Rambo: Last Blood (2019)
Rambo: Last Blood (2019)
Rambo: Last Blood (2019), directed by Adrian Grunberg, brings Sylvester Stallone back as John Rambo for a gritty, divisive fifth chapter. Now a weathered rancher in Arizona, Rambo lives quietly with housekeeper Maria (Adriana Barraza) and her niece Gabriela (Yvette Monreal). When Gabriela is kidnapped by a Mexican cartel, Rambo crosses the border, unleashing a one-man war of vengeance. What follows is a bloody, personal rampage to end his saga.
Stallone, at 73, carries Rambo’s scars—physical and emotional—with stoic heft. The first act builds a tender bond with Gabriela, making her abduction hit hard. The action explodes in the third act: Rambo turns his ranch into a Home Alone-style death trap, skewering cartel thugs with booby traps, arrows, and sheer ferocity. It’s vintage Stallone—gruesome, satisfying, and unapologetic—culminating in a heart-ripping showdown. Paz Vega’s journalist ally adds fleeting grit, though she’s underused.
But Last Blood falters. The plot’s thin—cartel clichés and a rushed rescue sideline depth—and the pacing drags early, only to sprint through a cartoonish finale. Critics slammed its xenophobic undertones, with Mexican villains painted as one-note savages, a stark shift from Rambo’s earlier global foes. By 2025, the practical gore holds up, but the CGI blood and dated politics sting. It’s less First Blood’s introspection, more a Taken knockoff with Rambo’s name slapped on.
Last Blood isn’t the send-off fans dreamed of—it lacks the nuance of 2008’s Rambo—but Stallone’s commitment and the visceral payback keep it watchable. It’s a flawed, brutal curtain call for an icon.
