As a life-long fan of Sylvester Stallone, I was very much excited for the supposed last entry in the Rambo franchise. What seemed to be an analogue to Logan (2017 - Wolverine's swan song) , turned out to be a cross between Taken and Home Alone!
The movie picks up almost a decade after the fourth film with John Rambo breeding horses in his father's ranch. We are quickly introduced to the two other residents on the ranch: a family friend (a middle-aged Mexican woman) and her niece, who is seemingly Rambo's god-daughter. The young girl is about to leave town for college, but before getting too far from her hometown, despite Rambo's warnings she decides to go on a road trip to Mexico to meet her long-lost biological father .
The god-daughter meets and gets rejected by her absentee father, and later that night, is abducted by the cartel and forced into prostitution. Cue in the plot from Taken where the old man goes to save the young girl... After the rescue operation, the cartel is looking for retaliation and they decide to attack Rambo at his home. The last 30 minutes of the movie is split between Rambo setting traps, followed by the cartel facing violent deaths.
The plot is thin and derivative, and the characters are poorly developed. John Rambo does not change much compared to the previous movies - the only bit of development comes from a short monologue by Rambo explaining how his love for his god-daughter changed his outlook for a while... The characters are also either extremely evil in case of the cartel members, or portrayed as heavenly angels (i.e., the god-daughter and her aunt). Worst of all, the pacing is slow too. The 89-minute runtime felt much longer...
I've been a fan of both Rocky and Rambo franchises, and have a lot of respect for Sylvester Stallone and how he started from zero and made himself the powerhouse that has been for the last four decades. Despite this favourable bias, I only recommend watching this movie to hardcore fans once it hits the streaming services.
I give Rambo: Last blood a 5/10.
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