Sylvester Stallone continues to defy convention – and the cinema – as he continues to embark on an amazing career that has taken him from Hell’s Kitchen, New York, through the hell of both the boxing ring and war zone through ROCKY and RAMBO, to re-inventing himself as an elder action statesman with the likes of CLIFFHANGER, THE EXPENDABLES and the fourth RAMBO film, which arrived two decades after the third in 2008.
Whether or not you can read too much into whether RAMBO: LAST BLOOD will be the last of the legendary one-man army series, given that Rocky has re-appeared in not one, but two spin-offs in the CREED films, is a matter for debate, but we shall see.
RAMBO: LAST BLOOD returns John Rambo to the domestic America that he encountered in the original 1982 sleeper hit, in which he fell foul of Sheriff Will Teasle (Brian Dennehy) and Galt (Jack Starrett) in the small town of Hope, then escaping and then wreaking havoc on the local law enforcement, before almost destroying the town.
In RAMBO: FIRST BLOOD PART II (1985), he was released from prison and sent to Vietnam to seek out whether American POWs were still there, before helping the Afghan freedom fighters in RAMBO III (1988).
In 2008’s RAMBO, the title character is found on the Burmese border, but has to reluctantly help some mercenaries free the people and some charity workers.
It’s an amazing run of success, given that in the original novel by David Morrell, Rambo dies at the end, but the decision to let him live at the end of the film was a creative decision by Stallone who has had a hand in writing all the screenplays since film one.
The latest film sees him back in Arizona at his ranch, helping to raise his niece Gabrielle (Yvette Monreal). Her mother has died and her father has vanished into Mexico, seemingly uninterested in bonding with her. Through a friend, Jezel (Fenessa Pineda), she gets a contact address and heads to Mexico without telling Rambo, but finds things haven’t changed.
Unfortunately, she falls foul of the local pimps and is abducted. Rambo learns of her disappearance and heads South to attempt to locate her, but soon meets resistance. With the help of a local journalist, Carmen (Paz Vega), he begins to piece together the facts….
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Fans will pretty much know what to expect from this latest film, which is as blood-thirsty and brutal in its’ depiction of violence as the fourth film, in itself far more brutal than the previous trio of films, that were remarkably restrained when you compare them.
In terms of the moral high-ground, Rambo is not a character seeking a message and, as Trautmann, his friend, mentor and senior officer in the first three films points out at the start of RAMBO III, he cannot change who he is, which is a full-blooded combat soldier.
Audiences who have grown up with him and appreciated the character, for all his brutal acts of violence, be it in war or at home, know that you don’t go to a RAMBO movie expecting DOWNTON ABBEY, but full-on blood and guts – and it is in this context that RAMBO: LAST BLOOD delivers on its promise.
This is pretty much in keeping with the more recent Stallone films and be prepared for as brutal, if not more so, climax as the fourth film.
A solid welcome back to this one-man army, but I don’t think people will be too worried if this is the last film. It’s a Ronseal movie as the advert says – and I am sure that if Rambo could find a way to use it as a weapon, he would.
Pure escapist adult action entertainment.
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