Review | Rambo: Last Blood film review – Sylvester Stallone takes grisly revenge in Taken-like crime thriller
- The Vietnam war veteran takes on Mexican sex traffickers in this ultra violent fifth film in the franchise
- Rambo may be older and keeps his shirt on during the film, but he’s kept his over-the-top killing style
3/5 stars
Ever since the Rambo franchise dropped the political allegory in 1982’s First Blood to embrace full-blown gory mayhem with its 1985 second entry, Sylvester Stallone’s second-best-known series – after Rocky – has been all about the perverse pleasure of watching the titular protagonist slaughter nominal baddies like a psychopath on the loose.
While the war and genocide settings in previous sequels partly condoned the spectacle of murder that John Rambo (played by Stallone, now age 73) serves up, the absurd nature of his extraordinarily sadistic way of killing is more pronounced than ever in Rambo: Last Blood, now that the character has returned from the wilderness of war-torn countries to live in relatively more peaceful times.
Leaving behind the dodgy politics of the last three films, albeit keeping certain bias that would make Trump proud (the only Mexican characters here are criminals and their victims), this fifth and possibly final instalment sees the tormented former soldier settle down in his ranch in Arizona, grooming horses and taking part in the odd voluntary rescue mission in the area.
Living with a family friend, Maria (Adriana Barraza), and her granddaughter Gabrielle (Yvette Monreal), whom Rambo regards as his own niece, our reborn hero – no longer relying on his superhuman physique and never even taking his shirt off – looks to be basking in domestic bliss. That is, until Gabrielle takes a trip to Mexico to look for her runaway father and ends up being abducted by a sex trafficking cartel.