Rambo: Last Blood

John Rambo has resigned to a peaceful life in Arizona. Although he still struggles with PTSD from his days in the army, Rambo seems to be content working on a ranch, living with his family friend Maria (Adriana Barraza). But when her teenaged grand-daughter Gabrielle (Yvette Monreal) is kidnapped, Rambo finds himself up against a Mexican drug cartel. With the help of an independent journalist Carmen (Paz Vega), Rambo uncovers a sex-trafficking racket across the US-Mexico border. He must now use his years of training and skills to rescue the girl while taking down some extremely dangerous people.The first half of the film takes time to establish where Rambo is. His relationship with Maria and Gabrielle plays a vital role in this setup, as Rambo acts as an adopted uncle to the teenager. This requires a performance filled with nuance and pathos – a tall ask from Sylvester Stallone, who is best known for his iconic macho roles. Stallone mumbles through some of the emotive scenes, and the intended character development falls flat. Paz Vega’s arc as journalist Carmen is too rushed, but her scenes with Stallone bring out a little more depth from him. The villains are one-note bad guys, although Sergio Peris-Mencheta shows some promise as Hugo, the Mexican cartel leader.The revenge plot is entirely predictable – you know it’s a matter of time before something terrible happens and Rambo is forced to return to his old ways. When the mayhem finally unfolds, the action is ruthless to the point of absurdity; resembling the torture porn of horror flicks, rather than the engaging and well-executed sequences we’ve now come to expect. The brutality is almost cartoonish, with an approach that harks back to the 80’s hero films which made Sylvester Stallone an international superstar, to begin with. Both franchise enthusiasts and casual fans know Rambo as a killing machine, and if anything, that notion is thoroughly reinforced. The effect of decades of violence on the troubled veteran isn’t as hard-hitting as intended, but hardcore fans of the old-school style of generic action storytelling may find some nostalgic amusement. However, if ‘Last Blood’ is meant to be an emotional farewell to the iconic character, there’s little dignity in it.