doting upon his adopted family, Maria ( Adriana Barraza ) and her college-age granddaughter Gabrielle ( Yvette Monreal ), sitting on the porch in his rocking chair, perhaps contemplating how his actions in “Rambo III” might have helped lead to the formation of the Taliban. Okay, maybe it isn’t entirely tranquil—he is taking tons of pills to combat PTSD, he has an elaborate underground tunnel system that he has dug out beneath his house (the perfect location for the occasional Nam flashback) and he confesses to Gabrielle at one point that, in regards to his inner rage, “I’m just trying to keep a lid on it.” Having tracked down her long-lost father to Mexico, Gabrielle wants to go down to see him and understand why he left years earlier. Rambo tries to warn her that it is pretty much the most horrible cesspool on Earth, but you know these spunky college-bound girls with bright futures seemingly ahead of them. Approximately nine minutes after crossing the border, she is kidnapped and drugged by a sex-trafficking ring headed by the fearsome Martinez brothers, Victor ( Oscar Jaenada ) and Hugo ( Sergio Peris-Mencheta ).

When Rambo gets the news that Gabrielle has gone off to Mexico, he goes off in pursuit, but his first encounter with the Martinez gang ends with him brutally beaten and left for dead in an alley with a brand-new scar carved into his face. He is rescued by Carmen ( Paz Vega ), an “independent journalist” who is there to tend to his wounds and offer necessary exposition. Upon healing, Rambo returns to the Martinez joint to rescue Gabrielle in what feels like an even more violent homage to the already grisly climax of the slightly better “ Taxi Driver .” This, as it turns out, is all prelude to the film’s climax, where hordes of Mexican killers turn up at Rambo’s ranch armed to the teeth and out for blood, only to discover that he has given his tunnels a “ Home Alone ”-style makeover by rigging it with booby traps. All so that he can go after them with arrows, knives, sawed-off shotguns, spikes, mines and, perhaps most cruel of them all, the sound of The Doors doing “Five to One” over a loudspeaker in clear violation of the Geneva Conventions.

Taken simply on its own merits, “Rambo: Last Blood” is an undeniably awful movie. While the previous installment may have brought to mind many of the cheapo “Rambo” knockoffs produced in the ‘80s by Cannon Films and featuring the likes of Chuck Norris or Michael Dudikoff , this one feels more like a direct-to-video item that inexplicably made it to multiplexes. The screenplay by Stallone and Matthew Cirulnick is an unforgivably clunky work in which even the most rudimentary of plot points have been cast aside, the dialogue is embarrassingly heavy-handed (“I want them to know that death is coming”) and the kinetic thrills that made “Rambo: First Blood Part II” watchable have been replaced by over-the-top carnage (made even less effective by the over-reliance on CGI gore). Behind the camera, Adrian Grunberg (who previously did “Get the Gringo,” a south-of-the-border sleazefest that was made with a certain style and wit) is clearly directing this by the numbers, but, based on the overly dark visual style and clumsy staging, he never gets out of the single digits. Yes, some of the insanely gory bits during the final stretch are amusing in a sick way but even those moments are too little and way too late to help matters much.

Here is what I cannot figure out about “Rambo: Last Blood.” Stallone is a smart man, a singular screen presence and has shown strong acting chops when given material that allows him to take full advantage of his talents. Perhaps he doesn’t feel quite as close to the character of Rambo as he does Rocky Balboa because Rambo was not a creation of his. Nevertheless, the original “ First Blood ” (1982) remains an uncommonly strong, smart and thoughtful film and his performance there is still one of his best. The follow-ups may not have come close in quality but they were successful enough to make one think that if this film is truly the final film appearance of John Rambo. Stallone might want to put some effort into sending the character off with some degree of respect, as he did with his greatest creation in Rocky Balboa and the “ Creed ” films. Does he honestly think this is a fitting conclusion to a role that helped make him one of Hollywood’s biggest stars? For his sake, let us hope not.

Pretty much a rip-off through and through (it clocks in at just under 90 minutes, at least 10 of those dedicated to an end credits sequence featuring highlights from all the previous films, including the one that just concluded), “Rambo: Last Blood” is junk from start to finish. Without giving anything away, it should be noted that the ending does not in any way prevent the possibility of another film (“Rambo: Last Blood Part II,” perhaps?) if this one makes a killing at the box office. Well, if that does happen, maybe Stallone will take my advice and give the character a worthy send-off at last. Barring that, maybe he can just scrap the idea and do “Rhinestone II” instead, a notion that strikes me as being far more appealing at this point.

Peter Sobczynski

A moderately insightful critic, full-on Swiftie and all-around bon vivant , Peter Sobczynski, in addition to his work at this site, is also a contributor to The Spool and can be heard weekly discussing new Blu-Ray releases on the Movie Madness podcast on the Now Playing network.

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Rambo: Last Blood (2019)

Rated R for strong graphic violence, grisly images, drug use and language.

Sylvester Stallone as John Rambo

Paz Vega as Carmen Delgado

Joaquín Cosio

Óscar Jaenada as Victor Martinez

Sergio Peris-Mencheta as Hugo Martinez

Yvette Monreal as Gabrielle

Adriana Barraza as Maria Beltran

Louis Mandylor as Sheriff

Adrian Grunberg

Writer (based on the character created by)

David Morrell

Writer (story by)

Sylvester Stallone
Matthew Cirulnick

Cinematographer

Brendan Galvin
Carsten Kurpanek
Todd E. Miller
Brian Tyler

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Rambo: Last Blood Reviews

I liked the setup of “Last Blood” more than the payoff.

Full Review | Original Score: 2.5/5 | Aug 24, 2022

If First Blood flirted with slasher tropes by spending less time with the protagonist than with his prey, Last Blood crosses the line into full-fledged Texas Chainsaw Massacre territory. (The symmetry is actually rather poetic.)

Full Review | Original Score: 3/4 | Mar 3, 2022

Last Blood paints all of Mexico as the dangerous "other" in every sense.

Full Review | Original Score: F | May 7, 2021

These movies were never what you'd call clever, but was Rambo himself always this dumb?

Full Review | Original Score: 2/5 | Jan 28, 2021

It's definitely not intelligent, but the catastrophic machismo is mind-numbingly action-packed.

Full Review | Original Score: 4/10 | Dec 7, 2020

Nothing is over? Perhaps it should be, John J.

Full Review | Original Score: 1/5 | Aug 28, 2020

Even the racism is difficult to get too angry about because the film executes it with such a lack of awareness that it feels like a blundering pratfall.

Full Review | Original Score: 1/5 | Aug 16, 2020

After years of ridiculous sequels, Last Blood proves that Rambo has been reduced to Hollywood cannon fodder. More than disappointing, it is outright dreadful.

Full Review | Original Score: 1 / 5 | Jul 28, 2020

"Last Blood" doesn't breathe new life into the series. Instead, it cheapens a once beloved character by forcing its aging action star to deliver some of the most gruesome violence ever put on screen.

Full Review | Original Score: 1/4 | Jul 24, 2020

Rambo: Last Blood is a brutal way to say goodbye to an iconic action hero, covering topics and containing scenes that are almost difficult to stomach.

Full Review | Jun 27, 2020

The film's greatest sin: taking its trusting audience for granted. For a populist filmmaker like Stallone, this is a grave mistake.

Full Review | Jun 17, 2020

Stallone brings a suitably world-weary performance to his iconic title character.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5 | Apr 14, 2020

It's grim. It looks cheap. It's pretty much racist. It ends with slo-mo highlights from old Rambos. It's no fun whatsoever. It's as enjoyable as a trip to the dentist in a horror movie.

Full Review | Apr 10, 2020

John Rambo is as American as apple pie. Actually, maybe that's too sweet a comparison. John Rambo is as American as a border wall. Yeah, that feels right.

Full Review | Apr 4, 2020

The movie isn't as much fun as I was hoping for -- it's downbeat and hopeless in tone, like an action-movie King Lear without the poetry. Stallone's performance feels halfhearted; it doesn't have the exuberance of which he's capable.

Full Review | Jan 6, 2020

Sylvester Stallone's 'other' iconic character makes a final bow in this frustrating finale.

Full Review | Original Score: 2.5/4 | Dec 22, 2019

Stallone once again plays Rambo as stoic and introverted but also still physically and mentally sharp.

Full Review | Original Score: 2.5/5 | Dec 20, 2019

"Rambo: Last Blood" has the earnestness of a eulogy, and it lands like the most inappropriately hilarious roast.

Full Review | Original Score: 1/4 | Dec 20, 2019

A film made for those who still write letters and know how to appreciate the classic calligraphy of John Ford and the enraged twisted lines of all the solitary renegades of old Hollywood. [Full Review in Spanish]

Full Review | Original Score: 4/5 | Nov 12, 2019

One of the worst scripts put to screen this year and the problems certainly don't stop there.

Full Review | Original Score: F | Oct 29, 2019

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Film Review: ‘Rambo: Last Blood’

Mexico's gonna want a wall to keep bad hombres like John Rambo out in this cartel-smashing sequel to a franchise that's long since run its course.

By Peter Debruge

Peter Debruge

Chief Film Critic

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Home has always been an abstract concept for John Rambo, and that’s what the last scene of 2008’s otherwise expendable “Rambo” sequel finally gave the iconic Sylvester Stallone character: a moment when this unsettled Vietnam War survivor, looking very much the worse for wear, lumbers up to a mailbox bearing the character’s surname. At last, somewhere in Arizona, this dutybound embodiment of American military might have found his way back to the family ranch.

