Yahoo News Rambo: Last Blood reviews call it disappointing end to the series
A frightening 37 (!) years after Rambo: First Blood was released, the fifth – and likely final –instalment of Sylvester Stallone's bloodthirsty franchise has arrived, and well, it's not exactly been well-received.
The aptly-titled Rambo: Last Blood begins with the ageing soldier whiling away his twilight years, which are soon rudely interrupted when his adoptive granddaughter is kidnapped by a sex-trafficking ring in Mexico.
Unfortunately for Sly Stallone, not only has Last Blood prompted criticism over its "jingoistic" plot and "offensive stereotypes" of Mexicans, it's also disappointed in general terms, with many critics wondering aloud why a fifth film was even necessary.
Related: Rambo creator is "sad" that "exciting" original idea for fifth movie was scrapped
(Still, at least everyone can all agree that Stallone is still a badass.)
You can read Digital Spy's round-up of Rambo: Last Blood's underwhelming reviews below.
"The movie unfurls with bland, tiresome developments until the closing minutes. Constructed with a lo-fi telenovela aesthetic and overwhelmed by a throbbing paint-by-numbers score, Last Blood feels like a fan tribute that just so happens to star the real McCoy."
"The Rambo series continues its track record of ultra-violence, shallow characterization, and irresponsible politics in Rambo: Last Blood, a film with more gore than a horror film, and some legit bad-ass action that, all too unfortunately, plays like the dark fantasies of an angry teen."
"The screenplay, co-written by Stallone and Matthew Cirulnick, feels utterly tossed-off and generic, more resembling the pilot for a Rambo television series than a proper sendoff. Dirty Harry got a more dignified farewell in The Dead Pool, and that movie featured a chase involving a toy car...
"Stallone has already said that he'd be willing to make another Rambo movie if this one proves successful. We can only hope that if he does, he takes it a little more seriously."
"Rambo: Last Blood is a step down from its predecessors. It's barely a Rambo movie, instead operating as a generic 'old man out for a kill' actioner that happens to star a pop culture icon...
"It's an aggressively irrelevant and undistinguished movie from a franchise whose previous instalments have at least tried to justify themselves as events. Rambo V can’t compare either to its predecessors or the action franchises it inspired."
"Once the action begins in earnest, however, Last Blood will either seize your attention or turn you off for good. The siege on the farm is staged well by Grunberg, but the mayhem and violence are so over the top that a number of kills inspired laughter in our screening – unintentionally dissipating whatever weight and emotional resonance the earlier parts of the movie had managed to build up."
Rambo: Last Blood will be released in cinemas tomorrow (September 20) in US and UK cinemas.
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