Anyway, Gabrielle finds out her biological deadbeat father
is living in Mexico and against Rambo’s and her grandmother’s wishes sneaks off
to go confront him about his choice to abandon her and her mother. When she gets down there the father slams the
door in her face and she eventually gets kidnapped into sex slavery. Rambo then must go rescue her.
The plot is classic action movie stuff with a
parent/guardian having to traverse a gauntlet of underbelly grime to get their
loved one back. It’s reminiscent of Commando,
Taken, Big Trouble in Little China and more recently Furie. So this is something I can definitely get
behind.
It’s a bit clunky though because a bunch of shit needs to be
taken with a grain of salt. Like the
US/Mexico border isn’t an issue with all parties crisscrossing as much as they
need to, the bad guys decide to let Rambo live for no reason after almost
killing him, there’s an ex machina journalist character (Paz Vega (Acts of
Vengeance)) who nurses Rambo back to health but essentially serves no other
purpose, the story could’ve easily written out the abandoned father as he
doesn’t end up playing a big role in this and etc.
Putting that aside this is the smallest of Rambo’s
adventures and that’s nice. It’s cool to
see him in a more low key setting where his mission is so simple yet it becomes
a challenge because of his age and because he’s never gone after
non-professionals before. The drug/sex
trafficking cartel he goes up against aren’t trained by the military or law
enforcement. They’re as vicious and
ruthless as anyone he’s faced except this is in a cityscape, not the forest,
jungle or desert. Rambo seems a little
out of his element.
So on one hand Last Blood isn’t completely like a Rambo
sequel. The man doesn’t sport his
trademark long hair, bandana or handle a gigantic machine gun. He’s more talkative than ever and more
emotional (save for the ending of First Blood). He cares more about Gabrielle than probably
anyone in the entire series and it shows.
He helped raise her for eleven years and they love each other so when
she’s forced to become a prostitute he goes berserk.
On the other hand there are two aspects that are very much
in line with the sequels. The overall
story is him going into a foreign country to save someone like we’ve seen for
three straight movies already. And the
other thing that’s totally like the sequels is the violence level. While there isn’t quite as much blood and
gore as Rambo there’s sure a helluva lot. The finale is appropriately over the top too
from what we’ve come to expect but man, the Home Alone house of horrors
they put together is fuckin’ nuts. Rambo
has this maze of tunnels he dug underneath his ranch over the years (‘cause he
knew he would need them one day?) and embedded the whole thing with dozens of
absolutely unnerving booby traps. Spikes
to the face, bullets in the floors, holes in the walls for him to stick a knife
through and impale you and other shit.
The deathblow to the villain is also maybe the nastiest in the series. So gruesome.
This part is more like a horror movie.
And the plot turns extremely dark. Again, more like a horror film. I won’t spoil it but damn, the movie has some
fuckin’ balls to go where it does. I
admit I didn’t see it coming.
Strangely I think I respect this sequel the most. It’s still sorta unpleasant to sit through
but I like what they did with the character and I dig the smaller DTV-esque
vibe. Parts II and III may
be easier on the brain if you’re looking for something more casual and they
encompass the quintessential Rambo shit that seeped into pop culture. But if you’ve got an interest in the series
don’t neglect Last Blood.
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