Such closure was in nearly every way antithetical to the spirit of “First Blood” — that is, the PTSD-fueled franchise’s inaugural movie and the eponymous David Morrell novel that inspired it, both of which traded on the notion that a good man who’d gotten a taste of killing had serious difficulty turning off that deadly skill set upon his return. As a result, a sum total of zero viewers saw that ending as a sign that Rambo would take this long-overdue homecoming as a chance to park his keister and raise chickens, or whatever. The only surprise, really, is that it’s taken more than a decade for Stallone to make another Rambo movie (as it happens, the actor-producer was busy rebooting a far better series, via “Rocky Balboa” and “Creed”). And the only unanswered question has been what group of unlucky so-and-sos would be the next to face his wrath.

In “ Rambo: Last Blood ” — another cruel and ugly showcase of xenophobic carnage squeezed into barely 80 minutes and packaged for export — the tired, now-septuagenarian action figure turns his notorious sense of loathe-thy-neighbor vengeance toward the Mexican cartels, who’ve kidnapped his college-bound niece Gabrielle (Yvette Monreal) and turned her into a smack-addicted sex slave. Call it “Rambo: Bad Hombres Edition” — featuring fresh south-of-the-border mayhem from “Get the Gringo” director Adrian Grunberg — in which screenwriters Matthew Cirulnick and Stallone adopt the racist view of Mexicans as murderers, drug dealers and rapists, devoid of cultural context or exceptions, beyond the “independent journalist” (Paz Vega) keeping tabs on their whereabouts.

Before all hell breaks loose, the movie reveals what a “peaceful” day on the ranch looks like, opening in the elaborate system of tunnels Rambo has constructed beneath the pasture that surrounds his country home — a sort of precautionary measure borrowed from his friends the Viet Cong, and a perfect playground in which to booby trap and torment his adversaries in the movie’s spectacular climactic bloodbath. (Amusingly enough, “Last Blood” lensed in Bulgaria, doubling for Mexico, whereas “Rambo: First Blood Part II” used Acapulco to stand in for Vietnam.)

Singlehandedly doing more to support the Second Amendment than Charlton Heston ever has, “Rambo” movies view weapons the way Quentin Tarantino does feet, turning a well-greased gun barrel into a whatever-cocks-your-bazooka fetish object. To wit, this film’s opening shot dollies past a well-stocked ammunition rack, in which we spy a pair of M16s, a shotgun or two, and several rifles, plus a machete for good measure. So much for background checks. Rambo is clearly waiting for the war to come to him. And if it doesn’t, well, he can be counted on to start one.

Disregarding her uncle’s advice (which sounds like some kind of sociopathic fortune cookie: “I know how bad a man’s heart can be”), Gabrielle crosses the Mexican border to meet her deadbeat dad (Marco de la O), only to be drugged, kidnapped and sold to the Martínez brothers, Victor (Óscar Jaenada) and Hugo (Sergio Peris-Mencheta). A pair of retrograde stereotypes clumsily recycled from ’80s action movies — neither as scary as the “Sicario” drug lords nor as memorable as Robert Davi’s Bond villain — these two siblings so intimidate their captives that the young women dare not run away even after Rambo liberates them.

Early on, Victor threatens one such escapee but stops short of punishing her in a scene that feels as if it may have been softened after test screenings — whereas no brutality has been spared against the anonymous platoon of cartel thugs Rambo later decimates. Yes, but they deserve it, one might argue. This is the reductive one-man-against-the-world reasoning by which Rambo has always operated, and I don’t buy it.

Rambo — who is bludgeoned till his eyes won’t open, and gashed on the same cheek that was scarred in “First Blood Part II” — always sustains some kind of humiliating beatdown before getting his payback. That’s the long-established formula for this franchise. In the past, he’s used military operations to justify his rage. This time it’s personal, or so the cliché goes, although the sentiment has seldom been less convincing (same goes for Stallone’s crocodile tears). Here, it’s the screenwriters, not the cartel, who should be held accountable for conjuring a virginal relative only to violate and degrade her. Suddenly, the infamous wall along the U.S.-Mexico border seems inadequate — less in containing the cartels than in protecting them from Rambo’s brand of vigilante justice.

After decapitating one of the Martínez brothers, Rambo returns to his ranch, where he proceeds to perform one of his signature montages — an extension of the gratuitous gun-barrel worship we got brefore, only this time, it involves setting a dozen or so grizzly death traps, every one of which audiences will have the pleasure of seeing sprung upon faceless henchmen. One actually cleaves a goon’s face in thirds, sparing Rambo the trouble of his usual skull-bursting finishing move. It’s horrible, gut-wrenching butchery to behold, and yet, it’s been calibrated to elicit whoops and cheers from fans, who’ve faithfully followed along as Rambo evolved from long-haired drifter, scuffling with an overzealous local sheriff (in the relatively realistic “First Blood”), to bare-chested, bandanna-wearing global enforcer (in a series of increasingly outrageous sequels).

For many, this will be their first Rambo movie, which they can enjoy unencumbered by the psychological baggage of his past. What a frightening sight Stallone must be to neophytes, stumbling Frankenstein-like through his tunnels, bellicose veins bulging in his swollen temples. Rambo always favored brute force over the more reasonable “hearts and minds” approach to modern warfare, and here, as if to prove his point, he rips both of those body parts from his foes’ chests. This character is a mess of contradictions, representing on one hand the permanent damage that military service can do to one’s soul while simultaneously suggesting what the ideal soldier looks like. Rambo wins the wars that America can’t. And the blood isn’t likely to stop here, or anytime soon.

Reviewed at AMC Century City 15, Los Angeles, Sept. 18, 2019. MPAA Rating: R. Running time: 89 MIN.

Production: A Lionsgate release, presented with Millennium Media, in association with Campbell Grobman Films, Dadi Film (HK) Ltd. of a Millennium Media, Balboa Prods., Templeton Media production, in association with Film i Väst, Filmgate Films. Producers: Avi Lerner, Kevin King Templeton, Yariv Lerner, Les Weldon. Executive producers: Liu Rong, Zhang Qun, Luis Arriola, Jeffrey Greenstein, Jonathan Yunger, Christa Campbell, Lati Grobman, Ariel Vromen, Jeff Gum, Peter Possne, Vladimir Fernandes, Claiton Fernandes, Euzebio Munhoz Jr., Brian Melarkode. Co-producers: Sean Wheelan, Anthony Muir. Co-executive producers: Allen Dam, Elijah Long, Damaine Radcliffe, Lonnie Ramati.
Crew: Director: Adrian Grunberg. Screenplay: Matthew Cirulnick, Sylvester Stallone; story: Dan Gordon, Stallone, based on the character created by David Morrell. Camera (color, widescreen): Brendan Galvin. Editors: Todd E. Miller, Carsten Kurpanek. Music: Brian Tyler.
With: Sylvester Stallone, Paz Vega, Sergio Peris-Mencheta, Adriana Barraza, Yvette Monreal , Genie Kim AKA Yenah Han, Joaquin Cosio, Oscar Jaenada. (English, Spanish dialogue)

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‘rambo: last blood’: film review.

THR review: Thirty-seven years after first installment in the Rambo film franchise, Sylvester Stallone returns as the iconic titular character in 'Rambo: Last Blood,' the fifth and supposedly final entry in the action-movie franchise.

By Frank Scheck

Frank Scheck

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The first scene of Rambo: Last Blood (there’s a title you could have seen coming) features the now-geriatric title character taking his medications, while the last shot shows him sitting wearily in a rocking chair on the porch of a house right out of a Norman Rockwell painting. But fans of the venerable action series needn’t be worried. In between those moments, the battle-hardened war veteran played by Sylvester Stallone brutally kills scores of people. That they all happen to be Mexicans is surely a coincidence in this current political age.

You have to hand it to Stallone: He knows how to keep a franchise afloat. His Rocky is still going strong, albeit as a supporting character, 43 years after his creation. And this fifth installment in the Rambo film series arrives 37 years after the terrific original, First Blood , and 11 years since the last entry, the not-so-terrific Rambo . It’s but for the grace of God that we’ve been spared sequels to Rhinestone and Stop! Or My Mom Will Shoot .

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‘Rambo: Last Blood’ Review: Death Country for Old Men

While the killings in this continuation of Rambo saga are zestfully depicted, the movie overall is rote.

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By Glenn Kenny

Mexico is a North American country of over 700,000 square miles, comprising 31 states. At least that’s the case in our reality. In the reality of “Rambo: Last Blood,” starring Sylvester Stallone as the titular vengeful killing machine, Mexico is a very, very bad neighborhood that’s about a 40-minute drive from the peaceful Arizona ranch where our hero will, if the title of this movie is to be trusted, make his final stand.

On this ranch, the aged warrior John Rambo trains horses, forges sharp metal objects and looks after a network of tunnels he has built beneath the house. His motivation for so doing is tied in with his war trauma, and postwar trauma, and all the stuff that happened to him in the multiple other Rambo movies. “First Blood” (1982) was a relatively thoughtful picture about a damaged Vietnam vet, but the sequels were reactionary exercises in bloodletting. While the Mexican villains of this movie suggest some sort of similarly retrograde statement, this picture doesn’t have a political ax to grind so much as a will to go full grindhouse.

“I need to go to Mexico,” Rambo’s teen ward Gabriela ( Yvette Monreal ) announces one morning. “Why would you wanna do that?,” Rambo asks. She has her reasons, and soon after satisfying them, she is drugged and kidnapped by sex traffickers. It’s just the beginning of her ordeal — the poor character is, rather offensively, but a prop to trigger Rambo’s killing rage. He satisfies it by luring the traffickers back to his booby-hatched ranch, where he ticks them off using gory methods derived from oodles of Z movies.

