Rambo: Last Blood, directed by Adrian Grunberg, is the latest and supposedly final installment into the long drawn out franchise of the titular character played by action star Sylvester Stallone. Released ten years after the previous installment, which ended with Rambo finally going home and finding peace within himself, Last Blood follows John Rambo reluctantly back on the path he was made for as he chases down a group of Mexican cartel leaders when his housekeeper's teenage daughter is kidnapped across the border.

Atrocious is not the word for Rambo: Last Blood, a film that has an intriguing concept but skewed with horrible execution. To state plainly, everything about director Adrian Grunberg's film is quite frankly terrible. Granted, said statement is a horrendous and absolute assessment, but Last Blood is a terror from start to finish.

The level of production value involved in this venture is horrifying. In fact, it is quite challenging to find where to begin. The ADR (Automated Dialogue Replacement) throughout is shocking; sound fails to synch up with mouth movement with not one but multiple characters. It is a far too excessive amount to let pass and a factor that destroys all engagement or concentration with it being so overly obvious.

The number of horrible and apparent green screen usage in each and every sequence involving a car looks straight out of The Big Bang Theory. Every time it is utilised, it once again pulls the audience out of this unironic terror with laughably cheap design. In fact, two scenes are not even in focus and are lingered on with a specific interest for no apparent reason whatsoever aside from showing how poorly crafted this feature is. Viewers will ultimately be paying for the last twenty minutes, which in classic Rambo lore is an absolute gorefest, but gone is the practical effects and in its place is infamous Millennium pictures CGI blood and guts that have the impact of wet bread.

The edit is no different; thankfully there is no excessive usage of shaky cam or ferociously paced cuts found in any Paul Greengrass film, but that is not to say there are no problems. It is undoubtedly well-paced. At ninety-three minutes, the film does not particularly drag, but it is full to the brim of excessive nothingness. There is no depth here to be found, no internal exploration of the titular character or even any significant moment of external emotional gravitas. It is all flat and empty.

There is absolutely nothing to be found here that could, for a moment, be defined as depth and therefore entertainment or entanglement. What is frustrating about this is that Stallone already has these films in his locker, and his script writing along co-writer Matthew Cirulnick is dreadful here. It frustrates the audience because this brilliant talent has been showcased in both Rocky Balboa and Creed and even in the last Rambo installment when he had a story arc, purpose and gravitas of building a character. It is just an unattractive paycheck, and for a writer, actor and director of this franchise, he should be deeply disappointed with himself.

Rambo: Last Blood is released on Septemper 19th, 2019.

Rambo: Last Blood

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