The Final Cut (and Slash, Stab & Shot to the Head)

Fully 37 years after he first drew blood (not the Red Cross way) from the poor and unwitting sheriffs of a small town who mistook him for easy prey and mistreated him in the 1982 macho "right wing" actioner ‘Rambo: First Blood,’ Hollywood’s most iconic “one-man army” draws blood for the very last time before riding into the sunset in the aptly named closing chapter of the five-movie saga, ‘Rambo: Last Blood.’  The grizzled and traumatized Vietnam vet with a fetish for hunting bows may have softened with age, but he proved once again that he’s not a hombre you want to mess with.

 

‘Last Blood’ sees Rambo settled down into retirement, living the simple and unassuming life of a cowboy/rancher in the middle of nowhere, Arizona with his housekeeper/friend Maria and her granddaughter Gabriela.  When Gabriela, heedless of her grandmother’s and Rambo’s advice and wishes, attempted to find the long-lost father who abandoned her while she was young in “lawless” Mexico and disappeared without a trace for her troubles, “Lone Wolf” John Rambo put on a headband (okay, not really) and went on one last mission to recover her – dead or alive – (it turned out to be the former) and deliver God's own righteous vengeance upon the Mexican cartel flesh-trader scum who dared to make her a prostitute and administer the fatal drug overdose which took her life.

 

Like 2017’s ‘Logan,’ ‘Last Blood’ has the soul of a western.  One can also easily say it’s ‘Taken’ (you know, the Liam Neeson movie about another man with a “particular set of skills” whose daughter was kidnapped by similar bad people) by way of ‘Home Alone.’ Yes, ‘Home Alone,’ the 1990 Macaulay Culkin movie about an 8-year old who defends his home by booby-trapping it against hapless would-be home invaders during Xmas.  Because what Rambo did to defend his homestead against the invading army of Mexican cartel goons would do Kevin McCallister proud.

Grade: B

 

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