Rambo: Last Blood

Adrian Grünberg’s film follows John Rambo on his family ranch in Arizona, going after Gabriela when she disappears across the border into a human trafficking operation. The fifth film took a long road. In 2009 it was briefly Rambo V: The Savage Hunt, from James Byron Huggins’s novel Hunter, with Rambo hunting a genetically engineered creature; that died the same year and the border story returned. It is set between Arizona and Mexico but shot in neither: the production was built at Nu Boyana studios outside Sofia, at Pancharevo and on Tenerife. Grünberg blames money: he and Stallone wanted Mexico for Mexico, but Spain was cheaper. A Chinese partner too: Hong Kong company Dadi Film is among the producers. Mexican and Latino critics pointed at that. J. Don Birnam wrote that the Mexican side of the border is shot dark and Arizona bright and sunny; Carlos Aguilar and Claudia Puig named Adriana Barraza’s María the only performance of note. David Morrell, who created Rambo, told Newsweek he left the theater feeling degraded, and that the character could be John Smith without the film changing. A good fit if you want the last section to turn the ranch into a tunnel and trap system, chase becoming machinery. Not for you if you notice how Mexico and Mexicans are drawn on screen.