Rambo Last Blood

Actors: Sylvester Stallone, Paz Vega, Sergio Peris-Mencheta, Adriana Barraza, Yvette Monreal, Genie Kim, Joaquín Cosío, and Oscar Jaenada.

Rating: 8 out of 10, Old friend John Rambo certainly wears his years and scars in full evidence. We last left him finally making his way home to the Arizona ranch of his father. This latest movie picks up his story a decade later and he evidently spent that time tunneling around underneath the ranch and dealing with PTSD which makes a whole lot of sense considering what his character has been through. A Mexican drug/human trafficking cartel makes the mistake of taking someone close to Rambo and the bodies are soon piling up. There seemed to be a rush to the signature revenge porn without the semi-necessary buildup. We all know Rambo is going to spend the last third of the movie eviscerating the bad guys but, again, it all seemed a little rushed. The bad guys are certainly qualified to appear in one of Rambo’s patented kill montages through their brutal acts. I wish they’d spent some more time exploring the life Rambo built up in the preceding decade to highlight what was lost but that may be just me wishing the poor bastard got a little bit of a break. This would be a good place to end the series with Rambo literally riding off into the sunset. We don’t need to see Rambo on Mars as an octogenarian dispenser of justice.

MVP: Stallone as the once and forever tarnished knight – Rambo – John J

Ready or Not

Actors: Samara Weaving, Mark O'Brien, Adam Brody, Henry Czerny, Andie MacDowell

Rating: 8 out of 10, A lot of fun, a true dark comedy and scathing comment on the uber-rich (so not a bad thing). A young gal is marrying into a very rich family of game makers only to learn on her wedding night that she has to play a midnight game to truly join the family. The game, hide and seek, involves the rest of the family trying to kill her before dawn, so there’s that. It seems the family made a deal with the devil codifying this entry requirement which is embraced with varying degrees of commitment by family members. This movie belongs to Samara Weaving as the unfortunate bride who shows some real depth fighting the curiously inept hunters. There are some very funny (darkly so) moments involving accidental deaths. You do not want to be a maid for this family! You can’t help but root for Weaving as she deals with turn after turn in her fortunes. You leave the movie wondering how many of the rich in real life made similar deals with Satan and can only hope they end up like the ones depicted here in the explosive finale.

MVP: Samara Weaving as the fiesty newlywed

Angel Has Fallen

Actors: Gerard Butler, Morgan Freeman, Jada Pinkett Smith, Lance Reddick, Tim Blake Nelson, Piper Perabo, Nick Nolte, Danny Huston.

Rating: 8 out of 10, Agent Mike Banning is back in action after surviving the falls of Olympus and London. He’s obviously much worse for the wear after the multiple explosions and gunshot wounds suffered in the first two movies. This was formulaic and everything I expected which was a welcome escape from reality. Banning is framed for the spectacular assassination attempt on President Morgan Freeman and pursued across West Virginia by horribly miscast FBI agent Jada Pinkett Smith. I caught her smirking a couple of times at the gaping plot holes she was charged with selling – like instant DNA testing amongst other issues used to keep the plot moving. Nick Nolte is superb as Banning’s long lost father living a hermit’s existence but he’s only on the screen for a little bit. As noted above Gerard Butler is a too removed from his Leonidas days to truly sell everything he has to do in this movie. He was totally believable in the first two but time seems to finally be catching up with him. That doesn’t distract too much from the action packed movie with bodies strewn up and down the east coast, again, it’s pure escapism – a summer popcorn movie at its best.

MVP: Nolte as the Unabomber dad