While the killings (replete with beheadings, dismemberments and more) are zestfully depicted — the director Adrian Grunberg has a way with pace and bloody impact to be sure — the picture overall is rote, mechanical. With the bad guys dispatched, old Rambo goes to the rocking chair on the ranch house’s porch and reflects on his busy day. The movie goes semi-sepia, and we are treated to misty watercolor memories going back to the first “Rambo” movie; then we’re in full metal jacket Rambo world, with him shooting at people and at other stuff, then we’re back with him on the porch. At which point one expects the movie will loop back again, because why not?

Rambo: Last Blood

Rated R for face-smashings/removals and all that sort of thing. Running time: 1 hour 29 minutes .

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Rambo: Last Blood Review

10 Oct 2018

Rambo 5: Last Blood

An end credits montage of old Rambo movies at the end of Rambo: Last Blood is a sad reminder of how far Sylvester Stallone ’s secondary franchise (after Rocky ) has devolved. Ever since Ted Kotcheff’s gritty and gripping First Blood , the Vietnam vet has taken an inexorable slide to the cartoon-y and the irrelevant. The latest, and seemingly the last, is now on a par with his Escape Plan franchise, a sad end for one of cinema’s most engaging anti-heroes.

The film gets off to a sluggish start with Rambo in a rocking chair, living out his retirement on an Arizona farm in scenes striving hard to reach the soulful qualities of Logan — we see him (impressively) riding horses, popping pills and making a letter opener for his niece Gabrielle (Yvette Monreal) before she goes off to college. Yet even this scene-setting stuff feels like join-the-dots: Gabrielle throws a party that is only designed to let us know that Rambo has built survivalist tunnels like he did in his old ’Nam days that will certainly come into play in the last reel.

The plot kicks in when Gabrielle travels to Mexico to make contact with her absent father and ends up being inducted as a sex slave by a drug cartel run by brothers Victor (Óscar Jaenada) and Hugo (Sergio Peris-Mencheta), surely a joke for the Les Misérables crowd. Of course, Rambo comes looking for Gabrielle, turning detective by intimidating minions for info, then going full Travis Bickle by taking a hammer to the denizens of a brothel.

By this stage, Rambo: Last Blood is riddled with narrative flab, risible speechifying, wild plot conveniences (Paz Vega plays a journalist whose One Job is to keep Rambo on the right track with the investigation), routine action filmmaking (everything is hammered home by Brian Tyler’s wall-to-wall score) and a caricatured, xenophobic attitude to Mexicans (it feels like a film designed for the Trump heartland). There’s throwback fun to be had as Rambo lures the goons back to his booby-trapped farmhouse coming on like an 18-certificate Home Alone , but by this time you barely care.

Perhaps the saddest thing is Stallone himself, so charming in Ryan Coogler’s Creed , but unable to imbue Rambo with anything approaching humanity — the character often talks about "trying to keep a lid" on his dark side yet there’s no sense of a man actually wrestling with his demons. With a film entitled Last Blood , you hope — for Stallone’s, the audience’s and cinema’s sake — it delivers on the promise

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Sylvester Stallone as John Rambo in a scene from “Rambo: Last Blood.” (Yana Blajeva/Lionsgate via AP)

Rambo: Last Blood review – Stallone storms Mexico in a laughable Trumpian fantasy

The grizzled warrior dusts off his crossbow to take revenge on sex traffickers in a creaking, cringeworthy fifth instalment

T his massively enlarged prostate of a film can only make you wince with its badly acted geronto-ultraviolence, its Trumpian fantasies of Mexican rapists and hilariously insecure US border, and its crass enthusiasm for rape-revenge attacks undertaken by a still-got-it senior dude, 73 years young, on behalf of a sweet teenager. The film, co-written by Sylvester Stallone , imagines this demure young woman having her face slashed by an assailant but the field is left clear for a stag payback showdown; there is no question of her taking her own retributive action.

Stallone’s own impassive face, now like a sculpture created by Picasso out of a Firestone tyre, presides enigmatically over the proceedings and his indistinct line readings would not get him very far in rep. His announcement of “I want you to feel my rage and my hate; I want to rip out your heart!” comes out more like “Ug wuff yuh tahfarr m’range an mayayyht, ug wuff trip ertcha heurr!”

In the likable Creed movies , Stallone had found a way for his legendary boxing champ Rocky Balboa to bow out with humour and humility: as a trainer. But there is no such style in this new Rambo film, the fifth in the franchise, which despite its name may not be the last: over the final credits there is a sentimental greatest-hits montage of Rambo moments over the years, ending with an unexpected present-day shot of John Rambo riding off into the sunset on his horse. Are there more battles still to be won for this great warrior?

Nowadays Rambo is living on an Arizona farmstead in retirement, breeding horses. (There is some show-offy but undeniably impressive horsemanship from Stallone here.) He also weirdly maintains an underground network of survivalist tunnels, in which he broods over his collection of weapons. Not surprisingly, these occasionally cause the old boy anxious flashbacks, resembling as they do the tunnels created by the Viet Cong, whom he fought in Vietnam. He is close to his Mexican housekeeper Maria (Adriana Barraza) and to her orphaned niece Gabrielle (Yvette Monreal), whom soft-hearted Rambo thinks of as his own kin. But when Gabrielle gets word that her no-account dad, who abandoned the family, is still alive and living in Mexico, she impulsively heads south of the border to find him and winds up being kidnapped as a sex slave by a Mexican cartel. Rambo tools up and saddles up to get her back.

The result is cringemakingly written and clunkily directed, and even the final action sequence runs out of steam after a minute or so. Of course, other dramas are arguably vulnerable to the charge of demonising Mexico, such as the Sicario movies and Nicolas Winding Refn’s TV series Too Old to Die Young ; but they are thrillers composed with satirical brilliance and icy power. It is the streak of flabby sentimental self-importance that makes Rambo: Last Blood unwatchable. Please, Sly: more Balboa, less Rambo.

Rambo: Last Blood is released on 19 September in Australia and the UK and on 20 September in the US.

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Rambo: Last Blood (2019)

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‘Rambo: Last Blood’: A Reagan-Era Hero, Re-Engineered for the MAGA Age

By David Fear

When we last saw John Rambo — Vietnam vet, social pariah, savior of POWs and stoic killing machine — he was saving missionaries and mercenaries in war-torn Burma at the end of Bush II’s second term. Then our man returned home to Arizona, walking down the dusty path to the front door of the Rambo family ranch and, presumably, towards a sense of peace. That was then; this is now. Rambo: Last Blood, the maybe, possibly, could-be final chapter of the franchise (though does anything besides scores of nameless, faceless bad guys ever really die?), finds the warrior at rest and in full Marlboro Man mode. He now spends his days breaking wild horses. In his spare time, John fixes up a series of interconnected underground tunnels running throughout the property and forges knives as gifts. A matronly housekeeper takes care of him and his college-bound niece, Gabriella (Yvette Monreal). Life is good.

Until, of course, it isn’t, because this is Rambo we’re talking about here. His eternal pessimism regarding human nature is well-earned. He knows the blackness that lives in a man’s heart. (We know he knows this because the sentence is uttered at least three times over 90 minutes.) Gabriella gets a call informing her that her long-lost deadbeat dad has finally been located. “I have to go to Mexico,” she tells her uncle. “Why would you want to do that ?!” he exclaims, which is the first hint that this movie may not have the highest opinion of our southern neighbors. Sure enough, once the teenager gets past the American border, she finds herself in a country that’s populated by nothing but tattooed thugs, duplicitous gangbangers, narcos locos and mustache-twirling white traffickers. Eventually, we’ll meet a kindly doctor and Paz Vega’s noble investigative journalist, but Last Blood is a film whose overall attitude veers toward viewing everyone living below Texas as drug pushers, criminals, rapists…and some, it assumes, are good people. This ideology may sound familiar to you.

Soon, Gabriella finds herself in the clutches of feared brothers/bad hombre caricatures Victor (Óscar Jaenada) and Hugo Martinez (Sergio Peris-Mencheta). Rambo goes in search of the missing girl. Per the franchise’s usual stations of the cross, he will be tortured and beaten and left for dead. Then after several days, he will rise again and dish out payback. Heads will roll, which we should note may not be just a figure of speech in this case. Once the girl has been retrieved courtesy of a vicious hammer attack — apparently Rambo caught You Were Never Really Here on cable late one night and became inspired — the battered ex-soldier sends a message to her captors. Then he returns home and begins to fortify the ranch; cue booby-trap-preparation montage. “I’m going to rip your heart out, just like you ripped out mine,” Rambo promises the chief villain. Again, such threats aren’t necessarily metaphorical here.

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Ever since the series started adding its hero’s name to the title with its second, straight-outta-Reagantown 1985 entry, these movies have hewed to more or less the same template: Stallone’s iconic character just wants to be left alone. He gets dragged into a conflict, he gets knocked down, shit gets crazy — Rambo, rinse, repeat. Audiences know the drill, and should some fans feel that the Stallone-helmed 2009 Rambo not have delivered enough humans-as-two-legged-squibs carnage, rest assured that director Adrian Grunberg ( Get the Gringo, which could be an alternate title for this one as well) has them covered. After nearly an hour of perpetuating a filmmaking style best described as functionally brutish, the director and his collaborators deliver an extended, rapidly edited siege, complete with the sort of violence and Grand Guignol-level gore that’d put most slasher flicks to shame. Those tunnels we mentioned earlier? They are there for a reason. Same with the spiked boards, randomly placed firearms, scattered landmines, gasoline-filled trenches and plentiful steel-tipped arrows.

