Rambo: Last Blood Review
By Paul Anthony
Some actors just don’t know how to let go of an franchise that they made famous and this in this case with this film. Sylvester Stallone, made two big franchises in the late 70’s and all of the 80’s and we have to thank him for that. We know why they made Rocky Balboa which came out in 2006 and the film proved to be a modest success which I guess what made him decide to do the other franchise and that was Rambo with the 2008 filmed titled Rambo. Now once again the film was a modest success like Balboa but more importantly the film gave Rambo an ending, because he finally returned home and you knew there didn’t need to be any other ending. After Rocky Balboa, they took the series in a new direction which worked, it was only natural for them to attempt to bring Rambo back and it truly wasn’t needed. The reviews and ratings were the worse in the series and the gross was the lowest of the series and the story was random and put together, only thing that made movie watchable was just the violence for the gore fans.
The events take place 11 years after John returned home, which he manages the farm with an old friend and her granddaughter. Gabriela one day decides to visit her real father who left them when she was younger. Her friend reveals his whereabout which is in Mexico but after her father tells her harshly he doesn’t care about them, she storms off and hits the club and there she is drugged and kidnapped by the cartels. Rambo gets the word that she is trouble and goes and finds her which after the cartels beats him up and he recovers, he then finds her but she dies of an overdose which she is buried on his farm. Cartels wanting revenge because Rambo killed one of the main brothers the other brother raids Rambo’s ranch but Rambo rigged it and killed every single body that showed and cut the heart out of the other brother and Rambo vows to fight for the greater good.
Here we have only one good thing to say about this movie is the gore which is sad but when you have an very old actor who can’t move like he use to then you have rely on something else and that is the graphics. To me the story felt random, I know we are told that John has a close relationship with these people but we never really sorry it and that is the problem no character development and the movie falls apart from there. I know they maybe want to do a prequel which is fine but nothing besides that or a reboot. In the end I am giving it a C for grade, just an average film.
Saturday Sequel presents The Hangover part 2
By Paul Anthony
Welcome back to another edition of Sequel Saturday, today we are going back about 8 years and judging by the title you already know what movie we are reviewing and if you don’t know, well let me tell you. We are going to talk about The Hangover Part 2 which came out in 2011 and is the sequel to the 2009 hit comedy The Hangover. I saw The Hangover as soon as it came in theaters and I didn’t review it well because I was in high school at the time and once I did see it, I thought I just watched a modern classic and thought no I don’t want an sequel because it could ruin the legacy of this film well just a few months later I found out, that they were indeed making a sequel. We know sequels will come with a bigger budget because in Hollywood bigger is better.
The budget for this film increased from 35 million to 80 million and saw the wolf pack go to Thailand for Stu’s wedding. Now I knew this film had to live up to such a great film and the main question I had to ask myself is did it? In some ways yes it did and other ways no it didn’t. The cast had great chemistry together and all wanted to bring the laughs which they did. Now there were certain things to me that ruin this film. For example Phil calls Doug’s fiacnee in the first film to tell her they lost Doug which makes perfect sense, well when they lose Teddy which is Stu’s wife’s little brother, Phil once again calls Tracy but why not Doug. Lazy Writing this movie made more money then the first film because people wanted to see what the Wolf Pack would do next problem is they did the exact same story from the first film. A member goes missing, They get drugged up because of Alan and forget about what they did the night before and try find the missing member in the nick of time. To me that is just down right lazy writing.
They could have had a different story to it and it could have been better, if they would have done it right. However the story ends as we predicted it would be because the story was the same as the first film. That Alone killed the magic of the film.
I want to rate this film in two eras of my life, one way as an adult and another as a young man. As a young man I would have said “Hey it was good just like the first one” and the numbers would back it up but me as an older Adult now would say no this film failed to live up to the first one despite what the numbers would tell you because it’s not always about the numbers. In the end I am giving it B plus because they gave you the best performance that they could give you with the material that they had to work with but don’t expect this to be as funny as the first film.
SmashWriting 
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