Rambo is without question a sick action movie and Stallone has proved himself again as an intense actor and as a solid director. This installment combines elements from all three previous movies but this one had a much more realistic feel. Yes some dialog is questionable and there are a few, albeit brief, scenes that don't quite work, but make no mistake, this movie takes no prisoners. Stallone slips back into the role with ease and his supporting players do an admirable job. Critics will whine as they always do about the excessive violence, gore and lack of story. (Stick to giving awful movies like The Skeleton Key thumbs up guys). The ironic thing is that Rambo actually gives a vivid and some would say accurate portrayal of war. It has a similar feel to Black Hawk Down and borrows its chaotic action. Rambo pulls no punches...It's brutality, violence and gore are rooted in reality. Gone is the "fun" action of 2 and 3. It is replaced with realism which amounts to some of the best and most intense action sequences I've ever seen. My only real gripe with the film was scenes that were sped up in post.Read full review
RAMBO III, which could be called "Rambo in Afghanistan," is set in 1988, near the end of the Soviet Union's involvement there. At the beginning of the film, John Rambo (Sylvester Stallone) is living a secluded life in a Buddhist monastery in Thailand. When Rambo's close friend and mentor from the American military, Colonel Trautman (Richard Crenna), asks for Rambo's help with a top-secret mission in Afghanistan, Rambo declines. Trautman goes in anyway and is captured by a ruthless Russian commander. In response, Rambo leaves his peaceful life, determined to rescue Trautman. Armed with only a handful of glow sticks and a dozen detonators, Rambo travels to Pakistan where he meets with a group of Mujaheddin freedom fighters who agree to lead him across the border into Afghanistan. On horseback, Rambo and the Mujaheddin approach the daunting Afghan landscape--high cliffs, jagged desert mountains, and networks of underground tunnels and caves. But before they even reach the prison where Trautman is held, the Russians head them off in a high-speed helicopter chase through steep ravines. From this point forward, the action never abates. Rambo, whose complexion is a deep crimson throughout the film, scales cliffs with his bare (bleeding) hands, and defies husky guards and scores of heavily armed Russian soldiers. There are many intense parts of RAMBO III, including a disturbing look inside a shop that sells machine guns and prosthetic limbs to mine victims, and several action sequences in which Afghan soldiers use American-supplied shoulder-mount rocket launchers against the Soviets. But perhaps the most memorable scene of the film is a close-up on Rambo, alone in a dimly lit cave, where he removes a bullet from his stomach and then performs a dazzling medical trick with the leftover gunpowder. This Rambo seems to be a little more about the charter then just the explosions. All in all a good movie but not the best. Again its over the top but thats Rambo.Read full review
With the highest budget of the three movies, the movie certainly looks expensive, with an epic scope at times. But you never quite get the feeling that the movie settles into a comfortable groove. Though the action sequences have plenty of gunshots and explosions, the way they are filmed - and edited - doesn't have the right impact or flow, like the action sequences in the second installment. In another comparison to the second installment, the story - while as sparse as this one - certainly kept moving. Here there are a number of segments that move very slowly and/or don't seem to have much purpose. The movie should have gotten down to business. The uneven flow of the movie also suffers near the end, as if the movie all of a sudden decides it needs to wrap things up in a few minutes, making the final battle almost come out of nowhere. (In fairness to the director, it should be pointed out that he was a sudden replacement after original director Russell Mulcahy was fired, and had only ONE DAY to prepare to helm the rest of the movie.) Like the previous installment, there is some dumb dialogue, but this time around it's not delivered in a slight tongue-in-cheek manner. If they had been willing to show this time around that they weren't taking things so seriously, it would have helped. You might say that the actor playing the Russian commander is not playing things seriously, but he goes SO over the top that he's embarrassing. It's watchable, but disappointing - they had the chance to make a kick-ass action movie here. By the way, the Afghans that Rambo helps in this movie are *NOT* the Taliban. People seem to forget that Afghanistan is made up of a number of different tribes. You can tell these particular Afghans are not the Taliban, because (among other things), the women are not completely covered, and the men play the traditional Afghan game with horses and a goat's skin (forbidden by the Taliban.)Read full review
I like the Rambo series of movies. Let's face it, in all of the movies the Rambo character is preposterous at best. If the fantasy fighter thing doesn't turn you away, then go with it. I think Sylvester got a bad rap along the way and did not get all of his due as an actor and his ability to entertain. Hokey yes, but still a good movie.
Nice thanks
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