As for the usual jingoistic chest-thumping, that’s saved for a climactic voiceover. But Last Blood ‘s basic takeaway — that heroes wear white hats and bad guys have brown skin — will be trumpeted throughout the whole bloody affair, from beginning to things-go-boom end. This is apparently what a Rambo movie circa 2019 now means. The man-vs.-cartel action you crave will be smothered in irresponsible fearmongering. The taste of toxicity will overwhelm whatever pulpy grindhouse pleasures you might have experienced. A franchise that started off with a sense of betrayal and righteous anti-authoritarian anger ends by parroting authoritarian talking points that betray what this country is about. Let this please be the last of its kind.

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Review: Sylvester Stallone’s ‘Rambo: Last Blood’ goes for the jugular - but in darker ways

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While some actors resist even playing the same type more than once, Sylvester Stallone has made a career out of, in effect, saying: “Bring it on.”

He’s portrayed one character, boxer Rocky Balboa, in eight films and counting, and he’s taken on mercenary Barney Ross in a trio of “The Expendables” epics with a fourth in the works. And then there is John Rambo.

Stallone has been playing the psychologically damaged Vietnam veteran with enviable combat skills for 37 years, and he’s brought him back for a fifth outing in “Rambo: Last Blood.”

After all these years, these characters function as kinds of alter egos for Stallone, and, questions of story aside, it’s intriguing to watch them age both physically and psychologically as the actor does. (Stallone often writes these films as well.)

What that means for “Last Blood” is that while part of the film offers the expected, unsparingly violent action tropes typical of the series, there’s another aspect to the story, a surprisingly brooding examination of a warrior in winter, a dark story of a berserker who can’t let go, that’s in its own way bleaker and more despairing than we may be expecting.

The John Rambo we meet, like the actor himself, is not the sleek killing machine of the previous films, visible in glimpses helpfully provided under “Last Blood’s” closing credits. Rambo moves slowly these days, almost like his own ghost, the weight of years hanging over him and his craggy face looking increasingly suitable for Mt. Rushmore.

Sure, Rambo is convincing when he ends up telling bad people, “I’m gonna hurt you real bad,” but there is also a kind of fragility that makes us worry about people putting the hurt on him.

The initial setting here is the horse ranch in Arizona hinted at a decade ago in the closing images of 2008’s “Rambo,” a place where, in an attempt to keep his raging PTSD in check, the man pops pills and has constructed an intricate system of tunnels he spends quality time in.

“I haven’t changed,” he says when asked. “I just try to keep a lid on it every day.”

What is new for Rambo is that he’s found a surrogate family, college-bound Gabriela (Yvette Monreal) and her grandmother Maria (Adriana Barraza, Oscar-nominated for “Babel”), both acquired when Gabriela’s mother died and her father skipped town.

As directed by Adrian Grunberg from a script by Matthew Cirulnick and Stallone, the plot kicks in when Gabriela insists she wants to visit Mexico to reconnect with her father.

Maria and Rambo try to dissuade her, with Rambo offering some personal insights into human behavior (“I know how black a man’s heart is”) that prove all too predictive.

Although Gabriela says she changed her mind and won’t go, there wouldn’t be any movie if she stayed home, so off she goes to Mexico (doubled by the Canary Islands city of Tenerife) and a world of trouble she cannot even imagine.

Of course, when Gabriela doesn’t return, Rambo gets into his trusty pickup and crosses the border, consumed with a drive to get her back.

Up to this point, everything about “Last Blood” could be predicted, including the fact that this unsuspecting young woman ends up in the clutches of Hugo Martinez (Sergio Peris-Mencheta) and his brother Victor (Óscar Jaenada), standard-issue pitiless slavers.

But once the action shifts to south of the border (featuring considerable dialogue in Spanish with English subtitles), things have a way of turning out worse than even Rambo anticipates.

More than that, Rambo really does seem to be the viejo , the old man the bad guys arrogantly mock, initially without any coherent plan for freeing Gabriela and needing the conveniently provided help of independent journalist Carmen (Paz Vega) simply to stay alive.

But when Carmen suggests to Rambo that what’s done is done and he would be better served by moving on, she does not make much headway with a man who darkly insists, “I’ve lived in a world of death. I’ve tried to come home but I never really arrived.”

Determined to have his revenge, Rambo dives into its complex preparations with an almost demented thoroughness, coming up with endless awful ways for the bad guys to die, mixing in everything from a reference to Akira Kurosawa’s “Throne of Blood” to a truly grisly Grand Guignol horror conclusion.

“I want you to feel my rage, my hate,” he says to one of the evildoers. We feel that for sure, but under it all we may also feel a kind of despair.

'Rambo: Last Blood'

MPAA rating: R, for strong graphic violence, grisly images, drug use and language Running time: 1 hour, 29 minutes Playing: In general release

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Rambo: Last Blood review: a brutal and bloody return for the 80s action icon

The fifth and final chapter is an intimate sequel that ups the emotional stakes (and the body count)

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When Sylvester Stallone decided to bring Rambo out of retirement back in 2008, after a twenty year hiatus, he needed a hook, something to bring arguably the most iconic action hero of all time into the twenty-first century.

And that hook turned out to be violence. Extreme, unbridled violence.

It was a bold move, one which served to put off most critics and delight long term fans of the franchise, but it gave the ageing vet an edge for his return.

During their golden era in the eighties, action movies were often considered to be full of gratuitous blood and guts, but with the evolution of horror in the decades that followed, in particular the ‘gorno’ era, the works of Stallone and Schwarzenegger seemed tame in comparison. It was a very clever move, then, for Rambo to reclaim his crown in part IV, standing proud atop a mountain of pulped bodies.

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However, since applying the same violent formula to the first two Expendables films and then reneging on the splatter for the experimental third outing, there was an initial concern that John J. might also suffer from a compromised sequel. But thankfully Rambo: Last Blood stays true to its heritage, delivering a brutal, bloody and uncompromising film.

If you’ve seen the red band trailer, you’ll already be aware that death are destruction are present and correct and while that advertising strategy worked for the last film, it actually does Last Blood a disservice. Action movies are nothing without heart, so watching a string of deaths without context doesn’t carry any weight, but Rambo’s fifth entry tries more than ever to focus on emotional relationships to fuel the narrative, so when the time comes to exact vengeance the payoff feels visceral and cathartic.

As we discovered in our interview with Stallone the opening for the European cut is extended and immediately echoes visuals from First Blood , as we see Rambo stalking through a wet forest, only this time to assist the local law enforcement, as some hikers find themselves trapped by a perilous flood. When things take a tragic turn, we immediately see the impact that death still has on the character and how his survivors’ guilt means that even when saving a life, any loss enforces his sense of failure. It’s a key moment and one that haunts him throughout the film, so losing it for the sake of pace in an already tight running time will be a loss for audiences in America.

Curiously the plot for Last Blood was the original concept for his return in the fourth film – back on the disc release Stallone talked about getting Rambo involved in trouble in Mexico, while attempting to find a girl who went off for a holiday and never returned. The core story has remained the same, but this time it’s a family member looking for closure from her estranged (and unpleasant) father, that leads to abduction, resulting in the sharpening of a familiar-looking knife to assist in tracking her down.

The comparisons to Taken are sure to come thick and fast, which is unfortunate in terms of timing as for many it will seem like a belated copy, regardless of the story pre-dating Liam Neeson’s exhilarating quest (unfortunately the word ‘Trump’ will also be bandied around now due to the delay). Last Blood does steer its own course though and one with more vulnerability and grit, long gone are the days of Rambo’s ability to heal wounds with ignited gun powder, this time he hurts inside and out, with age and weariness permeating every move he makes.

It’s likely that films’ sombre tone and bleak aggression will prove to be too much for some, but the franchise has always been an acquired taste and one that rarely settles for trite happiness – even his attempts in Rambo: First Blood Part II to find a little joy and companionship ended in machine gunned disaster.

It’s important to have a connection to Rambo’s cinematic history to really get the most from Last Blood – we’re now on the fifth entry, so there’s little chance anyone not up to speed would find a reason to dive in now, but the film has very much been made for the existing and devoted fans, from visual cues such as the M65 jacket and lines about not being able to “turn it off”, to Brian Tyler’s superb score which retains the references to Jerry Goldsmith’s original work, while interweaving Tyler’s own memorable take for the last one.

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If you’re not the kind of person who wants to weep with joy at the sight of Rambo tooling up, firing a bow, or rigging booby traps, then the film really isn’t for you, but if you’re after a solid display of carnage from a character you love, then there’s plenty on offer. The villains might be built from the stereotypical strain of pure evil from years past, but their reprehensibility is what makes the explosive payback work and the violence, despite some especially grim moments, never quite strays into the extreme stomach churning highs from part IV. That said, you’d be hard pressed to top the sight of people being pasted by a jeep mounted Browning in that particular chapter, no matter how hard you tried.

As a standalone film, Rambo: Last Blood was never going to work, nor was it going to tune in a new audience after thirty six years of increasing body counts, but for die-hard fans it’s an exhilarating echo to the past and potentially the last chance to watch Rambo tearing through villainy with aplomb on the big screen.

Rambo: Last Blood is in UK cinemas now

Duncan Bowles | @duncanbowles

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‘Rambo: Last Blood’ Review: Stallone’s Angry Icon Hits Rock Bottom in Dreary Finale

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Midway through “ Rambo: Last Blood ,” Sylvester Stallone mumbles a heartfelt monologue, grasping for poignance after four previous movies of grisly showdowns with foreign threats. Points for effort, Rambo, but no such luck. Tragedy strikes, destroying whatever faith in humanity the beleaguered Vietnam vet somehow cultivated since 2008’s “Rambo.” And so the body count rises once more. If there was any doubt about this cycle of mayhem dominating Rambo’s life wherever he goes, then this apparent conclusion seals the deal, forcing him to unleash yet more carnage on waves of ugly stereotypes with savage finality.

