RAMBO: LAST BLOOD; A Professional Scotsman Review #30
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The first Rambo, First Blood [10], is a quite masterful action film. It's part anti war in that it shows the grave damage it can cause to a soldier's psyche, whilst also revelling in the undoubted skill that a highly trained warrior could wreak upon a lesser trained force. The fact that he's tackling an ungrateful US police force (and then the US army) gives it a really morally fascinating frame for the carnage. And in it, along with the first Rocky [10], Sly delivers his best performance, a really believable and iconic portrayal of a mentally wounded Vietnam vet.
David Morrell: The film is a mess. Embarrassed to have my name associated with it. I kind of hate the sequel First Blood: Part II [6] because it essentially chucks away all the interesting intellectual stuff in favour of a slightly ridiculous action romp which really just replays the Vietnam war (and turns the Cold War hot too whilst he's at it for good measure) except that Rambo wins it this time. It does have an interesting plot about POWs whom might have been left behind (there's a world of conspiracy theories about this if you want to research it) and it's got a ridiculously cool ending. It's really the film that all the parodies are based on. Rambo III (5) he fights alongside the Taliban and it's really only worth watching because that's obviously an ironically hilarious concept. The fourth film, Rambo, is an absolute guilty pleasure [shaky 8] that has a superb blood bath ending and some decent introspective stuff about war. It came out at a time when Sly was in a career slump and partially helped him crawl out of it along with the excellent Rocky Balboa [rugged 8] and The Expendables [shaky 7] which started a hugely profitable franchise (though the sequels are poor).
David Morrell: Waterworld is a masterpiece compared to this film. This new entry is not required but, along with Balboa, John Rambo is clearly a character that Stallone loves playing. And at 73 he still looks like he could do immense damage to anyone stupid enough to give him an reason. This time around it's a nasty Mexican cartel whom are trafficking girls as sex slaves so there's no need to feel too sorry for them. This is good in that regard but obviously loses the complexity that I loved in the original. The character of Rambo is one that I could enjoy watching simply doing almost anything - in fact the more mundane his tasks the more intriguing - and his life and lore is fleshed out further here a little. He's a surrogate father now. However, when he's actually on his mission I felt he'd lost some of his savvy - he basically walks into a fairly predictable ambush which the original Rambo (or even Rambo of the last film) would have sniffed coming a mile off. The villains too ain't the brightest which lessens some of the satisfaction. There's a bit where they're attacking him (and he takes several of them out instantly) and the leader urges them on saying: "This old man is nothing!" Mate, he's clearly not nothing - he just killed five of you. Maybe urge a little caution or rethink your strategy? Really made me miss the likes of Alan Rickman as a villain. Anyway, I digress...
David Morrell: Last Blood is a MAGA fantasy. The Guardian review calls it cheap and nasty carnage and gives it one star, reiterating again at the end of the review that it's "cheap and lazy stuff." I take slight issue with this - The Guardian review itself is only about 100 words long itself. They also infer that Rambo probably wathces Fox News. The thing is - who cares? So what if he does? Just 'cos he doesn't share my politics doesn't mean that I'll hate the character. I find this kind of snobbery a real drag sometimes. Besides, there's nothing cheap about well choreographed carnage and the final Home Alone [8]
style booby trapped death montage is undeniably satisfying. I've read other reviews lamenting the film's toxic masculinity. Well... if you can't slaughter a bunch of sex trafficking organised criminals whom can you slaughter? I happened to watch the film in South Pasedena in a 90% Mexican audience and no-one seemed to be upset with the Mexican villains though I can only really speak for myself. In fact there's something kinda cathartic about the violence. As Clint would say: "They had it comin'." It's certainly Grindhouse and yes, somewhat exploitative and I suppose it's a shame it couldn't have tackled the domestic landscape of a politically divided US. You might say I'm daft to hope that Rambo could somehow offer a solution to the apparently unsurmountable schism is the American psyche yet he possibly came as close as anyone did in First Blood.
David Morrell: I hated the film. FINAL ANALYSIS: It's straight forward stuff really. The ending is gorily and brutally fun but there is almost none of the introspection of the character that the unexpectedly good last iteration had and the bad guys are as generic as they come. Ultimately it's not the closure on the character I'd hoped for but I'd be lying if I said I didn't have fun whilst it was on. Newcomers to the series will probably find it all a bit underwhelming and if your a lefty, anti war art student wimp (unlike me) you'll probably not like it. But if you're a wall building, anti intellectual, right wing gun toting nut (like me) you'll probably have a blast. The writer of the original 1972 novel, David Morrell, absolutely hates it (check out his Twitter feed - it's pretty funny) and it's undeniably artless and blunt - weak sauce compared to Sly's highest heights with the character - but certainly not his worst.
SCORE: Once it gets going it's a bloodily satisfying 6. ALTERNATE TITLE: First Blood: Part V
