James Cameron ruined Rambo. In the original movie, First Blood, our Vietnam vet hero battled small-town American fascism and was wise to the horrors of Agent Orange. Ever since Cameron helped pen the sequel, though, John Rambo (Sylvester Stallone) has been a bloodthirsty kicker of foreign butt.
In what is essentially Rambo 5, it’s the Mexicans who get eviscerated, specifically the cartel sex traffickers who abduct his surrogate daughter (Yvette Monreal) when she foolishly takes a trip across the border.
There are some vividly pulpy moments and the acting’s tip-top. Stallone’s 73 now and, as ever, his morose eyeballs pop with intensity. But the script, mostly, is simplistic tosh. At one point, as Rambo delivers a speech about good v evil, a character drops dead. Boredom can do that to a person.
As for the title, it’s a con. Come the apocalypse, Rambo will almost certainly still be spilling blood. “The war inside never ends!” And neither does this bloody franchise.