Rambo’s cartoonish action feats may have been riveting in the Reagan years, but these days, they’re just a tiresome slog. Yet nearly 40 years after the comparatively bloodless first installment, the grunting warrior still can’t catch a break, this time taking on hardened Mexican sex traffickers across the border. If only “Last Blood” had more to say about that beyond the jingoistic mishmash of dime-store sentimentality and half-hearted vengeance it shrugs into existence, bidding farewell to an action icon in the same grotesque terms that made him so problematic in the first place.

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At least the movie has Stallone’s seething, angry face, as every sweaty closeup says more than the bland “Taken” rip-off that forms the movie’s plot. Stallone, who shares screenwriting credit with Dan Gordon, does a decent job at generating empathy for Rambo through furtive gestures, but “Last Blood” goes overboard to prove that he’s tried to be a better man. Roaming the majestic vistas of the Arizona ranch his father left him, the hardened soldier has become a peace-keeping adopted uncle to teenage Gabrielle (Yvette Monreal), the Hispanic niece of longtime family friend Maria (Adriana Barraza).

The early scenes of “Last Blood” have more tranquility in them than all four “Rambo” movies leading up to them, including the one where Rambo doesn’t actually kill anyone. Having finally severed that unkempt hairdo, Rambo seems keen on maintaining a stable path. Sure, he still struggles with PTSD as he forges weapons in an underground bunker — but his latest knife is actually a letter-opener crafted for Gabrielle as a going-away present before she heads to college. After years of Rambo movies where he faces down broad foreign archetypes, it’s a welcome shift to see a pair of genial Spanish speakers rounding out his life, no matter how contrived their dynamic.

Well, of course it’s too good to be true. “I know how black a man’s heart is,” Rambo broods, when Gabrielle suggests he’s a better man now. “I’m just trying to keep a lid on it every day.” Naturally, “Last Blood” charts a path to the moment he has no choice but to blow. You’re practically rooting for the guy to hit rock bottom, and once he does, the schmaltzy opening passage gives way to the dreary inevitability that has always been Rambo’s cross to bear.

When Gabrielle heads to Mexico in an aimless trip to find the father who abandoned her in her childhood after her mother’s death, it doesn’t take long before she winds up kidnapped by vicious crime lord Hugo Martinez (Sergio Peris-Mencheta), who wields a knife and syringes in a murky quest to dominate his underground market. Rambo wastes no time speeding to the rescue, but to the movie’s credit, it doesn’t pretend that forcing him back into action will ever solve the darkness that plagues his very existence. Things don’t go well, and after Rambo faces a (very incredulous) beatdown, he’s forced to lure the baddies to the home front where at least he can control the terms of the battle.

Rambo has long been a symbol of imperialistic rage, and “Last Blood” is no exception. Transplanting the action to Arizona provides the natural setting for a border drama that plays into Trump-era fear-mongering, right down to its ominous shot of a border wall, as Rambo heads south in search of justice. Fortunately, by propaganda standards, it’s weak sauce, as the movie unfurls with bland, tiresome developments until the closing minutes. Constructed with a lo-fi telenovela aesthetic and overwhelmed by a throbbing paint-by-numbers score, “Last Blood” feels like a fan tribute that just so happens to star the real McCoy.

When Rambo finally shoots and stabs his way to the revenge he seeks, “Last Blood” delivers on the proto-torture porn promise of the material. At the same time, it lacks the zany energy of director Adrian Grunberg’s “Get the Gringo,” only aping its ability to reduce Mexico to a landscape of empty villainy. Rambo’s showdowns with Soviets and Burmese pirates in previous installments certainly reduced them to cardboard villains, but those depictions were filtered through Rambo’s own eerie headspace as a war machine constructed by the U.S. government. The whole militaristic world was a vicious cartoon.

“Last Blood” doesn’t allow for such a nuanced take, and never syncs with the surroundings quite right. The bad guys are blunt, icy, and crude caricatures of cartel goons; they confirm all the biases Rambo needs to take them out. In 2019’s hypersensitive cultural environment, the depiction of murderous Mexican crime bosses and their cowering sex slaves encountering a literal white savior doesn’t go down so easy.

Get past that tricky minefield, and “Last Blood” finally delivers the guilty thrills: Stallone tearing out hearts and collar bones with his bare hands, constructing spiky traps and sniping at his targets from clandestine holes of his own making.

The high point of the movie finds him roaming the tunnels beneath Rambo’s ranch, cranking up The Doors’ “Five to One” as he coaxes various anonymous people into a series of gnarly Rube Goldberg traps. This lasts a couple of minutes, and it’s a wonder why anyone thought the rest of the movie should prop it up. Though Rambo didn’t kill anyone in 1982’s “First Blood,” he was basically a psychopath by the end of the James Cameron-scripted sequel; Stallone directed 2008’s “Rambo” with an understanding that the formula works best when distilled to its gun-blazing essence. “Last Blood” resists that temptation before finally giving up, and all that pent-up aggression speeds by. “How is it ever over?” Rambo whines, and no matter the ludicrous circumstances, you really feel for the guy.

When “Last Blood” finally wraps up the Rambo saga, the credits unfold with a slo-mo montage recapping his ridiculous journey from one movie to the next. They all kind of blur together. “I tried to come home,” Rambo growls in random, inexplicable narration, “but I never really arrived.” That’s far from the deepest observation, but Rambo was not exactly a subtle metaphor for America’s fractured identity, and the scars of its war-mongering impulses that continue to sting after all these years. On the surface, “Last Blood” may be a mess of B-movie contrivances, but like its world-weary namesake, it’s also a timely window into the vanity of violent solutions, and why brutality is only viable when fighting for a lost cause.

Lionsgate releases “Rambo: Last Blood” nationwide on Friday, September 20.

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No, I don’t know why I had high hopes for Rambo: Last Blood . Maybe because its title alludes to the film that started it all, Ted Kotcheff’s First Blood (1982), a starkly effective Vietnam-vet-comes-home tale (from an even better novel by David Morrell) that gave us our most vivid glimpse to that point of the Vietnam vet as a PTSD-ridden outcast, alienated from and rejected by the country for which he fought. Run out of a small town for vagrancy, Rambo (played by Sylvester Stallone) stood up for American values the way he had been trained: by camouflaging himself in the wilderness and setting booby traps for his thuggish pursuers. The novel was bloody and nihilistic — it ended with Rambo getting his head blown off by his old commanding officer, who regarded it as a mercy killing. But the studio ditched the downbeat finale it had originally shot and let Stallone’s Rambo live to become, in Rambo: First Blood Part II (1985), a muscle-bound Soldier of Fortune pinup — “What you call hell, he calls home” — worth $200 million domestic when that was real money. No longer would Rambo be a casualty of the Vietnam War. Now, he was the guy who’d go back and refight it and win it, rescuing our MIAs and giving President Reagan someone to point to as an exemplar of the American can-do spirit. (NB: Stallone sat out the actual war in Switzerland, teaching rich young women to ski.)

I’m getting to Last Blood , but I want to mention another reason I had hopes for it: the existence of Creed and Creed II . Consider that the same year as Rambo: First Blood Part II , Stallone took his customary two or three days and shat out the script of Rocky IV , in which a ‘roided-up Commie giant called “Ivan Drago” (How long did it take Stallone to think up that name?) sneered at the American way of life and for good measure punched the lights out of Carl Weathers’s Apollo Creed. The film was shoddy even by Stallone’s standards — its running time was padded out with flashback montages — but it was almost as big a blockbuster as Rambo , and the kids who grew up with it didn’t forget Apollo Creed (originally a racist cartoon) or Ivan Drago. Cut to 2015, when a terrific director and actors took that synthetic dreck and transformed it into a gritty, intense sequel, and then 2018, when Michael B. Jordan’s brooding Adonis Johnson (son of Apollo) decided he owed it to his old man to take on Ivan Drago’s son in the ring. Suddenly, Stallone’s lazy-ass stereotypes were invested with life (Dolph Lundgren’s aging Drago nearly stole Creed II ), and we were witnessing one of the ongoing marvels of culture: how even the crudest lore can inspire new generations of storytellers. And it has always been so: The story of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark, was a creaky standby in the late 16th century when Shakespeare exhumed it, and I imagine some of his theater colleagues said, “Will’s rewriting that old thing? Jesus, let’s hope he gives that stupid ghost some better lines.”

The above thoughts were sketched out before I saw Rambo: Last Blood , and I’ve decided not to waste them even though I admit they have fuck-all to do with the new movie. The premise does not — as I’d dreamed — come full circle, giving the still-traumatized vet a chance to deal with other good (or bad) vets coming back, traumatized, from one of the U.S.’s more recent military debacles. It has little in the way of a political context aside from its portrait of Mexican border towns as shitholes rife with sexual predators. The movie is basically a more downbeat version of Taken in which Rambo tears across the border from Texas to save his surrogate daughter, Gabrielle (Yvette Monreal), from the murderous, drug-pushing sex-slavers who’ve kidnapped her and pumped her veins full of dope. When things go south in more ways than one, the movie turns into full-bore revenge porn, of the sort where the bad guy doesn’t just die but has to scream and scream and stare aghast into the eyes of the man he knows has beaten him, acknowledging the hero’s superiority on every level.

