Rambo: Last Blood Is Getting Blasted on Rotten Tomatoes

Sylvester Stallone is returning to theaters this week to give his John Rambo character one last, bloody, fight, but it seems like that send-off isn’t going to be a good one. The reviews are now in for Rambo: Last Blood, and the critical consensus is looking pretty harsh. As of writing this, Rambo: Last Blood is sitting at 47% on Rotten Tomatoes – but even the “fresh” reviews seem to be taking some hard shots at the film. Below you’ll get a sampling of why critics are saying that Rambo: Last Blood is a film that has arrived woefully over its expiration date:

According to some reviews, Rambo: Last Blood is a film that is totally out of step with where our cultural currently stands in regards to mass violence – or worse, that the film is a grotesque political allegory:

“In 2019’s hypersensitive cultural environment, the depiction of murderous Mexican crime bosses and their cowering sex slaves encountering a literal white savior doesn’t go down so easy.” –IndieWire

“Trump-era Rambo is essentially a human border wall keeping America safe from Mexican rapists and murderers. Absolutely deranged, a must-see.” –Film Drunk

A lot of other reviewers have pointed out that Last Blood strives to be Noir Western, only to end up being a cartoonish orgy of brutal violence:

“I didn’t find the hardcore violence disturbing per se, but rather jarring in the way it takes on an almost comic book tone after the more elegiac effect the movie was striving for.” –Den of Geek

“A film that aspires to be Logan, yet lands somewhere closer to The Texas Chain Saw Massacre.” –Concrete Playground

Other reviews simply hold Last Blood accountable for not living up to its predecessors in the franchise:

“If you’ve come for thoughtfulness, tragedy, character, wit, and a political statement on the effects of war – in short, if you’ve come for anything that was in the original First Blood – then perhaps you’d find solace in a different theater.” –IGN Movies

“Rambo: Last Blood is an incredibly boneheaded amalgamate of the third and fourth installment. It combines the comic-book fantasy of the former with the serio-comical splatter of the latter.” –Impulse Gamer

Some reviews simply mourn the fact that this film will be the final send-off for John Rambo:

“Dirty Harry got a more dignified farewell in The Dead Pool, and that movie featured a chase involving a toy car.” –Hollywood Reporter

“It’s less a true ‘Rambo’ movie and more a generic (and small-scale) ‘Taken’ knock-off with John Rambo arbitrarily thrown into the mix.” –Forbes

So there you have it: Rambo: Last Blood is allegedly a gore-fest that’s even more absurd than the fourth film. Ironically, that may be a great selling point for a lot of action movie fans.

Rambo: Last Blood is now in theaters. Check out the trailer up above.