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Rambo: Last Blood (September 20, 2019)

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  • LeonardPineLeonardPine The Bar on the Beach
    Posts: 3,996
    Mathis1 wrote: »
    Planned to see it this week. But it's not coming in with favourable reviews from anyone.
    To be honest the first one is still the best. One of my favourite action movies. Ted Kotcheff ( at one time a potential Director for Daltons 3rd Bond movie!!) did a brilliant job with story, character and action.
    The rest of the franchise are pretty forgettable. Part 4 was on telly last night, forgotten how ludicrously violent the finale is! Will still give this film a look. My expectations are low, so I may end up enjoying some of it.

    If you ever get a chance read the original First Blood novel by David Morrell. It's a riveting book which the film is relatively faithful to.
  • Mathis1Mathis1
    Posts: 7,415
    LeonardPine wrote: »
    Mathis1 wrote: »
    Planned to see it this week. But it's not coming in with favourable reviews from anyone.
    To be honest the first one is still the best. One of my favourite action movies. Ted Kotcheff ( at one time a potential Director for Daltons 3rd Bond movie!!) did a brilliant job with story, character and action.
    The rest of the franchise are pretty forgettable. Part 4 was on telly last night, forgotten how ludicrously violent the finale is! Will still give this film a look. My expectations are low, so I may end up enjoying some of it.

    If you ever get a chance read the original First Blood novel by David Morrell. It's a riveting book which the film is relatively faithful to.

    Have read. Agree. Really excellent. Always wondered what the author though of the movie sequels?
  • bondsumbondsum
    Posts: 3,333
    Mathis1 wrote: »
    Have read. Agree. Really excellent. Always wondered what the author though of the movie sequels?
    Apart from the first movie, I don't think David Morrell has particularly liked any of them, especially the new one which he said publicly: "Embarrassed to have my name associated with it," and likens the script to a 1976 revenge flick called Trackdown. Maybe I should check out this James Mitchum movie if it's still available?
  • CraigMooreOHMSSCraigMooreOHMSS Dublin, Ireland
    Posts: 8,216
    Mathis1 wrote: »
    LeonardPine wrote: »
    Mathis1 wrote: »
    Planned to see it this week. But it's not coming in with favourable reviews from anyone.
    To be honest the first one is still the best. One of my favourite action movies. Ted Kotcheff ( at one time a potential Director for Daltons 3rd Bond movie!!) did a brilliant job with story, character and action.
    The rest of the franchise are pretty forgettable. Part 4 was on telly last night, forgotten how ludicrously violent the finale is! Will still give this film a look. My expectations are low, so I may end up enjoying some of it.

    If you ever get a chance read the original First Blood novel by David Morrell. It's a riveting book which the film is relatively faithful to.

    Have read. Agree. Really excellent. Always wondered what the author though of the movie sequels?

    Morrell writing the novelisations of Part II and III suggest he was happy enough to be involved with it as a moneymaker, but simultaneously the novels are so vastly different that it suggests he wasn't too happy with how the character was being dumbed down onscreen.

    He hates the new one, apparently.
  • thelivingroyalethelivingroyale
    Posts: 12,837
    My issue with this and the last one is Sly seems to want it both ways. Insanely gory OTT action and a serious story tackling real issues, and I'm just not sure it works.

    I didn't think that a film where Rambo cuts someone in half with a machine gun was the sort of film to bring attention to what was going on in Burma, just as I don't think that a film where
    Rambo's PTSD really flares up again and his new surrogate daughter is kidnapped raped and murdered by a Mexican cartel is the sort of film that should end with him literally ripping a man's heart out of his chest.
    The two tones just really clash imo.

    I guess two and three had the real world in the background too to be fair but I thought the tone of them was more fantasy. Everything about them was silly and OTT, there was the odd misjudged moment (dedicated to the brave fighters of the Mujahadeen) but for the most part they didn't seem to have any pretence about being a really important film like the first one. They used real wars as a backdrop but they were still pulpy adventure stories.

    4 and now 5 on the other hand try to ground themselves in the real world like the first one and act as real explorations of these issues and conflicts while still keeping the OTT action of the sequels and I just don't think that approach works.
  • RichardTheBruceRichardTheBruce I'm motivated by my Duty.
    Posts: 13,779
    I'm really ready for pretty much anything, the films across the years have been in different directions. Just happy they got made, they're a great action set-up and as long as the character gets one chance to go on a rant between the fireworks likely I'm good with it. For the extreme action in spoiler tags above, my first thought is that's kind of a natural extension of Rambo sewing his own wounds in First Blood. He finally got there.

