Movie Review: Rambo III (1988)

DIRECTOR: Peter MacDonald. CAST: Sylvester Stallone, Richard Crenna, Kurtwood Smith, Marc de Jonge, Sasson Gabai, Doudi Shoua, Spiros Forcas, Randy Raney, Marcus Gilbert, Alon Abutbul, Mahmoud Assadollahi, Yosef Shiloah.

This third installment finds John Rambo at peace with himself, living in a Buddhist monastery and taking on locals in stick fights to pay bills. Colonel Trautman visits him and asks that he join in a CIA-sponsored mission to aid anti-Soviet freedom fighters in Afghanistan, but Rambo says no. His war is over…until Russian troops catch Trautman on the Afghan border and imprison him. Rambo comes out of retirement to rescue the colonel and show the mujahideen how to stomp out commie scum the American way. Rambo III was the most expensive action movie ever made at one point ($62 million) and the big budget certainly helps, as it is much more entertaining than First Blood Part II.

Movie Review: Rambo: First Blood Part II (1985)

DIRECTOR: George P. Cosmatos. CAST: Sylvester Stallone, Richard Crenna, Charles Napier, Steven Berkoff, Julia Nickson, Martin Kove, George Cheung, Voyo Goric. 

RAMBO: FIRST BLOOD PART II dispenses with its predecessor’s nihilistic statements about war veterans and mental health in favor of recreating John Rambo as a beloved Reagan-era shoot-‘em-up action hero. Rambo’s superior Colonel Trautman removes him from a labor camp to send him on a top-secret mission locating POWs still held captive in Vietnam. Corrupt government officials undermine his efforts, leaving him behind in his own personal hell. Rambo then embarks on his own mission to bring our boys home and kill every enemy in sight. Russian mercenaries are also involved in this insidious plot because it is 1985 and President Reagan would not be as big a fan of this movie without a Soviet bad guy. Good brainless fun, but there are other action movies from these years that do a more satisfying job with the one-man army concept.