A Review

Rewatched 18 Aug 2026, 5 stars

I can narrow down the last time I watched First Blood to sometime between 1995 and 2002, so it's been a minute. There were a few moments I remember vividly, more that I'd forgotten about completely, and watching it in 4k was as though I was watching it anew all together.

As my good friend Jesse points out, it's a strikingly well shot movie - you can almost feel the damp cold PNW winter. (Merry Christmas to Rambo, by the way!)

But then you also get a great cat-and-mouse manhunt going on that evokes Southern Comfort (1981) (lensed by the same cinematographer, Andrew Laszlo!). It's also hard not to see how the beats of this movie may have inspired the pacing of The Fugitive (1993), or how Eddington (2025) may have even taken a page out of the ending, here.

Everyone is great, but Dennehy and Stalone are on point! (I couldn't not tear up at Stalone's final moments alone with his Col.)