Rambo: Last Blood

Rambo: Last Blood (formerly Rambo V: Last Blood)^[2] is an action thriller film directed by Adrian Gruenberg, released in German cinemas on 19 September 2019 and in US cinemas the following day. It is the fifth and final installment in the Rambo film series and the sequel to 2008’s John Rambo.

Storyline

John Rambo lives on the farm of his deceased parents and earns his money as a horse breeder. He employs Maria, his parents’ housekeeper, and maintains a fatherly relationship with her granddaughter Gabrielle. Since Gabrielle’s mother died of cancer, she is desperate to meet her real father, who abandoned her mother and her when she was a child. Through a friend, she is able to find out that he lives in Mexico. Against the advice of her grandmother and Rambo, Gabrielle travels to Mexico alone and visits her father, who, however, wants nothing to do with her. To supposedly comfort her, Gabrielle’s friend takes her to a bar where she is kidnapped by human traffickers who sell young girls as forced prostitutes

When Gabrielle does not return, Rambo also goes to Mexico to look for her. Gabrielle’s friend tells him that she referred Gabrielle to the human trafficking ring of the brothers Victor and Hugo Martinez. When Rambo goes to confront the brothers, he is beaten up and seriously injured by their thugs. Journalist Carmen Delgado, who has already been watching Rambo in the bar, finds him and nurses him back to health. She tells Rambo what probably happened to Gabrielle and where she is being held. Rambo finds and frees Gabrielle, but she has been abused, drugged and badly injured. On the drive back to Arizona, she dies and Rambo buries her on his farm.

Full of hatred for the Martinez brothers, Rambo decides to take revenge and begins installing all the traps in an underground network of tunnels under the farm. He then travels to Mexico again, where he manages to decapitate Victor Martinez and lay a trail to his farm.

With his brutal traps, Rambo is able to take out the numerous attackers one by one. Finally, he literally nails Hugo Martinez to a barn wall with four metal arrows from his bow in his shoulders and legs, cuts open his chest, and then rips his heart out of his chest. Rambo holds the dying Martinez’s own still-twitching heart before his eyes as proof of the veracity of his previously uttered threat.

Finally, Rambo, who was seriously injured during the fighting, sits on the terrace of his house in his rocking chair. The credits also show him riding away from the farm on a horse.

Production

The film was directed by Adrian Grünberg. This is Grünberg’s second film in this position after Get the Gringo.

In May 2018, Sylvester Stallone stated that a fifth film in the Rambo series was planned.^[3] He also co-wrote the screenplay with Matthew Cirulnick, who was working in this capacity for a film for the first time.

Filming began in early October 2018^[4] and took place in London, Bulgaria and the Canary Islands.^[5] Brendan Galvin acted as cinematographer.

The film’s score was composed by Brian Tyler. The soundtrack, which includes 23 total music tracks, was released as a download by Lakeshore Records on September 20, 2019.^[6]

First footage was unveiled in May 2019 at the Cannes International Film Festival.^[7] On May 30, 2019, Lions Gate Entertainment released the first trailer for Rambo: Last Blood, as well as the second trailer on August 20, 2019. On September 19, 2019, the film was released in German theaters^[8] german theaters and the following day in U.S. theaters.

The version of the film released in Germany is about 10 minutes longer than the version shown in the United States, Canada and England.^[9] In the U.S., the film received an R-rating from the MPAA, which corresponds to a 17+ release. In Germany, the film did not receive a youth rating from the FSK

Synchronization

The German dubbing was produced by Scalamedia GmbH in Berlin from the dialogue book and under the dialogue direction of Marius Clarén.^[10]

Reception

Reviews

Overall, the film was met with a mostly negative response from critics. On Rotten Tomatoes, only 28% of critics gave the film a positive review,^[11] Metacritic determined a score of 27.^[12] David Morrell, author of the Rambo novel, stated via Twitter that he was ashamed to be associated with the film.^[13]

Film Service called Rambo: Last Blood a “primitive finale to the film saga of the hard-hitting one-man army that quickly abandons any semblance of depth to become a violence-ridden killing aria. In addition to the glorification of violence, the film is also repulsed by the racist drawing of Mexican characters.”^[14]

Der Spiegel reviewed the film as a “one-dimensional and unsurprising thriller” as well as a “tremendous tragedy”.^[15]

The Frankfurter Rundschau titled the film “..from the dustbin”.^[16]

n-tv called the film an “absolutely worthy conclusion to the film series”.^[17]

