Rambo 5: Last Blood Film Review

A Dysfunctional Anti-Hero in a World of SJW’s

Rambo 5: Last Blood, is not a Disney-esque happy-ever-after film. It’s a hard and stark film as it skirts along with the fabric of a snippet into the world of human sex trafficking by a Mexican cartel outfit. John Rambo, the post-traumatic stress disorder Vietnam vet has finally found the life for him, as a rancher languishing a peaceful life wrangling horses somewhere in Arizona. He’s enjoying this bliss with a makeshift family, Maria, his in-home caretaker played by Adriana Barraza and 17-year-old Gabrielle played by Yvette Monreal. This is a slow-paced film. It takes a while to lead up to what I call, “Time for some killing!”. The type of violence that is addressed is slowly justified but the violence is not as severe as one would think.

What leads up to this violence is 17-year-old Gabrielle. She is being raised by John Rambo and her grandmother, Maria. Life has no hiccups but Gabrielle is on a quest to find out why her father left her and her late mother. This is bolstered by a phone call Gabrielle receives from her friend in Mexico. She makes her intentions known to John that she wants to go to Mexico to get answers from her father on why he left. Prior to him leaving, John kicked his ass for abusing Gabrielle’s mother. Their history is evident in John’s response to Gabrielle that seeking any information from her father will only lead to knowing that a father like him has only a black heart. Gabrielle is surprised by John’s reaction and worries that she may have triggered a PTSD episode.

John has outfitted his property with a series of tunnels. No explanation is given as to why he set up such an elaborate network but it does play a significant role in the climatic end. Gabrielle abandons the idea of seeking out her father but on her way to some destination, she gets a hair up her ass and decides to go to Mexico on a spur of the moment. We recognize, of course, that this is a bad thing. She gets to Mexico, finds her so-called friend, who directs her to her father. The reunion is not Father Knows Best as he tells her that he never wanted her as a prelude to other harsh truths facing Gabrielle. Her heart is torn up as she realizes that what John said turned out to be true. Gabrielle's naivete is profound. Her friend convinces her to go with her to some club to get her father off her mind. Of course, we know where this is going.

Once at the club, she is abducted by members of the cartel and is placed in some rundown hostel where other abducted girls are staying. Word gets back to Maria and John that she’s gone missing and John heads out to Mexico to get Gabrielle. He finds Gabrielle’s friend and as he is talking to her, John spots Gabrielle’s bracelet on her friend’s wrist. He knows Gabrielle didn’t give it away because it belonged to her mother. Her friend takes John back to the club and he spots the man responsible for taking Gabrielle. We get to see the first level of violence as John confronts the man in the parking lot. John gets the man to talk by plunging his Bowie knife into his shoulder and his thigh. But this is mild. Compared to John Wick, this is downright passive.

John locates the place where Gabrielle is kept but he is met with a small army of henchmen protecting the cartel stronghold. They surround John and nearly kills him but one of the leaders want John to suffer as he decides that Gabrielle will have to suffer for his actions and he, John, would have to live with the consequences of his interference. The cartel leader describes how little the kidnapped women mean to him, that they are not worth anything to them.

John is rescued by Carmen Delgado, a reporter, played by an unrecognizable Paz Vega. He’s nursed back to near health after four days. Now we see the second level of violence as John goes back to rescue Gabrielle but this time his military training kicks in hard as he quietly takes out the cartel soldiers with a knife in a brutal fashion. At this point, a quick shot of a half-naked Gabrielle is seen and you begin to wonder if they harmed her? When John gets to her, she’s left with a massive cut on her face, the same kind that John received from the cartel leader. She’s been sexually assaulted and she’s been shot up multiple times with drugs, perhaps heroin. This was a twist that I wasn’t expecting.

Perhaps a little truth about the plight of women abducted was addressed in this film. In reality, I’ve seen actual footage of young girls and women being hacked to death by some factions of the Mexican cartel. While driving back to his home, Gabrielle tells John she’s sorry. Those were her last words as she dies in the truck. I wasn’t expecting that twist either. There will be no happy-ever-after.

John takes out the cartel leaders brother by decapitating him in the next level of violence. This sets the war off as they travel across the border to Arizona through their underground tunnel system. John has prepared himself for the ensuing war. He’s rigged up several traps around his property to inflict the most damage on an enemy that doesn’t play by any rules. When they arrive, hell is set upon them. There are at least 50 cartel members who are annihilated in varying degrees. But again, this isn’t anywhere near the level of carnage John Wick inflicted on his adversaries. This was a more pedestrian cause, in the end, they all die and you’re left no more satiated with the violence than you did when you started.

Still, I would say that the film is still needed if nothing more than to poke the SJW’s in the eye. Some critics have blasted Rambo as an outdated farce not worthy of review. They have said that there was no balance to the human trafficking story and that Paz Vega’s role was a nothing role. I’ve met with a woman who was trafficked as a young girl who now runs a program to get girls out of that life. There were some truths in Rambo about trafficking but there is only so much that they could address given the length of the film. Perhaps they should have added some more elements to it but you don’t know what went into production? Some critics called out the supposed racism in showing Mexicans as cartel members and probably wanting to tie it with the Trump administration. That’s a stretch and there are Mexicans who run cartels.

To paraphrase Brie Larson, maybe this film wasn't made for certain groups of people? If it does well at the box office, maybe it found the target audience? Will this be Rambo’s final song? In some scene that was shot, it reminded me of Logan. That was an excellent film. We got to see our hero go from a self-centered truculent bastard to a person who realized that life was more than he ever knew now that he was a father. John Rambo was a surrogate father who became a father to a young girl who found out too late that she was already loved.

Rating: Three out of four Stars