As the “Rambo” series went on, the films turned body mutilation into an art form, with the later installments fetishizing gratuitous ultra-violence in a way that at times felt like a modernized take on the over-the-top brutality of the ’80s actioners this series epitomized (as with 2008’s “Rambo”), and at other times just felt needlessly graphic. Such was the case with 2019’s “Rambo: Last Blood,” which once again found Sly Stallone’s hero in full “I’m just trying to live my life, leave me alone” mode.
In this latest (and potentially final) “Rambo” effort, John is retired and living on his dad’s Arizona ranch, which he tends to alongside friend Maria Beltran (Adriana Barraza), and her granddaughter, Gabriela (Yvette Monreal). Of course, this is a “Rambo” film, so things don’t stay so quiet and picturesque for long. In “Last Blood,” Stallone’s ex-Special Forces officer goes after a Mexican cartel who take Gabriela hostage, leading to a final showdown that’s vaguely reminiscent of “Skyfall” and its “Home Alone”-esque ending, wherein Rambo booby traps his ranch with all manner of lethal contraptions designed to lay waste to the cartel. The ending of “Last Blood” sees Rambo mounting a horse and riding off into the sunset, which is a shame because it insinuates that the man’s work is done with what is the most lackluster entry in the whole franchise.
Any pretensions towards exploring the psychological effects of war are abandoned in “Last Blood,” which indulges in the all-out violence of its direct predecessor while failing to make its central character believably layered. The script also left much to be desired, leaving Rambo with a generic, anticlimax of a send-off that felt very much like all the other one-dimensional actioners with which the streaming age has cursed us.