Over his more than 35-year career, Sylvester Stallone's John Rambo has emerged from the jungles of Vietnam to rain hell upon small-town America, gone back to rescue POWs, swayed the outcome of the Soviet-Afghan war and rescued Christian missionaries from Burmese militants. Through four movies, from 1982's "First Blood" to 2008's "Rambo," he's been both America's bad conscience and its symbol of moral certitude, all while delivering blood-soaked, blockbuster entertainment.
In his fifth and ostensibly final film, "Rambo: Last Blood," the old guerrilla soldier does the unexpected: He abandons all pretense of politics and goes small-scale, embarking on a simple mission to find a kidnapped family member.
Call it a thematic retreat at one of the most incendiary political moments in living memory. Not for John Rambo the hot-button issues of the Trump era _ race, class, immigration, global economics and so on. (Gun control? Fuhgeddaboudit.) The love of a man for his family, as Liam Neeson's "Taken" series has proved, is the one thing all viewers can get behind, a safe bet at today's polarized box-office.
