I’ve spoken before about the perpetual undulations of Sylvester Stallone’s career—and where last time we looked at Rocky, it’s time to look at
his other iconic R-named character.
1982’s First Blood is a legit good movie—it toned down some
of the moral ambiguity of the source material sure, but it’s still a pretty well
made and intense fugitive film that took a new stance at the time in being
sympathetic to traumatized veterans of the Vietnam War. To me, the iconic scene
is at the end, where John Rambo himself breaks down into teary despair,
showcasing that despite his badassery and hardcore guerrilla abilities, deep
down he’s a shattered man unable to escape his past.
The sequels said nuts to that, let’s just slap him back in ‘Nam
and get back to killing commies! First Blood Part II and Rambo 3—nobody said
these films were consistently titled—are enjoyable in that mindless eighties
action way, even if they completely abandoned any introspection. I like Rambo 3
myself, in which Sly’s mullet reaches hair metal proportions, and he ends up duelling
a helicopter with a tank, somehow. Nevertheless, the series would remain
dormant after that as the Cold War wound down—until the 2000s, when Stallone
bought back his iconic characters in some surprisingly good comebacks. Rocky
Balboa felt like a heartfelt sendoff, and 2008’s Rambo (titled in some places
more sensibly as Rambo 4) bought back the character as a broken angry shell of
a man, with brutal violence that finally matched his raw aggression. It even
proved a real inspiration to the Burmese guerrillas it positively depicted.
Now, if you don’t mind some spoilers for a decade-old action
film, Rambo 4 also served as a nice bookends, with John returning to his family
home after over twenty years at last. Some people found this a perfect way to
end it all—but Sly still had an idea for at least one more film that he floated
not long after, which has finally come to fruition with Last Blood.
Here, an ageing Rambo is enjoying a quiet life raising
horses, though still suffering from Vietnam flashbacks. He apparently shares
the house with Mexican family friend Maria (Adriana Barraza) and her niece,
Gabriela (Yvette Monreal). Rambo seems content to not return to his old
knifing, machinegunning, and army-demolishing ways, until Gabriela takes a
fateful trip to Mexico that leads to be abducted by a cartel group lead by a
psychopathic pair of brothers.
Some people have been commenting on the supposed politics
they interpret here or whatnot; not being American, I’m apart from the whole
border debate, but I can say that it’s safe to say the script probably wasn’t generated
by the current issues as the idea came about not long after Rambo 4. I felt
there are some issues with how some characters are depicted but not really due
to their ethnicity or anything, which we’ll get to.
For the most part, it certainly doesn’t feel like a Rambo
movie—not necessarily a bad one, but one more in the line of Taken or something.
I guess Stallone’s age puts a limit on things but still. Rambo isn’t invulnerable
in this one and Stallone tries his slurring best to give him some emotional
moments—but let’s just say this comes at the cost of something I’d rather have
seen followed through and not just put aside. Likewise, most of the side characters
are sort of shunted aside before they can be developed—even with the Afghans in
Rambo 3 or the missionaries in 4, you at least got a better sense of their
stories, to have some sort of attachment.
The climax is when things return to the ultraviolence you
expect—and it is brutal, satisfyingly so if that’s what you’re after. Not on
the level of the .50 cal scene in the last film, but there are pyrotechnics and
gore galore. You might just wish there was more of that beforehand. And let’s
just say some things get almost Mortal Kombat levels of violence—if that sounds
appealing, then you’re in luck.
Overall, Rambo Last Blood is alright by latter-day Stallone
film standards, but definitely not on the level of say Creed, and I would
probably put it a bit below Rambo 4 too. If you felt the latter film was a perfect
ending for everyone’s favorite PTSD-shaken ‘Nam vet…you probably don’t need to rush
out and see this one. It has its moments, but I’d say we can call the bandana
(which shamefully never appears) hung up.
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