So I've had a couple of hours to digest this film after returning from the cinema...

What a sad way to end the Rambo anthology.

This is basically Stallone does Taken. Or maybe Taken 2 as it lacks the tenacity that Taken had.

Any good points? It's always nice to see Sly Stallone. The guy is an institution. Also the violence at the end was clever and OTT as expected.

The bad? Well, where do I start...

(spoilers) Rambo basically gets his niece killed. He storms in to get her, wimps out of fighting the guys, then they cut him and her and drug her up.

Once he is all patched up, he goes on a killing spree and gets her back. Only for her to die - and he doesn't even try CPR or anything...

I cannot even tell you how many holes there are in the plot, the non-sensical way the plot progresses. It feels like this must have been edited down a lot, coming in at only 89 minutes, but considering the only bit that drags is the Mexico bit... It doesn't look like it was edited.

In short, terrible story/script/editing. What a shame and a deeply unfitting way to end the Rambos.

5/10 (being generous as Stallone is an icon)

EDIT: There's a director's cut with extra footage. More gruesome killings, no improvement to the ridiculous and non-sensical plot. Even more of a slap in the face that this was released separately.

Downgrading to 4/10 as it really is an abomination.

The problem with this movie is that it is just a basic revenge movie that could have been done without the character of Rambo and it would have been all the same. It doesn't have a hidden anti-war message, no real link to the reality of a veteran's PTSD nor the over the top one-man army meme that Rambo is known for.

[spoiler] I haven't read/seen anything about this movie before watching and I was expecting to see Rambo doing what Rambo does the best - many, many, many violent kills. But I wasn't expecting the story to be around the horrible sex trafficking industry, a pretty harsh subject.
Sadly, it just doesn't fit well with the character of Rambo, yeah yeah we see him having difficulty to handle the accidental deaths at the start of the movie but beside that, there's no hard link to the back-story of Rambo, the Viêt-Nam vet suffering from PTSD and turned into a one-man army just turn into a basic revenge flick. Moreover, I was happy to see him go back to the old traps and spikes so those assholes get the painful death they deserves for all those innocent life they destroyed just to see Rambo quickly end their life after being impaled. What's the purpose of the traps then? He said himself that he wanted them to suffer, just to mercifully kill them. [/spoiler]
Anyway, I just spent the last 15 minutes trying to see the meaning of this movie for the character of Rambo and I'm just losing my time.
**TL;DR: The movie's title is clickbait at best. The movie would have been the same without Rambo and there's no links to First Blood beside wood spikes traps.**

Action (and violence) filled sequel (and likely last) in the Rambo franchise. Not nearly as good as First Blood or Rambo (2008), but still darkly entertaining flick with another solid performance from Stallone who thankfully hasn't gone into the lazy realm like Steven Seagal.

There are some plot contrivances one has to get past but still enjoyed this entry and it is one insane of an ending. **3.75/5**

_**Rambo goes to Mexico**_

Rambo (Sylvester Stallone) has been living on the family ranch in southern Arizona for the last ten years. When his niece (Yvette Monreal) goes missing across the border he has to fight a cartel of thugs to get her back. Paz Vega is on hand as a helpful journalist.

“Rambo: Last Blood” (2019) is the fifth and probably last of the Rambo franchise since Stallone was 72 during filming. While the plot is simple, with elements bringing to mind “One-Eyed Jacks” (1961) and “Conan the Barbarian” (1982), the film is a worthy addition to the series, albeit not quite as good as the previous one.

It provides what fans look for in a Rambo flick: A one-man-army situation with a noble cause and plenty of brutal action. While criticized for being “racist,” it’s no more racist than the other Rambo flicks. “Last Blood” never for a second suggests that ALL Mexicans are evil any more than ALL cops, Vietnamese, Afghans and Siamese were evil in the four previous films. Speaking of which, for me, this installment places third after “First Blood” (1982) and “Rambo IV” (2008).

The movie runs 1 hour, 29 minutes, and was shot in Santa Cruz de Tenerife, Canary Islands, Spain. There’s also an Extended Cut that runs 12 minutes longer.

GRADE: B

So I'm going ahead and giving this 10 out of 10 stars, not because I think it deserves it, but because there is a 1 star review entitled "White Supremacy is Cancer" and that seems to be the concept of a LOT of negative reviews.

However, I have actually seen it and I can 100% guarantee that it has NOTHING to do with the content of those reviews. None of that is mentioned or implied.

HOWEVER, there are negative reviews that ultimately say that this is NOT a Rambo film... and that is fair. If you compare it to Rambo First Blood Part II, III, and Rambo the 1 star reviews make sense. It is not at all like 2-4... so if you are expecting a Rambo like the sequels you're probably not going to like it... but you are probably not going to like it for entirely fair reasons.

I won't fault you for that negative review.

It's a lot more like the first film. More like Rambo First Blood... only instead of the military it's a drug cartel and instead of chasing Rambo he's... kind of... chasing them.... kind of... for revenge.

Like all the other Rambo movies, it's formulaic. Once more we start off with Rambo trying to get out of the business, and this time he has gotten out and been adopted as an "Uncle" by a Latino family.

And to follow the formula, like in the Godfather, he gets pulled back in. This time the daughter of said Latino family leaves to track down her family, goes to cartel occupied Mexico, and gets promptly kidnapped, sending Rambo on a blood crazed path to get her back and deliver vengeance on the cartels.

Unlike the sequels, however, it's a little more of a slow burner. It takes a little more time to set up the characters, it takes a little more time to set up the plot and the relationships, and (shockingly given that in most of the Rambo films the enemy is almost faceless he's so under-developed) it actually takes a little time to set up the heavy as well.

And in the end there is a lot of killing, a lot of elderly action, and ultimately a lot of fun... but what there is not a lot of is political messaging... because, at it's heart, it's just another action movie.

Which leads me to the third type of negative review... the reviews critical of it being an action movie... those I don't understand... It's a Rambo movie, you know exactly what it is... and action movie... so what kind of film did they think they were going to see?