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Rambo: Last Blood (2019)
An unprepared Rambo ends up killing the bad guys
In the fourth installment of the series, Rambo lives on a farm and tries to be a good father figure to his teenage niece. When his niece locates her father in Mexico through a friend, she decides to pay him a visit and ask why he left her. Rambo asks her reconsider while her mother strictly forbids her from going ahead with those plans. In the end, the niece ends up in Mexico being kidnapped by human traffickers (á la Taken-franchise).
It's funny to see Stallone using fragments from his Rocky character in order to portray Rambo giving good fatherly advice, as if Rambo hasn't really developed that part in himself.
So Rambo goes to Mexico armed with a knife and a gun and, as the trailer shows, eventually walks right into a large group of armed men responsible for taking his niece. He demands they let her go and, unsurprisingly, they refuse. The bad guys take great offence of Rambo demanding they release his niece and decide to make an example of both of them, perhaps as to discourage similar acts from others. Indeed, they're not impressed by Rambo's forwardness or his courage to stand up to them, and they really have no reason to. Rambo barges in unprepared, without a Plan B, or having a bargaining chip. And his enemy doesn't stop to ask if Rambo has a sidekick, or what the heck his deal is. A couple of lines of dialogue is enough for everyone to know where they stand.
And in the end, neither Rambo nor the bad guys seem to know what they're doing. There's no thinking involved, no strategy, just a bunch of guys being annoyed with each other, unable to predict each other's move.
Some would say that Rambo doesn't need a solid story and rich characters to be good (and they would be wrong); and besides, the first Rambo movie managed to offer those things--but even if we are to focus on the action scenes alone, these fall short. A few gunshots and stabs here and there are wrapped up with Rambo's trademark of setting up traps, but his opponents are so uninspired that such complexity is not really needed.
Rambo's enemy is too easy to kill, but, supposedly, Rambo prolongs their suffering to make a point. This takes away from Rambo's efficiency and adds adds nothing to the story.
Dark Prince: The True Story of Dracula (2000)
Ahistorical portray
As an avid reader of Romanian history, I held great expectations from this movie. I understood the movie lacked the necessary resources to stage the great battles that took place, but I was still hoping for a fair portray of Vlad and his environment. I was therefore greatly disappointed when both Vlad and one of his closest servants wore skin pants, almost resembling the rock-and-roll days of the 80s. The movie enforces a Gothic impression of Wallachia, following the stereotype created by vampire movies instead of offering a true historical depiction of the country.
The battles are embarrassing to watch. In 1467, Mehmed II invaded Wallachia with up to 90,000 men. Vlad possessed over some 22,000 men, while 7,000 were sent to defend Chilia against his cousin, Stephen, who ruled Moldavia. In the movie, the battle is presented with the Ottomans skirmishing the army of what someone would believe to be Van Halen. Apart from the ahistorical depiction of the costumes, Hollywood added things that have no bearing to history. Vlad's conflict with the Orthodox priests is not documented, nor is it documented that he was to be killed by a priest when he was an infant. Vlad's brother, Radu the Handsome, is more accurately portrayed, but the two never fought a duel. The presence of other historical characters which had great influence on the development of Vlad's reign, are absent.
One could go on in an endless circle on why this movie is poor, ahistorical, and anachronistic; but it wouldn't be worth it. This is just a poor B-movie that failed in everything it set out to do.