For a dumb guy, Stallone is very smart. Reportedly stung when his father criticized his physique in Rocky (in which he looked great — and human-scaled), he went on to engorge himself and to move the camera way up close so that his muscles would fill the screen. He was huge, potent, indestructible. Thirty-five years on, he generates an enormous amount of sympathy by lingering on his vulnerability. “Are you lost, old man?” sneer the Mexican bad guys who kick him senseless and then carve up his face. Rambo has been gobbling pills, presumably mood stabilizers, to keep him grounded in the here and now instead of back in the jungles of Southeast Asia, but he flings them away in disgust. He tried to have a family. He tried to live like other men. Now, he will do what he does best. Build tunnels. Build booby traps. Shoot fat arrows with flesh-pulverizing tips. Turn grief into rage, pain into the infliction of pain. “I want him to know that death is coming,” he says of the man who made him “feel as if my heart has been cut out.” Hmmm, whaddya think would be suitable payback?

The director, Adrian Grunberg, has assisted some formidable action directors and is not your typical slob. By his design, Rambo’s kills are high-impact but hyperfast, with splatter cut to the point where it’s almost subliminal (no splashing, no sloshing). Quick as it is, though, you have time to wonder how these Mexican assassins can watch their comrades getting skewered, dismembered, and eviscerated by Rambo’s traps and not think, Maybe we should pull out and rethink this assault .

Rambo: Last Blood is too cruddy to waste time brooding on, but its hero’s 37-year trajectory (47 if you count from when Morrell wrote the novel) says a great deal about the narrowness of the macho-male fantasy life. Rendered unfit for society by a war that was bungled by higher-ups at nearly every level, Rambo nevertheless embraces the role of battered patriarch-protector, sitting around a Texas ranch waiting for young American women to be kidnapped and sexually violated by Third World types whom he can then waste in cool ways. Then he can sit back, gaze on his wounds, and wonder where the next assault on American innocence will come from.

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Rambo: Last Blood Review: Stallone Brings Us Pure Carnage

Sylvester Stallone ramps up the savagery in the bleak and brutal Rambo: Last Blood.

Sylvester Stallone eviscerates a Mexican cartel in the gruesome revenge thriller, Rambo: Last Blood . The fifth installment in the franchise takes the Taken storyline and ramps up the savagery. We've seen similar plots countless times before, but not nearly as bleak or brutal. Rambo: Last Blood easily earns its hardcore merit badge. It will undoubtedly be criticized for stereotypical characters. That's fair to a point, but shouldn't be overstated. This is blunt force cinema with little subtext.

A decade after returning from Thailand, John Rambo ( Sylvester Stallone ) lives a quiet life on his family's ranch in rural Arizona. He raises his niece, Gabrielle (Yvette Monreal), with her grandmother (Adriana Barraza). Rambo trains horses and helps out local officials when needed. He's still a formidable tracker. Rambo cannot escape the Vietnam War. He digs a vast tunnel complex under the ranch.

On the verge of going to college, Gabrielle wants to know why her father abandoned her. Rambo warns her to stay away from him, but the naive girl must have an answer. She foolishly crosses the border into Mexico alone. Rambo becomes worried when Gabriel doesn't return home. His worst fears are realized. Gabrielle has become a victim of sex trafficking. She is a prisoner of ruthless drug lords (Sergio Peris-Mencheta, Óscar Jaenada). Nothing will stop Rambo from getting his beloved niece back .

The plot gets dark quickly. Rambo: Last Blood does not temper its treatment of Gabrielle. She walks into an obvious and predictably dangerous situation, but that doesn't make it less hard to see. Your blood boils as she and the other kidnapped women are violated. The revenge theme is solidly established. This allows the set-up for severe repercussions. Every Rambo film delivers justice to the evil antagonists. The cartel baddies pay for their sins with limbs and organs. When John Rambo says he's going to tear your heart out, that's a promise kept.

Every character in the film is essentially one-note. There's zero nuance or degrees of sophistication. Gabrielle is a lamb thrown to wolves. Her uncle is an unstoppable killer hellbent on vengeance. The Mexican cartel blurs into the same despicable goons. Rambo: Last Blood doesn't paint every Mexican as drug dealing human traffickers. Paz Vega co-stars as a Mexican journalist who helps Rambo. Should there have been additional characters to mitigate the portrayal of Mexican culture? Possibly, but this is a brainless action film. Rambo: Last Blood should not be a test in political correctness. The character has been a white knight savior since Rambo: First Blood Part II .

The final act of the film is pure carnage . I expected a big action scene, but was genuinely surprised by the gore. Rambo: Last Blood treads into grisly horror territory. It's all overblown, but entertaining in a twisted way. Fans of the franchise are paying to see Rambo mercilessly kick ass. You will get your money's worth here. It'll just be soaked in blood and guts. Stick around after the credits. Rambo: Last Blood is produced by Millennium Media and Balboa Productions with distribution from Lionsgate.

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Rambo: last blood, common sense media reviewers.

Extremely gory, flat, predictable fifth Rambo.

A Lot or a Little?

What you will—and won't—find in this movie.

The movie is essentially a gun owner's revenge fan

Rambo has served his country honorably, which is d

Extreme blood and gore, lots of guns/shooting, and

One teen tries to kiss another at a party. An adul

Multiple uses of "f--k," "s--t," "bitch," "ass," "

Villains drink alcohol and snort cocaine in nightc

Positive Messages

The movie is essentially a gun owner's revenge fantasy; the story justifies owning many weapons by including an actual invasion on a family. It's extremely one-note and one-dimensional, with no room for discussion.

Positive Role Models

Rambo has served his country honorably, which is deserving of admiration and respect. He also never attacks first and only defends himself. But he defends himself with such extraordinary violence and with such a trail of dead bodies that it's hard to argue for him as a role model.

Violence & Scariness

Extreme blood and gore, lots of guns/shooting, and multiple deaths. Explosions. Knives and stabbing. Severed head and foot. Characters bashed with a hammer. Heart cut out of chest. Bow and arrows, characters pierced with arrows. Characters killed or maimed by traps. Knives used to carve characters' faces. Characters set on fire. Character run through by steel pole. Characters fall on spikes. Teen girls are kidnapped into a human trafficking ring and used as prostitutes. They're treated roughly, drugged, shown to be bruised and cut. A group of thugs gangs up on the main character, beating him to a pulp (bloody face, swollen eyelids). Brief, violent Vietnam flashbacks. Verbal description of a man beating his wife.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Violence & Scariness in your kid's entertainment guide.

Sex, Romance & Nudity

One teen tries to kiss another at a party. An adult looks a teen up and down at a club. Scenes of prostitutes alone in rooms with men (no nudity, nothing graphic).

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Sex, Romance & Nudity in your kid's entertainment guide.

Multiple uses of "f--k," "s--t," "bitch," "ass," "hell," "whore," and "oh God."

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Language in your kid's entertainment guide.

Drinking, Drugs & Smoking

Villains drink alcohol and snort cocaine in nightclubs. Character says she "drank too much" in one scene. Main character briefly takes prescription meds. Background characters smoke.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Drinking, Drugs & Smoking in your kid's entertainment guide.

Parents Need to Know

Parents need to know that Rambo: Last Blood is the fifth installment in the Rambo series starring Sylvester Stallone . Like all the sequels since the soulful first movie , it elevates intense gore over character. Violence is extremely graphic, with heavy guns and shooting, knives and stabbing, and tons of gore. Characters are killed, caught in traps, and burned. Body parts are severed and sliced out, and there are violent flashbacks to Vietnam. Plus, teen girls are kidnapped into a sex trafficking ring; they're shown to have been punched and cut and are given drugs. Language is also strong, with several uses of "f--k," "s--t," and more. Sexual content is mild; one teen tries to kiss another at a party, and a teen girl is ogled in a club. Villains drink alcohol and snort cocaine in nightclubs, there's a reference to drinking too much, the main character briefly takes prescription meds, and background characters smoke. To stay in the loop on more movies like this, you can sign up for weekly Family Movie Night emails .

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Rambo, under the rain wearing a black hat and rain coat

Community Reviews

Parents say (14)
Kids say (34)

Based on 14 parent reviews

An underrated movie

Rambo horror movie, what's the story.

In RAMBO: LAST BLOOD, John Rambo ( Sylvester Stallone ) is finally enjoying a quiet life, living on a horse ranch in Arizona alongside Maria ( Adriana Barraza ) and her teen granddaughter, Gabrielle (Yvette Monreal), whom he's helped raise and whom he considers family. When Gabrielle learns the whereabouts of her biological father (who left long ago), she heads to Mexico, without permission, to find him. Unfortunately, she's kidnapped and taken into a human trafficking ring. Rambo goes to Mexico to retrieve her but finds himself outnumbered and badly beaten. Journalist Carmen Delgado ( Paz Vega ) nurses him back to health, and he enters the den of thieves once more. This time, though, he's brought a war to his own front yard. Fortunately, he's ready.

Is It Any Good?

Though it (vainly) tries for some of the human soul that drove the 1982 original, this fifth entry in the Rambo series is ultimately little more than a cheap, gory revenge fantasy. Coming 11 years after Rambo (2008), Rambo: Last Blood -- will this really be the last one? -- is basically a series of simple setups with predictable payoffs. We meet the pure, sheltered Gabrielle, who's so innocent and full of promise that she's not much more than a kidnap victim waiting to happen. We're also introduced to a series of military-grade tunnels -- with nooks and crannies stocked with guns, knives, and bows and arrows -- dug under Rambo's ranch, which seems like the perfect place for a climactic showdown.

