Rambo: Last Blood

If you tuned out during the last minute and a half of Rambo then you probably forgot he finally returned to his family home in Arizona.  This picks up eleven years later where he’s now a horse farmer and protective “uncle” to his friend’s (Adriana Barraza (Drag Me to Hell)) granddaughter Gabrielle (Yvette Monreal (Monsoon)).  For the most part Rambo’s at peace except he has to try hard to “keep a lid on it”.

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.