Box office Rambo: Last Blood grossed $44.8 million in the United States and Canada, and $46.7 million in other territories, for a worldwide total of $91.5 million, against a production budget of $50 million. The film made $7.17 million on Friday, which included $1.3 million from Thursday night previews. It went on to debut to $19 million, finishing third and marking the second-best opening of the series. The film made $8.6 million in its second weekend and $3.6 million in its third, finishing sixth and eighth, respectively. Audiences polled by
CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "B" on an A+ to F scale, while those surveyed by
PostTrak gave it an average 3.5 out of 5 stars and a 56% "definite recommend". Peter Debruge wrote a negative review for
Variety: "This character is a mess of contradictions, representing, on one hand, the permanent damage that military service can do to one's soul while simultaneously suggesting what the ideal soldier looks like." Rating the film 4.5 out of 10 for
IGN, Witney Seibold lamented, "A character who was originally meant to stand as a symbol for the damage that war can do to a soldier is now best remembered as an unkillable human machine gun", but credited Stallone with "[managing] to give as soulful a performance as the part warrants". The script by Stallone and Matthew Cirulnick received unfavorable reactions. In a negative review for
The Hollywood Reporter,
Frank Scheck said it "feels utterly tossed-off and generic, more resembling the
pilot for a Rambo television series than a proper send off", but credited Stallone with "[keeping] a franchise afloat". Katie Walsh of the
Chicago Tribune, who gave the film 1 out of 4 stars, called the script "barely a script at all" and the writing lazy; she added that story writers Stallone and Dan Gordon "trade on charged imagery rather than, you know, actually writing characters that fully express the spectrum of human morality". William Bibbiani of
Bloody Disgusting said the script "has been reduced to its lowest common denominators, establishing characters quickly and then shoving them into a simplistic plot (that is to say, simplistic even by
Rambo standards)", and rated the film 1.5 out of 5. Grading the film a D+ for
IndieWire, Eric Kohn said Stallone as a co-writer "does a decent job at generating empathy for Rambo through furtive gestures, but
Last Blood goes overboard to prove that he's tried to be a better man". While many called the plot of
Last Blood derivative of
Taken, Critics reported being appalled by the brutality of the action scenes, with some comparing its amount of gore with that of a
slasher film. Berardinelli said, "The body count is insanely high and the methods of death are worthy of a
Halloween or
Friday the 13th sequel", and gave the film 1 out of 4 stars. Conversely, Johnny Oleksinski of the
New York Post said, "
Rambo: Last Blood features what's easily the most violent movie scene of the year. It's awesome", but felt the narration, drama, and hackneyed backstory could have been edited out. Duncan Bowles of
Den of Geek gave it 3 out of 5 stars, writing: "If you're not the kind of person who wants to weep with joy at the sight of Rambo tooling up, firing a bow, or rigging booby traps, then the film really isn't for you, but if you're after a solid display of carnage from a character you love, then there's plenty on offer." Many saw the climax of
Last Blood as similar to that of
Home Alone, which, by contrast, is rated PG.
Peter Bradshaw of
The Guardian called
Last Blood a "massively enlarged prostate of a film [that] can only make you wince with its badly acted geronto-ultraviolence, its
Trumpian fantasies of Mexican rapists and hilariously insecure
US border, and its crass enthusiasm for rape-revenge attacks", giving it 1 out of 5 stars. Seibold wrote: "I understand that
Rambo films have rarely been bastions of
cultural togetherness, but in 2019, these broad stereotypes are offensive and dated and downright irresponsible." Addressing the complaints about the stereotypical villains, however, Bowles wrote: "The villains might be built from the stereotypical strain of pure evil from years past, but their reprehensibility is what makes the explosive payback work and the violence, despite some especially grim moments, never quite strays into the extreme stomach-churning highs from
part IV." Morrell later told
Newsweek: I felt degraded and dehumanized after I left the theater. Instead of being soulful, this new movie lacks one. I felt I was less a human being for having seen it, and today that's an unfortunate message... [
Trackdown] is typical of ultra-violent 1970s
exploitation "grindhouse" films, the technique of which
Rambo: Last Blood resembles. The sets here look cheap. The direction is awkward.... Rambo could be called
John Smith, and the film wouldn't change. It assumes the audience is familiar with Rambo's background, whereas anyone under 40 will wonder what on Earth is going on with those tunnels. Zak Wojnar of
Screen Rant stated that "Rambo's tunnels are much larger and more sanitary than
those of Củ Chi, but the imagery is comparable", adding that they are "where he holds his demons, where he channels his negative energy, and where he keeps his past close, but contained". As for the final act of the film, Wojnar stated that "his 'PTSD Tunnels' play a key role in his revenge", writing, "Using the same guerilla tactics that were likely used on him and his friends fifty years ago, Rambo emerges from his tunnels like a Vietnamese fighter popping out of a spider hole, shoots several targets, and then disappears underground before they even know what hit them."
Accolades == Prequel ==