Rambo: Last Blood Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		2.5
Video		4.5
Audio		4.5
Extras		2.0
Overall		2.5

Rambo: Last Blood Blu-ray Movie Review

We can only hope.

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman December 17, 2019

Let’s face it: if anyone has a “particular set of skills”, it’s John Rambo (Sylvester Stallone). Who else could have almost magically helped the United States find its mojo again after the Vietnam War, and then gone on to what some might argue were at least occasionally jingoistic activities in such far flung sites as Afghanistan and Burma? Still, it’s almost shocking in a way to see Rambo: Last Blood trafficking in a plot which, initially at least, seems “ripped from the headlines” — of a story about Taken. Now over ten years after Rambo seemed to be trying to reboot the venerable franchise which, along with Rocky, helped to solidify Sylvester Stallone’s status as one of the crowning action* stars of his era, Rambo: Last Blood seems like a pretty decided step backward, or least sideways, both in terms of plot dynamics but also perhaps due to the same kind of graphic violence that some found objectionable about the 2008 film. There's not really a "wartime" subtext here, other than John's occasional PTSD-like flashbacks, or perhaps at best a "war on drugs" since vicious Mexican cartels play into the plot proceedings. But this is a film that telegraphs its major plot points at virtually every step of the way (Stallone co-wrote this enterprise), while also indulging in some pretty gruesome imagery at times.

*In the production diary included on this disc as a supplement, Stallone mentions his hatred of the term "action film", though it's notable that later in the same diary he lauds this film's "action".

Note: One major plot point that needs to be at least referred to probably verges on spoiler territory, and so for those not wanting to read such a disclosure, it's probably best to skip at least the next paragraph but maybe even down to the technical portions of the review, below.

The 2008 Rambo had a deliberately elegiac tone that actually seemed at the time to be putting a pretty solid "final chapter" for the character on the screen. This enterprise aims for that same slightly nostalgic if bittersweet quality early on, developing a rural landscape and outward calm for John, even if some of his "inside" activities, as in the bizarre network of tunnels he has built under his house, seem to be on the obsessive side. He's "Uncle John" to Gabrielle (Yvette Monreal), and one of the many ways Rambo: Last Blood telegraphs its intentions is a clear sense of foreboding as soon as Gabrielle confides in John about things both big (as in her parentage) and small (as in the girlfriend's house she's supposedly visiting). It is of course Gabrielle's ultimate abduction in Mexico that seems almost willfully molded into the Taken template, as John, on a quest for revenge, marauds through a series of characters, dispatching some of them in pretty horrifyingly violent ways, until, of course, he finally finds Gabrielle and rescues her. However, the fact that this event occurs only more or less halfway through the film may hint at what ultimately transpires, since there's another whole round of butt kicking delivered by John to a horde of bad guys still in store in the film.

There’s a kind of weird disconnect in Rambo: Last Blood that may seem especially odd since the film makes the particular “war” in this film so personal. Kind of unexpectedly, it ends up making John seem less of a stalwart if troubled hero and more of an obsessed lunatic, especially when the film tips over into near Grand Guignol territory that would have been perfectly at home in a Hammer horror film, or at least Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom . And that points out another maybe unintentionally funny if also slightly disturbing aspect to this story, namely that John accrues a rather high body count by the end of the film, and yet doesn't seem to be facing the same kind of consequences he did at the end of the first film (and into the second). It gives this entry a somewhat cartoonish ambience which is distinctly at odds with the "up close and personal" emotions it evidently wants to evoke.

On a decidedly more serious note, Rambo: Last Blood has been criticized for some perceived racism in addition to its over the top graphic violence. I have to say I personally found the depictions of the bad guys in this film to be so hyperbolic that they, too, were kind of cartoonish, but generally speaking within the whole Rambo franchise, it's at least arguable that there were "racial" elements to at least some of the previous installments. Case in point: the (North) Vietnamese. This is only to say that I personally don't find this to be a "new" phenomenon within the Rambo universe, for better or worse.

Note: My colleague Brian Orndorf seemed somewhat more positively inclined toward Rambo: Last Blood than I was. You can read Brian's thoughts here.

Rambo: Last Blood Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Rambo: Last Blood is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Lionsgate Films with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 2.39:1. The IMDb lists RED cameras as having been utilized, with a 4K DI. I'm on record as personally preferring RED captures to Arri Alexa captures at least some of the time, and while this is often a very sharp and well detailed looking presentation, it also has some pretty rough looking moments, especially in some of its (many) darker scenes, some of which have either been lit or graded to some kind of nightmarish, garish tones (yellows in particular), something that may add to a noisy, chunky look at times (see screenshots 17 through 19 for a few examples). If you can overlook those passing anomalies, a lot of this transfer is extremely well detailed, especially considering how dark so many scenes are. A prevalence of close-ups helps to elevate fine detail (sometimes to stomach churning effect, considering the horrifying wounds several people suffer). When grading and/or lighting don't alter things, the palette looks really beautifully warm and nicely suffused, as in some of the more pastoral moments that take place on the Rambo farm.

Rambo: Last Blood Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Rambo: Last Blood features a nicely immersive Dolby Atmos track, a listening experience that delivers jolts of surround activity in some of the kill scenes, but which may not rise (no pun intended) to the heights fans of the more traditionally wartime centered early Rambo films may have expected. There are continual engagements of the surround channels courtesy of both a glut of ambient environmental effects and Brian Tyler's score, but I frankly wasn't ever completely wowed by any real overhead effects, other than in some of the aforementioned action sequences. Dialogue, effects and score are all presented without any problems whatsoever, and with nicely wide dynamic range.

Rambo: Last Blood Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Drawing Last Blood: Multi Part Production Diary (1080p; 50:20) is a rather interesting behind the scenes accounting of the shooting of the film, with a ton of candid footage and some insightful voice over from both Sylvester Stallone and director Adrian Grünberg.


• From First Note to Last Blood: Music for the Massacres (1080p; 17:22) focuses on composer Brian Tyler, who talks about the challenges of incorporating Jerry Goldsmith's work into his score.


• Theatrical Trailer (1080p; 1:09)

Rambo: Last Blood Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

I frankly kind of wish this franchise had ended in 2008 with Rambo, a film which seemed to capture what the character of John Rambo had stood for and moved into an appropriately elegiac, maybe even geriatric, space. Perhaps because this story is centered more on personal revenge than any of the previous Rambo outings, it really should have built to more of a catharsis, something the completely over the top violence may ironically end up undercutting. Fans of Stallone and/or Rambo will probably want to check this out in any case, and other than a few passing issues with video, technical merits are generally solid for those considering a purchase.