“I haven’t changed. I just keep a lid on it.”

Stallone. John Rambo. The (maybe) final chapter in a forty year movie franchise.

Rambo - Last Blood (which is a lot of words, so we’ll just call it RLB), is the bookend to a five film series going back to the 1982 Rambo - First Blood. With stops in Vietnam, Afghanistan, Burma-Thailand, and Mexico, it has been a violent travelogue of America’s and the world’s most troubled spots. Its latest and probably final stop brings former Marine Medal of Honor Winner John Rambo home to Arizona…for at least 30 minutes.

As the latest issue of the living comic book that is Rambo opens, John appears to have finally found some peace. For most of the last decade he has been living in Arizona with his close friend, Maria (Adriana Barraza from Thor and a lot of more serious films), helping her raise her granddaughter, Gabriela (Yvette Monreal - Stargirl). Maria and Rambo’s relationship is never really explored. It it close but appears to be platonic…which is sort of disappointing, as an “age appropriate” romance between her and Stallone would have been fun to watch…well, until the bullets start flying.

Despite progress, Rambo isn’t quiet all there yet. He appears to be experiencing some level of PTSD (which was what the very first Rambo film was really about), but manages to keep level through the perfectly normal activity of digging a massive Vietnamese War-style tunnel complex under his ranch…and forging knives, spears, and other normal farm implements.

Still, things seem to be good for John until Gabriela discovers that her long estranged father, Don Miguel (Joaquín Cosio - Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse) just happens to live in an unnamed Tijuanaesque town just across the border. Gabriela decides to meet her father, triggering a series of events that result in a whole lot of death, dismemberment, and trips to Mexican strip clubs and brothels.

We won’t spoil the details of the rest of the movie, but it is typical Rambo fare: bad things happen to good people and John Rambo takes it upon himself to exact justice.

So two questions:

Is this any good? And is it Really the last Rambo film?

Rambo has always been a “love it or hate it” series and how you view this movie will depend a lot on how you feel about the character and earlier films. Stallone’s portrayal of the character is as good as it has ever been and the supporting characters are all solid. Monreal does a particularly good job with what she’s given, while Barraza is probably the best performer in the movie. Paz Vega (Acts of Vengeance), who plays a Mexican journalist, is ok but is really wasted filling the role of Rambo’s “just maybe in a different world” not quite love interest / enabler.

The story is good for what it is and moves fast enough to fit the 89 minutes run time. And the cinematography is competent, if not earth shattering. The violence in this edition was, however, really brutal and graphic. A Rambo movie without violence is like a Big Movie Blog review without at least one snarky aside. But this was something else. While not cartoonish like in Turner & Dale vs. Evil, or Walking Dead gory, there was an intimacy and rage in the acts that left me more queasy than I expected.

So is it really the last Rambo movie?

I hope not.

I don’t say that as a big Rambo fan. The truth is, I lean more toward “hating” the series than “loving” it. But the franchise, and Stallone, have reached a point where it is now possible to use John Rambo as something other than a guy firing explosive arrows. If I could script the next Rambo film I’d take a page from Creed and use Stallone as a supporting character in someone else’s story: perhaps a story with Rambo finally getting help at the Veterans Administration and interacting with - and learning from - veterans of American’s more recent wars. An exchange between the 1980s Soviet-killing Cold Warrior and a recently returned Afghanistan War vet could be fascinating.

BMB script ideas aside, the movie does leave room for a Rambo return, ending with John sitting on a rocking chair, reflecting (though some cool film clips from all the previous Rambo films) his life over the last forty years…before he literally rides off into the sunset.

This may be the final Rambo film…but I wouldn’t bet on it.

You can catch Rambo: Last Blood HERE.

Three out of Five Exploding Arrows.

🏹🏹🏹

So which camp are you in on the Rambo movies? Love ‘em or hate ‘em? Which is your favorite? Leave a comment or drop us a line at movies@bigmovieblog.com.