Adrian Grünberg
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It’s as if Stallone is playing, I don’t know, Ron Glambo, an escapee from a Taken and Logan rip-off.
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.
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.
That way you can skip the part of the movie where Stallone retcons himself into a Taken rip-off, unable to save a young woman’s virtue but still ready and willing to slaughter a bus load of guys with brown skin.
The film acts as if it is the second coming of Taken on steroids.
The premise is meant to capture the excitement of Denzel Washington in “Man on Fire” (2004) or Liam Neeson in “Taken” (2008), mining thrills from a scorned macho man seeking revenge against the evil doers who have endangered his loved ones.
That’s not to say it can’t work; Clint Eastwood directed himself to Oscar glory as an aging gunslinger trying to escape his violent past in “Unforgiven” (1992), from which “Rambo: Last Blood” borrows a lot of graveside imagery.
Far from the moody, Unforgiven-lite meditation on violence and revenge it could have been, the fifth Rambo too often smacks of a generic studio thriller with a familiar franchise label slapped on it.
When the film’s teaser trailer released, many compared it to Clint Eastwood’s Unforgiven (1992) and James Mangold’s Logan (2017).
No Country for Old Men (2007)
Directed by Joel Coen
influenced Rambo: Last Blood (2019)
Themes Plot Characters
But it was relatively easy to be tantalised by the idea behind Rambo: Last Blood, which Stallone likened to the Coen brothers’ No Country for Old Men pre-release.
Many scripts were written including one compared to the Coen Brothers’ No Country For Old Men (2007).
Rambo starts the movie fantasizing about life where he’s like Ed Tom Bell, the weary lawman at the end of his line in No Country for Old Men ; in the end he finds regressive self-actualization as something akin to Anton Chigurh, an unbridled spirit of violence from the same story.
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.
The director, Mel Gibson crony Adrian Grunberg, stages the action with reasonable efficiency, although the gore and dismemberment quotient goes way over the top to the point of camp; one heavy gets the Toshiro Mifune treatment from the end of Kurosawa’s Throne of Blood .
I was genuinely not expecting the level that this film went to, especially in the final act which can only be described as “ Home Alone on steroids”.
An unnecessary “final” sequel that finds the now-73-year-old Green Beret fighting south-of-the-border invaders in Home Alone -style fashion (no, seriously), it’s a film that feels like the dying gasp of a series that refuses to go gently into that good night—especially since it can tailor its xenophobic bloodbath for our current Trumpian era.
But for the most part, the film relies on quick shots of Rambo stabbing or shooting people, or quick edits of a Home Alone-style trap working long enough for him to double-tap headless bodies.
Rambo: Last Blood is basically Taken meets Home Alone , only racist.
When the baddies arrive, a sequence begins that’s straight out of “Home Alone,” if in that heartwarming Christmas classic, Kevin McCallister had brutally murdered more than 20 people.
Last Blood certainly delivers in that regard especially when you get to see all the “Home Alone” traps that were advertised in the trailer.
The explosive finale is booby traps galore, but unlike the family friendly pratfalls of “Home Alone” (1990) or “Swiss Family Robinson” (1960), this one is the gory culmination of an overly graphic film.
This was presumably a chance to have a thematic reckoning with the iconic character, the way that John Wayne had the good instincts to do with his final film, The Shootist .
The script from Stallone and Matthew Cirulnick (Paid in Full) could easily substitute the increasingly vexed protagonist from the Taken films or tired old fart Paul Kersey from the Death Wish saga into the same scenario.
Rambo: Last Blood is an abomination in the way all the Charles Bronson Death Wish sequels were terrible.
Rather than a truly introspective look at a child searching for a parent like “Central Station” (1998) or “The Kid with a Bike” (2011), Gabriela’s journey is an excuse to get her kidnapped so that Rambo can race across the border.
¿Quién no recuerda títulos como Desaparecido en combate (Joseph Zito, 1984), Commando (Mark L. Lester, 1985) o Cobra, el brazo fuerte de la ley (George Pan Cosmatos, 1986)?
It hilariously shares similarities to the plot of Taken (2008) and one that has been well-worn for over sixty years since John Ford’s Western The Searchers (1956).
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.
Tout a commencé avec First Blood, qui a été suivi de Rambo: First Blood part II, puis de Rambo III et, curieusement, un quatrième film intitulé simplement Rambo.
Compare that to Rambo: First Blood Part II (1985), when John is brought back into active service and much of the nuance and subtext abandoned in favour of explosions, or Rambo III (1988) which is essentially a grit-free, propaganda reel for American military might set in the Soviet-Afghan war that takes time to praise the brave Afghani fighters, prior to the US bombing the shit out of them in recent years.
First Blood was awesome, Rambo: First Blood Part II was fun and silly, Rambo III was passable action fare but a little tired, and Rambo (2008) was bit of a drag, albeit with some decent action scenes and carnage.
Even when he rolled with the “gallant people of Afghanistan” (as 1988’s Rambo III was dedicated), he was never anyone’s mouthpiece.
At first, Sylvester Stallone’s discarded veteran was just trying to keep to himself, but over the course of its 1980s sequels, Rambo: First Blood Part II and Rambo III , he became the embodiment of the idea that all it takes to vanquish evil is sufficient willpower, an unlimited arsenal, and a minimum of outside interference.
It made sense when Jamie Lee Curtis built a basement trap in “Halloween” (2018), knowing that Michael Myers might return.
When the film’s teaser trailer released, many compared it to Clint Eastwood’s Unforgiven (1992) and James Mangold’s Logan (2017).
The character of Rambo, alongside other movies of the time like Apocalypse Now (1979) and The Deer Hunter (1978), set the tone for the movie industry’s bleak and often violent contribution to America’s attempt to regather itself after Vietnam.
Things blow up real nice in that one, people get mangled and mauled in creative ways and from a pacing perspective it zips right by like other '80s action classics such as 1987's "Predator" and 1988's "Die Hard."
Apocalypse Now (1979)
Directed by Francis Ford Coppola
influenced Rambo: Last Blood (2019)
Visuals Themes
Puis le crescendo d'action, rythmé par la musique enlevante de Jerry Goldsmith, atteint son apogée lors d'une orgie d'explosions et d'hélicoptères, comme une vulgarisation d’Apocalypse Now.
The character of Rambo, alongside other movies of the time like Apocalypse Now (1979) and The Deer Hunter (1978), set the tone for the movie industry’s bleak and often violent contribution to America’s attempt to regather itself after Vietnam.
Things blow up real nice in that one, people get mangled and mauled in creative ways and from a pacing perspective it zips right by like other '80s action classics such as 1987's "Predator" and 1988's "Die Hard."
Rather than a truly introspective look at a child searching for a parent like “Central Station” (1998) or “The Kid with a Bike” (2011), Gabriela’s journey is an excuse to get her kidnapped so that Rambo can race across the border.