Rambo: Last Blood Movie Review: Unsettling Gory Mayhem

The cold-blooded kill-fest of the last 20 odd minutes of the runtime may not exactly be Rambo like but it is more than likely to get more new fans to Sylvester Stallone's side.

Rambo: Last Blood
A; Action, Adventure, Thriller 
Cast: Sylvester Stallone, Paz Vega, Sergio Peris-Mencheta, Adriana Barraza, Yvette Monreal, Óscar Jaenada, Genie Kim, Sheila Shah, Joaquín Cosio
Director: Adrian Grunberg
Rating: 

Stallone's second-best franchise (after Rocky) gets renewed vigour in a 'Taken' like set-up. This fifth instalment of the 1982 Rambo may not have the political allegory of yore but it revels in a baddie slaughter-fest that is likely to keep the audience cowed down and squirming in their seats. It's an unapologetic genre flick meant to satisfy the genre fans and that's exactly what Grunberg and his writers; Stallone and Mathew Cirulnick set out to do.

The psychopath in John Rambo (73-year-old Sylvester Stallone) is rather leashed by prescription pills and a loving bond with a family friend, Maria (Adriana Barraza), and her granddaughter Gabrielle (Yvette Monreal), whom Rambo regards as his own foster niece. But just when he is basking in domestic harmony, life throws him a curve. Gabriella, in spite of John's warnings, sets out to Mexico in search of the father who mercilessly abandoned her and her cancer stricken mother. She ends up as a victim to a ruthless drug and human trafficking cartel and John is forced to let loose his solo-slaughtering-machine skills to avenge her defilement.

Rambo may have returned from previous war-related assignments to a relatively peaceful setting but the trouble is not as distant as the opening set-up would have you believe. This fifth and hopefully final instalment has the tormented former soldier groom horses on his Arizona ranch and partake in the odd voluntary rescue mission as showcased in the opener. But peace is a misnomer when vicious, inhuman villains are just around the corner. The narrative is rather restive for three-quarters of its runtime with the director smartly exploiting the father-daughter chemistry between the two central players and then moving steadily into a tempered rhythm of search and find… before unleashing the final brutal and excessively gruesome assault on the cartel represented by leaders Hugo (Sergio Peris-Mencheta) and Victor (Óscar Jaenada).

Watch the trailer of Rambo: Last Blood

The serenity of a family setting becomes turbulent and vicious in the bee-hive den of Mexican cartels and that laidback segue into murder and mayhem really gets to you. The cold-blooded kill-fest of the last 20 odd minutes of the runtime may not exactly be Rambo like but it is more than likely to get more new fans to his side. This is a generic, bloody-edged thriller!

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