  • CraigMooreOHMSSCraigMooreOHMSS Dublin, Ireland
    Posts: 8,216
    One of the more interesting criticisms of the sequels is that Rambo has turned into almost exactly the kind of man that Sheriff Teasle was suspicious of him being in First Blood.
  • RichardTheBruceRichardTheBruce I'm motivated by my Duty.
    Posts: 13,779
    Are the complaints related to Rambo going up against a Mexican cartel. As political and off-limits, suggesting US border issues and such.

    I don't expect the character is looking for trouble or hurting anyone other than the bad guys. Once provoked.
  • talos7talos7 New Orleans
    Posts: 8,205
    The fact it involves Mexican antagonists does not automatically make the film political or a social statement; Rambo lives in Arizona, that State borders Mexico. The scourge of human trafficking for the sex trade is a real problem. This is a natural vehicle for an action film and has nothing to do with politics, unless some wants to manipulate it for their own agenda.

    I’m going to see it this weekend and this review is encouraging in that his ranking of the Rambo films mirrors mine, 1,4,2,3.

    Fingers crossed 🤞

    https://m.youtube.com/watch?feature=youtu.be&v=b7sHuC_DsCo
  • RichardTheBruceRichardTheBruce I'm motivated by my Duty.
    Posts: 13,779
    Exactly right. That's why I'm wondering if the criticism comes in part from sensitivity to those issues.
  • talos7talos7 New Orleans
    Posts: 8,205
    Some for sure...
  • LibrarianLibrarian
    Posts: 311
    I’m going to see it this Sunday. I'v been waiting for this film for 11 years.
  • TR007TR007
    Posts: 1,165
    CraigMooreOHMSS wrote: »
    One of the more interesting criticisms of the sequels is that Rambo has turned into almost exactly the kind of man that Sheriff Teasle was suspicious of him being in First Blood.

    That’s a very interesting point. I never thought of it like that before.

    I was quite disappointed with the new movie. It felt like a script for a Taken knockoff that was written 10 years. Very dated and the Rambo character could have been replaced with any grizzled old man character.

  • thelivingroyalethelivingroyale
    edited September 2019 Posts: 12,837
    Was anyone else confused by the ending?
    I thought for sure he was going to succumb to his wounds and die there but then there was that final shot of him riding off on his horse. Was that meant to be a metaphor for him dying? Or did he actually survive after all that? Frustrating ending really imo. Him coming home at the end of the fourth had much more of a sense of finality to it.
    TR007 wrote: »
    CraigMooreOHMSS wrote: »
    One of the more interesting criticisms of the sequels is that Rambo has turned into almost exactly the kind of man that Sheriff Teasle was suspicious of him being in First Blood.

    That’s a very interesting point. I never thought of it like that before.

    I was quite disappointed with the new movie. It felt like a script for a Taken knockoff that was written 10 years. Very dated and the Rambo character could have been replaced with any grizzled old man character.

    Yeah I agree, most of it felt more like an original straight to DVD action film than a Rambo film to me.

    I actually sort of want a sixth film now. I don't like the idea of this low point being the last one. But then I said that after the fourth film, that he should make one more to go out on a high, and instead we got something even worse. Maybe Rambo's better off being left alone now. I'll always have the first three.
    RichardTheBruce wrote: »
    Exactly right. That's why I'm wondering if the criticism comes in part from sensitivity to those issues.

    I think it's more how those issues are portrayed. There was no nuance to it. Mexico is a grim dark scary place which seems to be entirely controlled by a cartel who go around raping disfiguring killing and sex trafficking before the old white American hero who tried to warn his surrogate daughter about what a shithole it was brutally murders them. To be fair I've read that the cartels really are that powerful over there, and I guess the Mexican journalist character balances things out slightly by providing some positive representation, but it still felt like a really nasty and exploitative take imo, even more than the fourth one did. I genuinely think that Sly's heart is in the right place and that he feels like he's bringing attention to these real world issues but grisley gore filled revenge porn isn't the best way to spotlight them imo.

    Don't think it's anything to do with sensitivity around the subject. Breaking Bad and Sicario were both fairly recent and both of those were critically acclaimed.
  • boldfingerboldfinger
    Posts: 5,767
    I probably won't be able to see it for the next two weeks, but you guys make the wait easy for me with all those sceptic reports ;-).
  • DaltonCraig007DaltonCraig007 They say, "Evil prevails when good men fail to act." What they ought to say is, "Evil prevails."
    edited September 2019 Posts: 15,715
    boldfinger wrote: »
    I probably won't be able to see it for the next two weeks, but you guys make the wait easy for me with all those sceptic reports ;-).

