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Rambo: Last Blood is a 2019 action thriller with a 1 hour, 39 minutes runtime. The movie was directed by Jewish director and screenwriter, Adrian Grunberg. Starring Sylvester Stallone, Paz Vega, Sergio Peris-Mencheta, Adriana Barraza, Yvette Monreal, Genie Kim, Joaquín Cosío, and Oscar Jaenada, Last Blood is a befitting end to Rambo as an old war veteran and magnificent killing machine. It is the fifth sequel of the Rambo movies and even though it got some bad reviews, I honestly felt it was fantastic and worth the wait. I don't care about all the critics have to say, I couldn't have expected better from the amazing 73-year-old Stallone. He showed us what it meant to be old yet drive, broken yet determined and everything in between.
Remember how Rambo 4 ended with him walking back to a solitary life after rescuing the missionaries that had been captured by the Burmese army? Last Blood picks up from there, showing John Rambo living a quiet and peaceful life on a ranch with his old friend, Maria Beltran and her granddaughter, Gabriela. He had found fulfillment raising horses and treating both women as his very own family. The problems began when Gabriela decided that she wanted to find her biological father who had abandoned her as a child. She was warned against it by both John and her grandma but like all headstrong emotional teenagers, she was like a dog with a bone and wouldn't listen. She found her father with the help of a questionable old friend, Gizelle, and headed off to Mexico to confront him. She was openly and unapologetically rejected by her father, then betrayed by Gizelle who sold her to a Mexican cartel as a sex slave. She ended up overdosed and over-used sexually and died in Rambo's car right after a rather daring rescue by him.
Can you remember how gloriously dangerous Rambo was in Rambo 1, 2, 3 and 4? I sure can! As soon as Gabriela died, we saw John switch from the peaceful law-abiding old war hero to an angry, vengeance-seeking veteran with a tough facade who would stop at nothing to avenge her death and rain carnage on the cartel. Oh boy! He lured them from their comfort zone into his lair; an extensively booby-trapped honeycomb of tunnels beneath the ranch where his weapons of war were stored en masse. The violence that went down in those tunnels was god-level awesome; massive gunfights, excruciatingly gory deaths, and epic bloodshed! Phew! Those scenes left me both cringing for the cartel and cheering for Rambo. They stood no chance against his bloodthirsty rage and seeing them drop like flies was both painful to watch and infinitely satisfying. It was really great to see such an old actor-cum-legend deliver such a strong, excellent performance. Stallone totally killed it in this incredible finale.
Remember David Morrell, the writer of "First Blood", the novel on which the Rambo movies are based? I think it is worth noting that although Rambo 2 to 5 are fictional, he actually wrote Rambo 1 in 1972 about a true-life World War II soldier named Audie Murphy. Okay! I have gushed and lauded the movie so much that I bet you've had enough yeah? Lol. Forgive me guys! I tend to lose myself in movies and when I find anyone that I really love like this one, I can't hold back. Come to think of it, John Rambo was my first crush ever when I was 13. My only grouse with the movie was the way Mexico was portrayed. Rambo and Gabriela crossed the Mexican border as though it was family property. It made me wonder if Mexico is truly that porous. Also, many of the city shots were seedy and scary and made it feel as though only criminals and hard people survive on Mexican soil. I know that can't be correct based on all the lovely romantic movies and stories I have heard as well as their famous delicious Enchiladas. Asides that, I submit that Last Blood was a great movie and a worthy end to the Rambo franchise.
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