Rambo: Last Blood

Rambo could actually choose between two genres. Either following in the footsteps of the first installment, it could have been a drama about war trauma or the godless action carnage of an unbreakable machine along the lines of all the other installments. Except it doesn't have a second option because of the protagonist's limitations, and it's too stupid for the first one. Because of the protagonist's limitations. Sylvester Stallone is one of Hollywood's most annoying stars. His incessant need for self-presentation, dabbling in scripting and production, grandiose declarations and the gloriola of his own supposed wise old man's modesty twisted the entirety of Rambo: Last Blood into a very agonizingly twisted corpse that is incapable of meeting even the simplest expectations of an action movie. The first twenty minutes are a celebration of honest work, in which we watch a sweaty Stallone exercise a horse, a sweaty Stallone hammer a nail, a sweaty Stallone spin some wheels, or a sweaty Stallone forge an iron bar. There are no action scenes in the film, just a bunch of shots of the protagonist hitting someone with a hammer or a knife. The final confusion, where we watch fifty people casually walking down identical corridors and randomly falling into some traps, is the most disturbing film finale of the year. Most importantly, please make this 'old-school and honest' spectacle all animated next time. Who's supposed to watch those digital flames and funny pools of blood? (12/21/2019)

The trailers didn't promise a fundamentally accomplished film, but I still believed I would get one in the cinema. Well, I didn't. The Fifth Rambo is not very good , but not because of the craftsmanship, lack of action or cheapness. Rather, it's because it's not really Rambo. It's more like Emo-Rambo. Sylvester Stallone spends an hour and a quarter trying to look like a man struggling with his inner demons and a past of violence, but appreciating that something good has finally come into his life. And it takes him a hell of a long time to turn into the Rambo we know and love (or at least I do). We don't really see any action until the last half hour and it's extremely brutal and for a while I felt like I was watching a crossover of Saw and Friday the 13th rather than Rambo, but I didn't mind. What bothered me was the hour and a quarter before that, in which they completely nonsensically devote space to new characters and try to explore the inner workings of a cinematic warrior. Regardless of the fact that there's not really much there, and we already saw the little there is in the fourth outing. If it weren't called Rambo, I'd probably be more forgiving of this whiny B movie and the wait for the finale. But as a conclusion to a classic action franchise, it's unnecessary at best. And quite sad at times. (09/18/2019)

This B-movie works thanks to nostalgia for John Rambo and Sly. And also thanks to the sufficient work with emotions (however basic they may be). Last Blood takes its time and gives plenty of space to all of its few characters in the simple story. Because of that, the climax is surprising and seems unpleasantly rushed, while lacking the energy accumulated in the build-up and coming up short with the catharsis that the film was aiming for and which should have been substantially more powerful. (01/08/2020)

It’s not too surprising that Stallone has never been able to understand that he simply cannot replicate one of the greatest successes of his career. The name Rambo has very little significance in relation to one fictional character. Its cultural capital and iconic nature are derived solely from Rambo: First Blood Part II and its association with the waning days of the Cold War. Stallone’s tenacious effort to continue the franchise’s box-office success was still endearingly entertaining in the third instalment thanks to the camp dimension of that film. The fourth one was just tiresome and toxic with it old man’s stubbornness and toxic conservativeness. Because Stallone doesn’t have any sense of humour or self-reflection, the title of the parody flick Popstar: Never Stop Never Stopping describes his career. Like Sly, unfortunately, some of his viewers still hope to at least dip a toe into the old waters. To this day, I still remember the wearying disappointment creeping through the screening room at the cinema. It’s true that the particular screening was on the day of the premiere as part of a double feature with the iconic First Blood Part II at the Aero cinema in Prague. The futile digital effects and the drawn-out ideologically focused melodrama about the need to protect the US southern border were downright off-putting  for the viewers looking forward to bombastic action, which finally came after 90 gruelling minutes with truly devastating sadistic explicitness, so the irritated audience welcomed it with a clamorous roar of relief. However, that doesn’t change the fact that all of the other sequels only diminish the legacy and significance of Rambo: First Blood Part II as a pop-culture milestone. On the other hand, that’s a good thing, because we now live in a different era and a different world. It’s just a shame that Stallone still doesn’t understand that. (09/30/2023)

Rambo has changed in the last two episodes and it's understandable because Stallone has changed, too. While the first three episodes show Rambo as essentially a good guy cornered by the political system and other people's prejudices, the last two episodes refer very well to current issues in the world today and the inability to systematically address them effectively enough. It doesn't matter if it's tribal wars in Burma or hunting prostituted girls in Mexico. Both are and have been more or less topical, and both Stallone and Grunberg are keeping within identical intentions and boundaries. So the last episode is still a relatively dark, raw carnage, only that it moves from the natural jungle to the urban jungle, with similar results and message – it is there, you just need to find among the clichés that surrounds it. Because yes, somehow a simple revenge story has to be grafted onto that core in order to even make it to the cinemas and at least be somewhat appealing to those viewers who only see the peripheral attributes of explicit violence, cool weapons and an iconic hero. The objections are that it's not quite the same, but when compared to the original films, which had a completely different focus and defined 1980s action. You have to take into account that this is still the same hero at the core, just living in a different time, in a different world. It doesn't reach the high-octane carnage of the previous episode, but I take the melancholic first half as well as the second one any day. (09/23/2019)