    I'm seeing it this coming week, and I am still very much excited for it, despite the sceptic reports. ;-)
  • GertGettlerGertGettler Laptop Barcelona
    edited September 2019 Posts: 431
    DaltonCraig007 wrote: »
    boldfinger wrote: »
    I probably won't be able to see it for the next two weeks, but you guys make the wait easy for me with all those sceptic reports ;-).

    I'm seeing it this coming week, and I am still very much excited for it, despite the sceptic reports. ;-)

    OMG. What a nonsense film. And Sly. How grumpy can you be.

    MOD EDIT: Watch the language, please.
  • RogueAgentRogueAgent
    Posts: 12,526
    Never listen to the critics. Use your own opinion once you have seen any movie. This is what I have always believed in. :-bd
  • ThunderfingerThunderfinger Das Boot Hill
    Posts: 45,489
    I have seen the other Rambo movies, and they were all rubbish. I will certainly not pay to see this.
  • UnivexUnivex
    Posts: 6,709
    Thunderfinger wrote: »
    I have seen the other Rambo movies, and they were all rubbish. I will certainly not pay to see this.

    Bar the first, which was politically interesting, I didn't find the other films to be any good. And I'm a Sly fan. The Balboa films are his crowning glory, not these.
  • MurdockMurdock The minus world
    Posts: 16,351
    I love all the Rambo movies. 3 being my favorite. Looking forward to seeing this one.
  • thelivingroyalethelivingroyale
    Posts: 12,837
    Murdock wrote: »
    I love all the Rambo movies. 3 being my favorite. Looking forward to seeing this one.

    3 is an underrated classic and I'll defend it til the day I die. I like to think that Sly went to see TLD, then went on a massive coke binge and wrote the whole film there and then. Pure cinematic testosterone.
  • Creasy47Creasy47 In Cuba with Natalya.Moderator
    Posts: 40,968
    Just saw Last Blood. Wasn't as awful as some of the critics made it out to be; I somewhat enjoyed it for the most part, and while it was a unique portrayal of the character (compared to the all out gore fest that is the incredible 2008 installment), it takes way too long to get going and the finale was pretty much over and done with in a matter of minutes. Couldn't help but notice that they seemed to cram a large majority of the kills and action sequences in the trailer, especially those within the finale. I thought Rambo made for a much better conclusion to the series and a better film overall.
  • RichardTheBruceRichardTheBruce I'm motivated by my Duty.
    Posts: 13,779
    1982 First Blood
    1985 Rambo: First Blood Part II
    1988 Rambo III
    2008 Rambo
    2020 Rambo: Last Blood

    So it is possible. Rambo: Last Blood Part II.

  • mattjoesmattjoes Julie T. and the M.G.'s
    Posts: 7,021
    RichardTheBruce wrote: »
    1982 First Blood
    1985 Rambo: First Blood Part II
    1988 Rambo III
    2008 Rambo
    2020 Rambo: Last Blood

    So it is possible. Rambo: Last Blood Part II.

    The titles of Rambo are a complete mess :)) Rambo III followed by Rambo? The next film should be called Rambo VI: First Blood Part III, Last Blood Part II.
  • boldfingerboldfinger
    Posts: 5,767
    I always thought the first one was a very good drama. The second somehow dropped from my memory, but I think it wasn't bad at all. The third one made me fall asleep when it was on tv one night. The fourth one was pretty good again, although the gore makes me tired.
    I find it refreshing that some people like II and III so much :-).
  • RichardTheBruceRichardTheBruce I'm motivated by my Duty.
    Posts: 13,779
    I always had a thing for the title Rambo: First Blood Part II. As all over the place.
  • boldfingerboldfinger
    Posts: 5,767
    @RichardTheBruce, you should have seen the German title:
    Rambo 2 - Kein Mensch, kein Gesetz, kein Krieg kann ihn stoppen
    (no man, no law, no war can stop him)
  • RichardTheBruceRichardTheBruce I'm motivated by my Duty.
    Posts: 13,779
    Rambo 2, huh. And got plain old Rambo 23 years later, @boldfinger.

    Nice.
  • boldfingerboldfinger
    Posts: 5,767
    Well, to be fair, @RichardTheBruce, this regressive title thing has been en vogue on and off at least since The Beatles' "White Album" ;-).
    British rock band Killing Joke's 2003 album was named "Killing Joke" , after their debut album in 1981 or so was also named the same.
    So let's see if we come full full circle and get another First Blood with no appendices :-)).
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