Even though the movie isn't very long, it still feels like a bit of a wait before any of this inevitable stuff actually happens, not to mention that a long "trap setting" montage gives away most of the carnage to come. Stallone slips back into the character easily, carrying a lifetime's worth of hurt and rage and "trying to keep a lid on it." But the film's attempts to infuse the movie with heart, such as audio flashbacks to previous "touching" conversations, fall flat. The rest of the characters mean nothing; they're only there to react to him. The direction by Adrian Grunberg is mostly serviceable, though sometimes clunky, and Rambo: Last Blood eventually achieves the kind of mindless, primal kick it tries for. But it's easily forgotten.

Talk to Your Kids About ...

Families can talk about Rambo: Last Blood 's violence . How intense/extreme is it? How did it make you feel, and how did the filmmakers achieve this feeling? What's the impact of media violence on kids?

Why are stories about revenge popular in the media? Is revenge ever justified?

What does the movie have to say about guns? Do you agree?

How does this movie compare with the rest of the Rambo films? How has the main character changed or evolved?

Movie Details

In theaters : September 20, 2019
On DVD or streaming : December 17, 2019
Cast : Sylvester Stallone , Paz Vega , Adriana Barraza
Director : Adrian Grunberg
Inclusion Information : Female actors, Latino actors
Studio : Lionsgate
Genre : Action/Adventure
Run time : 89 minutes
MPAA rating : R
MPAA explanation : strong graphic violence, grisly images, drug use and language
Last updated : March 2, 2023

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Screen Rant

Rambo: last blood review - no country for old stallones, last blood is an exercise in excessively gory violence and dubious political action moviemaking that adds little of value to the rambo property..

As much as the Rambo movies have become known for their stereotyping and gratuitous violence, they started off with a more significant purpose. Yes, 1982's First Blood was a macho '80s action movie, but it also told the story of a Vietnam War veteran with PTSD searching for a home in a country that (from his point of view) resented his continued existence. From there, however, the franchise simultaneously doubled-down on its bloody spectacle while trying to be apolitical about stories of Rambo fighting during the Cold War or rescuing Christian missionaries kidnapped overseas. Suffice it to say, that did not work. The supposedly final Rambo film, Rambo: Last Blood , simply carries on with that tradition to predictably underwhelming results. Last Blood is an exercise in excessively gory violence and dubious political action moviemaking that adds little of value to the Rambo property.

Last Blood picks up with John Rambo (Sylvester Stallone) having spent the last eleven years living on his (now, deceased) father's ranch in Arizona. Although he's still traumatized by his time at war, John has found peace caring for his horses and serving as a surrogate parent to Gabrielle (Yvette Monreal), a young woman with a dark history of her own. Against John and her grandma Maria's (Adriana Barraza) wishes, Gabrielle decides to travel to Mexico to visit her estranged father, in the hope of finding some closure. But in doing so, she ends up being captured by a drug cartel that traffics in sex slaves, as headed by the cold-blooded Hugo (Sergio Peris-Mencheta) and Victor Martinez (Óscar Jaenada). With no one to turn to for help, John must go to war one more time to try and save Gabrielle, and make the Martinez brothers pay for what they've done.

If that summary for Rambo: Last Blood - which Stallone co-wrote with Matt Cirulnick ( Absentia ) based on a screen story that Sly and Dan Gordon ( The Hurricane ) are credited for - sounds a bit like " Taken , but featuring Rambo", it's because that's basically what Last Blood is. But in addition to having a fairly derivative plot, the film manages to be even more brazenly xenophobic than either Liam Neeson's hit thriller or the Rambo sequels before it. Stallone has argued that the Rambo films aren't meant to be political statements, but there's no ignoring the unsettling political overtones (intended or not) of a movie like Last Blood , where John is essentially presented as being an extremely deadly white savior who's there to rescue his Latina surrogate daughter from blood-thirsty Mexicans. It would be one thing if Last Blood had any vested interest in shining a light on the victims of Mexican cartel violence and human trafficking (much less, how security on the U.S.-Mexico border actually works), but that's not so much the case.

Instead, characters like Gabrielle and Maria only really exist as an excuse to justify John going off to slay a whole lot of people once again. Rambo: Last Blood does take some time early on to try and develop Gabrielle and John's relationship, but their bonding scenes are hampered by wooden dialogue and Monreal and Stallone's lack of chemistry. The film doesn't offer much in the way of resolution to John's arc from the previous Rambo movies either; by the end, it's not clear what he gained from his journey during Last Blood that he didn't get from 2008's Rambo . With no real substance to sink his teeth into as an actor, Stallone's performance suffers for it, as do those from his cast mates. The supporting players in Last Blood may have names, but they're so thinly sketeched that they might as well be referred to as "Bad Guy #1 & #2" or (in the case of Paz Vegas' Mexican journalist Carmen Delgado) "Lady With Tragic Backstory Who Helps John".

There are a few things that Rambo: Last Blood gets right, however, starting with its narrative momentum. The film flies on by and, if anything, feels overly rushed, as though it was edited down to size from a longer cut. Meanwhile, the scenes (including, one particularly horrifying montage) where Gabrielle and other kidnapped women are brutalized by the cartel are genuinely disturbing - though, they clash tonally with the far more ridiculously grotesque moments of John butchering people that follow in the movie's second half. Last Blood has something of a cheap look overall, especially when director Adrian Grunberg ( Get the Gringo ) attempts to use uncomfortably close-up shots to heighten the dramatic moments. Even so, he finds his filmmaking rhythm once the fighting kicks in during an absurdly splattery third act that comes across less like John using his guerrilla combat skills and more like Home Alone crossed with a Saw movie.

Reportedly, Stallone and Rambo creator David Morrell initially came up with a tale for Last Blood that was closer to a soulful and heart-wrenching story of an aging man yearning to break free of his violent existence (a la Unforgiven , No Country for Old Men , Logan ). Sadly, the far pulpier and otherwise exploitative version that got green-lit is a far cry from that, and mostly comes off as a tone-deaf attempt to not only keep the Rambo franchise going, but also make it socially relevant. Those who are just in it for the mindless violence will get their fix from Last Blood , but it's still disappointing. After starting off as a pop genre movie series with a conscience, bloodshed is pretty much all that Rambo and his films have going for them at this point.

Rambo: Last Blood is now playing in U.S. theaters. It is 89 minutes long and is rated R for strong graphic violence, grisly images, drug use and language.

Key Release Dates

The Differences Between the Rambo 'First Blood' Movie and Book

One of the largest differences between the movie and book Rambo is that the movie emphasizes a more human connection with the audience.
Differences in the novel and movie include Rambo's iconic knife, plot details, and the treatment of human life.
The book Rambo kills everyone, the film Rambo wounds instead, showing a more sympathetic side of his character.

In 1972, author David Morell released First Blood , a novel about a war veteran named Rambo, who is wronged by the police chief of a Kentucky town and wages a one-man war against the local and state police as a result. The book was a success with the public and with critics. Ten years later, the film adaptation, also titled First Blood , hit movie screens. The film, starring Sylvester Stallone , was also a success, launching a franchise built around the increasingly incredible feats of one-man army John Rambo . Like practically any film based on a novel, certain liberties are taken for creative purposes and running length. While not the biggest sinner , First Blood also has its fair share of differences from the book that inspired it.

First Blood

A veteran Green Beret is forced by a cruel Sheriff and his deputies to flee into the mountains and wage an escalating one-man war against his pursuers.

Release Date October 22, 1982

Director Ted Kotcheff

Cast Michael Talbott, Jack Starrett, Sylvester Stallone, Richard Crenna, Bill McKinney, Brian Dennehy

Runtime 93 minutes

Genres Drama, Thriller, Action, Adventure, War

Writers William Sackheim, Michael Kozoll, David Morrell, Sylvester Stallone

The Biggest Difference Between 'First Blood' Is in Names

The first, and most telling, difference between the First Blood book and movie is all in a name. More specifically, the name of the protagonist. In the novel, the character is known only as Rambo. In the film, he is given a first name, John. John Rambo . It may seem minor, but it highlights the differences in each medium's intent. The Rambo of the novel is Morrell's "Everyman", for lack of a better word, a character that embodies the struggles of the Vietnam vets had in returning home, men scarred by the ravages of war, angered, devoid of purpose, and trying to find their place in a country that had turned its back on them. By giving Rambo a first name, the film is intent on giving moviegoers a more human connection with him, more man and less idea. This subtle difference puts the balance of both the book and the movie into perspective: book Rambo places no value on human life, whereas film John Rambo does .

William "Will" Teasle, played by Brian Dennehy in the film, may have the same name that he does in the book, but his title is different. In the book, he is Chief of Police Teasle, yet in the movie he is Sheriff Teasle . What is the difference, or, better yet, is there a difference at all? Indeed, there is . A sheriff is typically the highest-ranking office of a county, and is usually elected to the position. Police chiefs are bound to the city or town, and are either appointed by the mayor or by a police commission. Within the context of the story there isn't really a difference at all, and no explanation as to why the change was made . Perhaps "sheriff" just rolled off of Stallone's tongue better.

What Goes in Must Come Out in 'First Blood'

In the First Blood novel, the Vietnam War vet is hitchhiking in order to reach Madison County in Kentucky. In the movie, he walks into the town looking for a place to eat after learning that an old friend he came to visit had succumbed to cancer. Different purposes, same result : Sheriff/Police Chief Teasle escorts Rambo to the border and instructs him not to come back. Rambo tests Teasle in the novel by showing up two more times before being arrested, while in the film, Teasle sees Rambo coming back in, so Teasle turns around right away and arrests him. Once in prison, Rambo's personal effects are taken away. In the film, that includes Rambo's iconic knife , the one he carries with him in every franchise entry... but not in the book .

