Rambo III

Alright everyone, the time has finally arrived. It’s now time to look at the worst entry in the Rambo series, “Rambo III,” released in 1988.

The movie starts with Colonel Trautman returning to Thailand to once again ask Rambo to go on another mission, and witnesses his stick fighting match, which Rambo wins at. Afterwards, Trautman approaches Rambo at a temple where Rambo is helping build and asks Rambo to accompany Trautman on a mission to Afghanistan to help them against the Soviets. Rambo refuses and Trautman goes off on his own.

Later, Rambo finds out from embassy field officer Robert Griggs (Kurtwood Smith) that Trautman and his army have been kidnapped by the Soviets, led by commanding officer Zaysen (Marc de Jonge) and his henchmen Kourov (Randy Raney). As a result, Rambo immediately flies to Pakistan where he meets Mousa (Sasson Gabai) who agrees to take him to an Afghan desert that is close to where Trautman is held captive, and Rambo is helped by only Mousa and a young boy named Hamid (Doudi Shoua).

Now the problem with this movie is that the political side of it is somewhat complicated and very dated. However, this movie is fun, but not for the right reasons. I say that because the entire movie is filled with one-liners. Everything that is said has a funny comeback from Rambo, Trautman, Mousa and Hamid. There isn’t that much dialogue in this movie, which is fine, but for making this one the way it was, felt boring.

For those who have seen the movie, you might remember the final action sequence. It’s one of the most ridiculous finales in the action genre. Tanks, helicopters, and guns that are shooting at Rambo and Trautman from every conceivable direction, but they stand in the middle of all this pandemonium and not even get one bullet. How is that possible!? If you were to see that part, you would agree that it makes no sense!! It’s like in Tim Burton’s “Batman,” which came out a year later, when Batman was in the Bat-Wing and shoots Joker with everything that he has, but for some reason, misses him, even though Batman had Joker locked in target. At least there, the comedic factor worked since we all know that it’s a comic book adaptation and comic books have a lot of humor in it. Here, this is supposed to be a tough action franchise and made it into a joke with this sequel.

All of the problems I listed are what makes classic movie entertainment, but in all honesty, everyone will say the same thing, this is easily the worst in the series.

Speaking of which, have you noticed that Stallone seems to love making movies around the time of the Cold War? Was he trying to ease the tension in some sort of a way? Well, I do give him credit for doing a better job in “Rocky IV,” but here, I have no idea what they were thinking. If they were trying to do more to ease the tension between the USA and the Soviets, then this one didn’t work at all. If you get the opportunity to pass this one up, then do so. However, if you want to see how bad it is, then go ahead. I will just say this movie doesn’t even belong in the “So Bad It’s Good” category, sorry. I will say that I do give the Zucker Brothers and Jim Abrams a tip of the hat for also parodying this movie in "Hot Shots: Part Deux." That's what I liked about those classic parody movies because I saw them before I saw the actual movies they were spoofing, and I got all the jokes. They made it so that you didn't have to see the movies they were parodying to get the jokes, but I digress.

For 20 years after this movie was released, there was no mention of Rambo anywhere. I bet people might have thought if Stallone left the series alone after how bad the third one was received. Actually, the second movie got a 28% on Rotten Tomatoes and this one got a 36%. Why is that? Did people love the fact that they turned Rambo into a joke!? If anything, this one had more racial problems in it than the second one did! How could people like this one better!? Well, what can you do? Just watch the movie and decide if you like it or not.

Don’t think that this was the last in the series. Next week we are going to look at the final entry in the Rambo series with the fourth and final installment. Check in for that because I’m really excited to review that for the finale of “Rambo Month.”