Coventry
Yours truly is a prototypic male specimen, meaning that I like: cold beers, beautiful women and 80s action flicks starring Sylvester Stallone! Perhaps together with the equally extreme "Cobra", "Rambo III" represents Sly's peak in terms of grotesque and excessively violent cinema, and therefore I'm simply loving it! "First Blood" was a very good film overall, "Rambo II" was a logical and almost textbook sequel, but "Rambo III" is just a completely derailed and over-the-top feast of firepower and explosions! No wonder it was once even included in the Guinness Book of World Records for contemporary being the most violent film ever made, since this film features a body count of literally hundreds of people and single-handedly gives a whole new meaning to terms like "Cannon Fodder" or "Collateral Damage". No matter how hard John Rambo tries to leave his military past behind, it always catches up with him. Once again, he initially refuses to be part of a top-secret mission, and yet once again he's mentally forced go in alone afterwards? when he learns that his friend and mentor Trautman is held captive by evil Russians. Although admittedly nobody could be blamed at the time of its release, "Rambo III" is quite ironic to watch nowadays. In 1988, during the last waves of the Cold War, the Russians were still the preferred choice as enemies, and in this particular case Rambo even allies with Afghan rebels against them. It's rather funny how the script depicts the Afghans as pitiable but courageous people who have been forced to fight wars ever since their existence, notably because the US invaded Afghanistan themselves two decades later! These days, you won't often encounter an American film that is dedicated to the "gallant people of Afghanistan" anymore.
Mr-Fusion
Well, if John Rambo's not fighting Vietnam anymore, where do you go with a third movie? Hey, what if he shoots a middle finger to the Russians in the mountains of Afghanistan? And shoot the bird he does as the bodies and explosions pile up. There's serious money backing this movie; it's evident in the grander scale, locations and upgraded choppers. Add to that Stallone's camera-friendly physique and godlike stature, this is a big movie. But despite the uptick in violence, there are long stretches of surprising dullness. The movie's never really as good as the opening back-alley fight in Thailand ("Hot Shots" knew it). It's decent, if only for seeing the franchise at its loudest.6/10
Comeuppance Reviews
At this point in his life, John Rambo (Stallone, of course) just wants to be left alone. He lives and works at a monastery in Thailand, and he'd rather practice Buddhism than war. Though he does do some stickfighting on the side so he can win some extra cash from the locals. When his old buddy from 'Nam, Col. Trautman (Crenna) finds him and wants him to fight in Afghanistan against the evil Russian baddies, Rambo initially declines the offer. But when the head evil Russian, Col. Zaysen (de Jonge), kidnaps and tortures Trautman, Rambo snaps in to action. He goes from Buddhist monk to one-man wrecking crew at the drop of a hat, annihilating everything in his path as he helps the Afghanis - who, we must remember, were the good guys during this particular conflict. Will Rambo live to blow things up another day? John Rambo returns - again - for this third and not-quite-final installment. In 1988, the world was still in the grip of Rambo Fever, which necessitated this second sequel, and later the cartoon series, Rambo and the Forces of Freedom, and finally the toy line based on the cartoon. And speaking of one-dimensional animated characters, here Stallone looks like a human cartoon. Much like how the original Rocky (1976) was a sensitive, downbeat drama for the most part which then got distorted into something unrecognizable by the time of the countless sequels, here it's easy to forget the original First Blood (1982) and its sensitive, troubled John Rambo character. Now he's a 'roided up superhero who can essentially leap tall buildings in a single bound and if he breathes on a helicopter it blows up.Now, if you overlook the history of the Rambo series (hey, shouldn't this movie be called "First Blood III"? No movies in the series before this were called "Rambo"...but we digress) there is plenty of stupid fun to be had. There is action and adventure aplenty, and first-time director (though he'd been in the film industry for many years prior) Peter MacDonald pours it on with aplomb. Near-constant blow-ups, machine-gun shooting, knife-throws, horse chases, neck snaps, and tank and helicopter battles ensue. As exploding helicopter enthusiasts know, this has one of the best of all time. The explosions are classic 1988 explosions, and with a very big budget behind it, everything looks top-notch and they clearly didn't skimp.Of course, there is also the Prerequisite Torture - this time of Trautman - and we also get the classic "yelling while shooting a machine gun", the exploding guard tower, and the evil Russkies, among many other clichés, but they're the FUN clichés we all love and enjoy. You wouldn't even think this movie would be necessary after Rocky single-handedly conquered Russia in Rocky IV (1985), but here Stallone goes again, basically winning the Cold War single-handedly - well, with Reagan of course. Clearly the Italian film industry was paying attention, as there are countless...er...TRIBUTES to this particular Rambo outing, too many to name here. But as much as we enjoyed Rom Kristoff, Brent Huff, and Reb Brown, among others, following in his footsteps, there is without a doubt only one John Rambo.Sure, Stallone doesn't clearly delineate his words, and his excessive slurring causes you to need to put the subtitles on, but not to worry. Most of the second half of the movie is without dialogue, and is essentially 45 minutes of crud blowing up. Its nearest rival in that department is our beloved Commander (1988) - and, truth be told, Commander is probably more enjoyable and a better movie all around, and it was all done on a far lower budget. But who needs words when Stallone's mullet and almost 100-percent-of-the-running-time shirtlessness do the talking? Seeing as how he co-wrote the movie, and was juicing to a ridiculous degree, we felt it was pretty 'vein' of him. But it's all part of the fun, we suppose. Because it was the wonderful 80's, things were just bigger back then - bigger hair, bigger cell phones, bigger houses, etc. In the ever-escalating world of Rambo sequels, it means bigger knives, bigger machine guns, and far more lethal bows-and-arrows.Of course it's stupid, but it's ENJOYABLY stupid. You root for Rambo to blow the bad guys to smithereens, and you have a good time doing it. As we've mentioned before, characters like Rambo - and, by extension, movies like this - stand as a bulwark against our wussy, overly-PC society. If we stop watching them, we'll all slide even further down the PC slope into oblivion. For that reason alone, Rambo III is worth seeing, if not owning.
slightlymad22
Continuing my plan to watch every Sly Stallone movie in order, I come to another sequel, 1988's Rambo 3.What does Stallone do after two movies under perform at the Box Office?? He usual go to response, was to go into his comfort zone and do another Rocky movie. This time however he opted for another sequel to his second most popular franchise, that starting Vietnam Vet and War Hero John Rambo. With the 'First Blood' part dropped from the title all together and the movie just being called Rambo 3, even though there were was never a Rambo or Rambo 2. Plot In A Paragraph: Col. Trautman (Richard Crenna) goes on a mission to aid the Afghanistan freedom fighters against the invading Russain army. He seeks out Rambo (Stallone) for help, he refuses saying his "war is over". When Trautman is captured by the Russains, the one man army goes to save his former Colonel. The one man army routine is now old, as is the mullet!! The dialogue is poor, the villains incredibly dull and it's boring to watch Rambo single handedly take out an entire army yet again.Stallones ego was apparently again out of control, and he had the original director Russell Mulchahey fired, along with members of the cast that he didn't approve of. The most ridiculously over the top movie in the franchise, had the Misfortune of awful timing (Russia left Afghanistan a few weeks before the movie's release) and despite some impressive action set pieces, it just isn't a very good movie.