No Name Rambo from the book goes directly into the jail cell and is locked up. No drama. John Rambo is brutally assaulted by the deputy sheriff and other officers. Drama. In both cases, a deputy arrives with a razor to shave his hair, leading to two very different escapes . The razor triggers Movie Rambo's memories of being tortured at a POW camp , and he fights his way out of the station, steals a motorcycle and heads to the forest nearby. No deaths , with clothes. Novel Rambo loses it at the sight of the razor, takes it, slices through the deputy's abdomen, steals a motorcycle and finds shelter for the night with a good samaritan who offers it. With deaths, no clothes. Once a manhunt is launched, Rambo of book and film finds a cave in which to hide and plan his next steps , with rats for company in the film and bats in the novel.

Different Endings for 'First Blood'

The difference between the protagonist in the book and the film, as alluded to earlier, was the value placed on human life, and it's at this point that the difference changes the narrative . Both use the skills they learned to tackle the town's entire police force and members of the state police by themselves. In the film, Rambo uses guerilla tactics to take down each and every officer on his trail, wounding them to take them out of the chase . Again, only wounding them, making him more sympathetic to the moviegoer. The Rambo of the novel, however, simply kills everyone and their dogs (literally), the more realistic outcome of such an event, turning Rambo into a figure of tragedy, not sympathy . After warning Teasle to back off in both iterations, the Rambo of film hijacks a police car and heads back into town, damaging plenty of property without killing a single soul. The Rambo of the novel kills more state police, some civilians , and members of the National Guard.

As both the novel and the film head towards the finale, the arrival of Colonel Trautman (Richard Crenna) in the film plays into the final act . In the book, he is Captain Trautman, another odd, unexplained change in rank between the two. No Name Rambo of the book is shot by Teasle in the stomach. He returns fire and wounds Teasle, but is shot by Colonel Captain Trautman in the head before he can finish the job.

Movie Rambo shoots and injures Teasle, but before he kills him he is stopped by Trautman, who talks him down and gets Rambo to surrender himself to authorities . Interestingly, the first ending shot for the film also ended with Rambo dying as he shoots himself. Director Ted Kotcheff called the ending incredibly moving in an interview with Entertainment Weekly, but filmed a second ending that ended up being released after Sylvester Stallone suggested that the audience wouldn't take kindly to the hero being killed after all he was put through. As Kotcheff notes in that interview, test audiences proved Stallone right after praising the film but expressing universal disapproval for the first ending .

First Blood is often hailed as something more than just an action film . It is a film that tackles themes like police brutality and trauma with a depth that sets it apart from its kin. Author David Morrell sees the book and the first film as anti-war , but claims that, " Hollywood changed Rambo . He is a different character in the second and third films, becoming a poster child for military recruitment." That said, he does cede that Stallone is excellent in the role , and the pair even developed a relationship over time. The Canadian town of Hope, B.C., where the bulk of the film was shot, takes great pride in its contributions to it, and even has a wooden statue of John Rambo in the middle of town to prove it. Despite the differences, both the book and the film succeed at drawing attention to the plight of Vietnam vets . One is just nicer (and less bloody) about it.

First Blood is available to rent or purchase in the U.S. on Amazon Prime.

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The Differences Between the Rambo 'First Blood' Movie and Book

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Rambo: Last Blood movie review (2019)
Rambo: Last Blood is junk from start to finish. In a desperate attempt to jog my memory about anything regarding "Rambo," the 2008 attempt to revive Sylvester Stallone's other notable film franchise, I went back to the review I wrote when it came out. In the final paragraph, I wrote, "Maybe if it does well at the box office, it will inspire Stallone to write and direct a proper wrap-up ...
Rambo: Last Blood
Rated: 3/4 • Mar 3, 2022. Rated: F • May 7, 2021. Vietnam War veteran John Rambo tries to find some semblance of peace by raising horses on a ranch in Arizona. He's also developed a special ...
Rambo: Last Blood Review
The level of gore in this film is absurdly intense. Taking after the 2008 film, the makers of Last Blood have elected to turn Rambo's battlefield antics into something resembling a slasher movie ...
Rambo: Last Blood (2019)
Rambo: Last Blood: Directed by Adrian Grunberg. With Sylvester Stallone, Paz Vega, Sergio Peris-Mencheta, Adriana Barraza. Rambo must confront his past and unearth his ruthless combat skills to exact revenge in a final mission.
Rambo: Last Blood
Rambo: Last Blood is a brutal way to say goodbye to an iconic action hero, covering topics and containing scenes that are almost difficult to stomach. Full Review | Jun 27, 2020. The film's ...
'Rambo: Last Blood' Review
Film Review: 'Rambo: Last Blood' Reviewed at AMC Century City 15, Los Angeles, Sept. 18, 2019. MPAA Rating: R. Running time: 89 MIN. ... Rambo movies may if you did super deep, deeper then ...
Rambo: Last Blood
Now, Rambo must confront his past and unearth his ruthless combat skills to exact revenge in a final mission. Action. Crime. Thriller. Directed By: Adrian Grunberg. Written By: Matthew Cirulnick, Sylvester Stallone, Dan Gordon, David Morrell.
'Rambo: Last Blood' Review
Rated R, 89 minutes. THR review: Thirty-seven years after first installment in the Rambo film franchise, Sylvester Stallone returns as the iconic titular character in 'Rambo: Last Blood,' the ...
'Rambo: Last Blood' Review: Death Country for Old Men
'Rambo: Last Blood' Review: ... and postwar trauma, and all the stuff that happened to him in the multiple other Rambo movies. "First Blood" (1982) was a relatively thoughtful picture ...
Rambo: Last Blood Review
Release Date: 10 Oct 2018. Original Title: Rambo 5: Last Blood. An end credits montage of old Rambo movies at the end of Rambo: Last Blood is a sad reminder of how far Sylvester Stallone 's ...
Rambo: Last Blood review
In the likable Creed movies, Stallone had found a way for his legendary boxing champ Rocky Balboa to bow out with humour and humility: as a trainer.But there is no such style in this new Rambo ...
Rambo: Last Blood (2019)
Rambo: Last Blood is the last movie of the Rambo franchise and O MY GOD it's amazing. It's the Logan (2017) of the Rambo Series and I was very impressed with everything about this Movie. ... In the torrent of negative reviews that greeted Rambo: Last Blood, one that stood out was Richard Roeper's zero-star rant for The Chicago Sun Times, in ...
'Rambo: Last Blood' Movie Review: A Reagan-Era Hero Goes Full MAGA
Rambo: Last Blood, the maybe, possibly, could-be final chapter of the franchise (though does anything besides scores of nameless, faceless bad guys ever really die?), finds the warrior at rest and ...
Review: Sylvester Stallone's 'Rambo: Last Blood' goes for the jugular
The John Rambo we meet, like the actor himself, is not the sleek killing machine of the previous films, visible in glimpses helpfully provided under "Last Blood's" closing credits. Rambo ...
Rambo: Last Blood review: a brutal and bloody return for the 80s action
Reviews Rambo: Last Blood review: a brutal and bloody return for the 80s action icon. The fifth and final chapter is an intimate sequel that ups the emotional stakes (and the body count)
'Rambo: Last Blood' Review: Stallone's Angry Icon Hits Rock Bottom
Midway through " Rambo: Last Blood ," Sylvester Stallone mumbles a heartfelt monologue, grasping for poignance after four previous movies of grisly showdowns with foreign threats. Points for ...
Rambo: Last Blood Movie Review
Adrian Grunberg's Rambo: Last Blood, starring Sylvester Stallone, is too cruddy to waste time brooding on, but its hero's 37-year trajectory (47 if you count from the novel) says a great deal ...
Rambo: Last Blood Review: Stallone Brings Us Pure Carnage
Rambo: Last Blood should not be a test in political correctness. The character has been a white knight savior since Rambo: First Blood Part II . The final act of the film is pure carnage. I ...
Rambo: Last Blood
Rambo: Last Blood is a 2019 American action film directed by Adrian Grünberg.The screenplay was co-written by Matthew Cirulnick and Sylvester Stallone, from a story by Dan Gordon and Stallone, and is based on the character John Rambo created by author David Morrell for his novel First Blood.A sequel to Rambo (2008), it is the fifth installment in the Rambo franchise and stars Stallone as ...
Review: Rambo: Last Blood
Last Updated on August 2, 2021. PLOT: After years of fighting, John Rambo ( Sylvester Stallone) has finally found peace running his family ranch in Arizona. But, when the girl he considers a ...
Rambo: Last Blood Movie Review
An adul. Parents need to know that Rambo: Last Blood is the fifth installment in the Rambo series starring Sylvester Stallone. Like all the sequels since the soulful first movie, it elevates intense gore over character. Violence is extremely graphic, with heavy guns and shooting, knives and stabbing, and tons of gore….
'Rambo: Last Blood' Movie Review
'Rambo: Last Blood' delivers a brutally savage and satisfying one-man war Rambo-style, and even hints at the potential for John Rambo (Sylvester Stallone) to find some peace.
Rambo: Last Blood Movie Review
There are a few things that Rambo: Last Blood gets right, however, starting with its narrative momentum. The film flies on by and, if anything, feels overly rushed, as though it was edited down to size from a longer cut. Meanwhile, the scenes (including, one particularly horrifying montage) where Gabrielle and other kidnapped women are ...
The Differences Between the Rambo 'First Blood' Movie and Book
In 1972, author David Morell released First Blood, a novel about a war veteran named Rambo, who is wronged by the police chief of a Kentucky town and wages a one-man war against the local and ...

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Rambo: Last Blood Reviews

Film Review: ‘Rambo: Last Blood’

Peter Debruge

Reviewed at AMC Century City 15, Los Angeles, Sept. 18, 2019. MPAA Rating: R. Running time: 89 MIN.

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