Sylvester Stallone’s grizzled Vietnam vet character John J. Rambo returned to the big screen after more than a decade in 2019 with Rambo: Last Blood, an ultraviolent action thriller that promised to be the final installment in the franchise. Although critics were less than kind to the movie, long-time fans of Stallone’s second most popular franchise were just happy to see him back in action.
Rambo’s latest adventure saw him crossing the border into Mexico to save his friend’s granddaughter from a ruthless cartel. While Last Blood is far from a perfect movie, it did enough things right to satisfy fans as a finale.
Right: Sylvester Stallone’s Passion
One thing that fans can count on in every Rambo movie is Sylvester Stallone’s passion for the role. Along with Rocky Balboa, John Rambo is one of the actor’s most iconic roles and he doesn’t take playing the part lightly.
Unlike Bruce Willis’ increasingly disinterested portrayal of John McClane, Stallone has always given his all in each of his performances as Rambo, and Last Blood is no different.
Wrong: Ripping Off Taken
It’s been said that, in its story of a father figure heading to another country to rescue his abducted kid, Last Blood feels more like a Taken movie than a Rambo movie, and that’s a pretty apt comparison.
In following the Taken formula, Stallone took away almost everything that made the Rambo character unique and made him a generic action hero. It’s hardly surprising that the script didn’t begin its life as a Rambo movie.
Right: Brutal Violence
Although Rambo was reluctant to kill in First Blood, he quickly evolved into a relentless killing machine over the course of the sequels. Fans have since come to expect gruesome violence from the Rambo movies, with the title character brutally eviscerating real-life bad guys like Tatmadaw soldiers and sex traffickers.
This tradition was more than upheld in Last Blood, in which the cartel members that storm Rambo’s ranch are blown to pieces and the final guy’s heart is ripped out of his chest while it’s still beating.
Wrong: Killing Off Gabriela
At the beginning of Last Blood, we find that Rambo has been managing a ranch with his friend Maria and her granddaughter Gabriela. The action kicks off when Gabriela crosses the border into Mexico and gets drugged, kidnapped, and forced into sex slavery by a cartel.
Of course, Rambo manages to infiltrate the cartel and rescue her, but she dies on the way home. Killing her off was a step too far. The unspeakable traumas she experienced in the previous few days gave Rambo and the audience enough of a reason to want revenge.
Right: The V.C. Military Tactics
While there aren’t many overt references to Rambo’s past in Last Blood, the story comes full circle in the character’s tactics for fighting the bad guys. Some critics have noted that Rambo’s use of trap-filled tunnels could’ve been inspired by the Viet Cong’s own methods.
There’s something darkly poetic about Rambo using the tactics of his enemies from his first war to fight his last war.
Wrong: Negative Stereotypes Of Mexico
At a time when negative stereotypes of Mexico are sadly at an all-time high, Last Blood certainly didn’t do any good with its portrayal of almost every Mexican character as a rapist and/or murderer.
Cartels and sex trafficking are real problems in Mexico, but Last Blood’s focus on those particular aspects seem to paint the whole nation with that brush.
Right: Old Man Rambo
In many ways, Last Blood is the Logan-esque swansong for John Rambo, finding him at the end of his road, trying to settle into a normal life despite the baggage of his violent past.
Sylvester Stallone’s performance as the older, grizzled Rambo on the tail end of his life is suitably gruff and weary. He seems exhausted from the get-go, he’s not as indestructible as he used to be— getting the tar beaten out of him in one particularly rough sequence in which he’s hopelessly outmatched — and he’s distilled all his pain into a series of tunnels under his ranch, literally burying his problems.
Wrong: Betraying Rambo’s Characterization
In 2008’s Rambo, Stallone did a terrific job of saving the John Rambo character from the Reagan-era jingoism he fell into in the second and third movies. Unfortunately, in Last Blood, he went right back to that bastardized characterization of the role.
David Morrell, author of First Blood, was a vocal critic of Last Blood. He didn’t recognize Stallone’s character as Rambo and said that he could’ve just as easily been called John Smith without changing anything.
Right: Blood-Soaked Third Act
After spending the first and second acts making audiences really hate the cartel that wrongs Rambo in Last Blood, the movie culminates in a chaotic, blood-drenched third act that more than delivers the goods.
When Rambo lures the cartel into his tunnels, he fires off headshot after headshot from the shadows, picking off the baddies who don’t get turned to mush by his grisly traps. It’s grimly satisfying in a grindhouse way.
Wrong: Ambiguous Ending
Stallone (and the title) promised that Last Blood would be the final film in the Rambo franchise, suggesting that it would have a definitive ending. But it has an ambiguous ending, with Rambo’s fate left up in the air, and Stallone has since said that he’s open to reprising the role. As a result, Last Blood doesn’t feel like much of a finale.
The fourth movie would’ve made a perfect ending for the Rambo saga. After his grisly business in Burma, he could finally resign to a life of peace as he moved to his father’s ranch in Arizona.