Sassan Niasseri of Rolling Stone gave the film a positive review. He wrote that there was violence and blood in the film unlike anything ever seen in a Rambo film, and that certain political patterns could be discerned: “Did the Vietnam veteran win the jungle war for Ronald Reagan in 1985’s First Blood: Part II for Ronald Reagan after all, killing Russians as well as quite a few Viet Cong in the process, and liberated the Taliban from USSR rule for Ronnie in 1988’s Rambo III, killing Russians as well, many are likely to think of Donald Trump in this fifth film.“ Rambo is going the opposite way as Trump, who wants to build a wall to keep Mexicans out of the U.S., luring the criminal Mexicans across the border to his ranch in Arizona to make short work of them, Niasseri said. For the first time in 37 years of Rambo, Sylvester Stallone, here with his director Adrian Gruenberg, succeeds in endowing a Green Beret with character and motive, as well as telling of family backgrounds, of morals and of his aspirations for the future. He rated the film alongside Creed – Rocky’s Legacy as Stallone’s best film of the last 35 years.^[18]

Box office receipts

The production budget of around US$50 million compares to worldwide box office receipts of US$91.5 million.^[19]

Awards

Golden Raspberry 2020

• Worst Sequel or RemakeAward
• Award in the category Most Reckless Disregard for Human Life and Public Property
• Nomination for Worst Film
• Nomination for Worst Actor (Sylvester Stallone)
• Worst Supporting Actor Nomination (Fenessa Pineda)
• Worst Screen Couple Nomination (Sylvester Stallone and his “Impotent Rage”)
• Nomination for Worst Director (Adrian Grünberg)
• Nomination for Worst Screenplay (Sylvester Stallone & Matthew Cirulnick)

National Film & TV Awards 2019

• Best Action MovieAward 2019
• Best Supporting ActressAward 2019 (Yvette Monreal)
• Best Actor Nomination 2019 (Sylvester Stallone)
• Nomination for Best Director 2019 (Adrian Grünberg)
• Nomination for Best Film 2019^[20]

Web links

• Official website for the film
• Rambo: Last Blood in the Internet Movie Database (english)
• Rambo: Last Blood in the German dubbing index

Individual references

1. ↑ Release certificate for Rambo: Last Blood. Voluntary Self-Regulation of the Motion Picture Industry (PDF).Template:FSK/Maintenance/type not set and par. 1 longer than 4 characters
2. ↑ Official website
3. ↑ “Rambo V” is coming in the fall of 2019. In: Süddeutsche Zeitung, 9 May 2018.
4. ↑ http://www.robots-and-dragons.de/news/118379-rambo-5-erste-fotos-zeigen-sylvester-stallone-cowboy-look
5. ↑ Jeremy Kay Sylvester Stallone lining up ‘Rambo V’. In: screendaily.com, May 6, 2018.
6. ↑ ‘Rambo: Last Blood’ soundtrack details. In: filmmusicreporter.com, September 12, 2019.
7. ↑ Jordan Moreau Sylvester Stallone to Share First Look at ‘Rambo V’ at Cannes Film Festival. In: Variety, May 8, 2019.
8. ↑ Start dates Germany In: insidekino.com. Retrieved May 9, 2019.
9. ↑ Cut version comparison on cutreviews.com, retrieved 23 December 2019.
10. ↑ Rambo: Last Blood.In: synchronkartei.de. Deutsche Synchronkartei, retrieved 23 September 2019.
11. ↑ Rambo: Last Blood on Rotten Tomatoes
12. ↑ Rambo: Last Blood on Metacritic
13. ↑ 1] David Morrell’s Twitter account
14. ↑ Rambo: Last Blood on filmdienst.de, retrieved 19 September 2019
15. ↑ Rambo Last Blood – The God of Carnage on Spiegel Online, retrieved 19 September 2019
16. ↑ Rambo 5 – Last Blood: A film from the dustbin in Frankfurter Rundschau, 19 September 2019
17. ↑ Rambo gives vent to his rage on ntv.de, 19 September 2019
18. ↑ Sassan Niasseri Finally, finally another good “Rambo” movie. In: Rolling Stone, September 19, 2019.
19. ↑ Rambo: Last Blood. In: boxofficemojo.com. Retrieved December 16, 2019.
20. ↑ Naomi Wakeling:Nominations for the 2nd annual National Film & TV Awards are announced.In: nationalfilmandtvawards.com. October 21, 2019, retrieved November 3, 2019.