"Michael H. Price of "Fort Worth Business Press" wrote, "Stallone invests the role with a realistic acceptance of the aging process, and with traces reminiscent of Humphrey Bogart in 1951's "The African Queen" and Clint Eastwood in 1992's "Unforgiven" — to say nothing of the influences that the original "First Blood" had absorbed from Marlon Brando in 1953's "The Wild One" and Tom Laughlin in 1971's "Billy Jack"."