It’s safe to say “Rambo: Last Blood” has hardly gone down in history as Sylvester Stallone’s greatest hour. Well, critically speaking anyway. Stallone’s return as veteran Green Beret John Rambo (the first time he’s donned the famous headband since 2008) has received the worst reviews of any of the now five films in the franchise. The new, almost ‘Home Alone’ esque thriller currently sits at a dismally low 29 on Metacritic and 31% on Rotten Tomatoes, scores that have prompted Stallone’s younger brother Frank to question the very idea of a film critic, stating ‘What qualifies them to critique anyone’s work’ whilst also labelling those who he believes have gone in too harshly on ‘Last Blood’ as ‘pompous windbags’.
This is not the first time Frank Stallone has leaped to Social media with a grievance over his brother’s treatment in the industry. Following his unexpected loss to Mark Rylance in the supporting actor category at the 2016 Oscars, he took to twitter claiming Sly Stallone had been ‘ripped off, period’.
He also stated ‘If you love any of the previous Rambo’s, you’re going to love this film’, and whilst the jury couldn’t be further out on that claim at the minute, audiences (as we saw last year with the likes of ‘Fantastic Beasts’ and most namely “Bohemian Rhapsody”) have responded on the opposite ends to critics, with the films audience score on Rotten Tomatoes at 84%, and its IMDB score currently sat at 7.2
Netflix and Skydance Animation have also called it quits. The two sides announced Monday that they're ending the animated film deal struck back in 2023, framing it as a mutual decision.