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#22 - Rambo III
Peter MacDonald, 1988
When Col. Trautman is captured by the Soviets during a mission into Afghanistan, it's up to Rambo to find his way in and save the day.
Well, considering how I wasn't particular entertained by First Blood Part II, there was even less chance of Rambo III being a success but I still held out. Aside from the near-identical plotline - Rambo has to infiltrate enemy territory to rescue someone, fails on his first attempt but ultimately succeeds - there's not much to endear one to this movie. Having Rambo team up with the Muhajideen (complete with scenes of him slowly bonding with his newfound allies - including a scrappy young kid to boot - before they are inevitably ambushed) seems rather quaint these days. The main villain is more or less interchangeable with the villain from the last film (he might actually have less depth that Berkoff's scenery-chewing colonel - here he's just a sadistic thug without even Berkoff's smattering of off-kilter charisma). It was interesting to see Trautman become a more active part of the narrative rather than just being Rambo's voice of reason or mission control - it's a shame he spends the bulk of the movie being imprisoned and tortured because when he does team up with Rambo to do some fighting it's actually not bad. Unfortunately, it's not enough to save this from being another semi-forgettable action movie.
Peter MacDonald, 1988
When Col. Trautman is captured by the Soviets during a mission into Afghanistan, it's up to Rambo to find his way in and save the day.
Well, considering how I wasn't particular entertained by First Blood Part II, there was even less chance of Rambo III being a success but I still held out. Aside from the near-identical plotline - Rambo has to infiltrate enemy territory to rescue someone, fails on his first attempt but ultimately succeeds - there's not much to endear one to this movie. Having Rambo team up with the Muhajideen (complete with scenes of him slowly bonding with his newfound allies - including a scrappy young kid to boot - before they are inevitably ambushed) seems rather quaint these days. The main villain is more or less interchangeable with the villain from the last film (he might actually have less depth that Berkoff's scenery-chewing colonel - here he's just a sadistic thug without even Berkoff's smattering of off-kilter charisma). It was interesting to see Trautman become a more active part of the narrative rather than just being Rambo's voice of reason or mission control - it's a shame he spends the bulk of the movie being imprisoned and tortured because when he does team up with Rambo to do some fighting it's actually not bad. Unfortunately, it's not enough to save this from being another semi-forgettable action movie.