Rambo III

Directed by Peter MacDonald

Screenplay by Sylvester Stallone & Sheldon Lettich

Starring Sylvester Stallone, Richard Crenna, Marc de Jonge, Kurtwood Smith, Sasson Gabai & Spiros Focas

Warning: The following contains spoilers for the Rambo series

"God would have mercy. He won't," Colonel Trautman

After drawing first blood twice Rambo is back again and this time it's personal...er in 1988's Rambo III.

What's it about?:

John Rambo's enjoying a quiet life in Thailand participating in stick fighting and building Buddhist monasteries. But war never dies and his old friend Colonel Sam Trautman tracks him down to ask him to help to supply weapons to Afghan rebels. Rambo isn't interested his soldier days are behind him and he turns down the Colonel's request. Unfortunately the mission is a failure and Trautman is captured by the villainous Soviets and the American government have no intention of doing anything to help him. So it's down to Rambo to save his former commanding officer. The action then moves to Afghanistan where Rambo starts blowing shit up and killing as many people as he possibly can.

The Verdict:

In my opinion Rambo III is the weakest entry of the series. More of the same this time around. It's all about the killing and it's more of a meat head action movie than the original First Blood ever was. There's not much you can say about Rambo III. The body count is high and the emotional impact is low. The action set pieces are as good as ever and there's lots of gory moments. Watching Rambo cauterizing his own wound after his first failed attempt at rescuing the colonel requires a strong stomach. The last part of the film is a highly enjoyable action sequence as Rambo and the colonel, with a little help from the Afghan rebels, take on the last of the villainous Soviets. Overall it's a largely mindless but enjoyable adventure. And best of all I now get a lot more jokes from Hot Shots! Part Deux.

Stallone in the Spot Light:

Sly really doesn't have much to work with this time out. He's got little more to do than shoot and stab the entire Soviet Union but he does it as well as you'd expect. We don't get to see much of his acting range but we get to see him being all bad ass action hero which is enjoyable enough. It's not an Oscar worthy performance but it's still far better than anything Daniel Radcliffe has ever managed. Stallone also works well with his co star the late Richard Crenna in his final appearance as Colonel Trautman and their friendship does add an extra level to Rambo's character after two films of him working alone.