Rambo-a-Thon, Part 3 - Rambo III (1988)

Director: Peter McDonald

Cast: Sylvester Stallone, Richard Crenna, Kurtwood Smith, Marc de Jonge, Sasson Gabai

Country: United States

Rating: R

Run Time: 106 minutes

Rambo III is a balls to the wall action epic in comparison to Part II. With over 200 on screen kills and plenty of explosions, Rambo III is one of the most violent action films ever made. Our nation literally has no need to recruit young men or even create armies. Rambo is all we need. He's un-freakin-stoppable!

The glorious head band shot is back!

Rambo III finds Rambo (Sylvester Stallone) living in Thailand. He makes a living by working with Monks and participating in a fight club every once in awhile. Colonel Troutman (Richard Crenna reprising the role for his last time) comes looking for Rambo once again in need of his help. Troutman plans on supplying mujahideen rebels in Afghanistan with weapons in order to fight off invading Soviets. When asked, Rambo declines and states that his war is over for good. Troutman goes on with the mission anyway and gets captured by Soviet forces. When Rambo hears the news, he straps on that head band of his and heads out into the deserts of Afghanistan in order to work with the mujahideen rebels in order to save his only friend, Colonel Troutman.

My favorite thing about the whole film might be the opening scene. Rambo prepares for a one on one fight in sort of a Thailand fight club. He ties his head band on and walks into a room filled with people chanting and cheering with money in hand. Rambo and his opponent grab two wooden sticks and than proceed to duke it out. It's an awesome way to reintroduce the character in a way unrelated to the plot. It also ends on a dramatic note with Rambo nearly killing the guy. It shows that Rambo will always be a tortured killing machine who needs to learn to control and hone his urges.

As I stated before, Rambo III is a sweeping epic in comparison to the first two. It's the Lawrence of Arabia of the series if you ask me. It's the longest of the series at 106 minutes, contains arguably the most action scenes, and has impressive photography to help visualize the grand nature of Afghanistan's deserts. I also want to note that Jerry Goldsmith's score really helps elevate this grand adventure. The score is very triumphant and helps make the action scenes more exciting. It also helps that all of the explosions, gun shots, kills, squibs, knife stabs, and stunts are all done sans CGI. It's all real right there on the screen. For me, any flaw with Rambo III is immediately forgivable simply for that.

Rambo vs. The Russians...again.

And how about those action scenes? Rambo breaks out of a Russian base, dodges gunfire on horseback, and even takes on a helicopter with a freakin' tank! Seriously, he charges a tank at a helicopter that is literally 10 feet off of the ground. Rambo is a beast like no other. We also get some sweet bow and arrow action too. The explosions are also extremely impressive. Michael Bay, eat your heart out. This is how you blow stuff up!

However, it's not just the action that is bigger this time around. Oh no. Rambo's hair, muscles, and even his knife are bigger! Seriously, I am certain that his knife got at least 2 inches longer since the last film. And I know that Rambo did not buy a new knife. He always keeps that knife of his like Indiana Jones keeps that hat of his. Therefore, it literally grew 2 inches! Even Rambo's muscles and hair are so huge that it is ridiculous. Slathered in sweat and oil, it's obvious that Stallone was at his physical peak in 1988. 

Stallone basically gives the same performance from the last film. He fights Russians, one hands fully automatic weapons, and blows stuff up in a helicopter. Nothing special there. Richard Crenna gets a bit more to do this time as Troutman. He actually gets in on the killing game with Rambo during the final third of the film. It's pretty cool to see Rambo's mentor demonstrate the skills that he taught to Rambo so long ago.

The Russian villain, Colonel Zaysen (Marc de Jonge), does a fair job. Unlike Part II's villains, he actually appears near the beginning of the film and is the main villain from start to finish. I also enjoyed Mousa Ghani (Sasson Gabai), a rebel who has to work with Rambo. He resembled Rambo's female partner from Part II. I preferred Gabai as a partner though because of his kind heart and willingness to help out Rambo. It's also worth noticing that Kurtwood Smith (RoboCop) has a very small role in the beginning of the film. It's nothing major, but Smith is a favorite of mine simply for his performance as Boddicker in RoboCop.

Rambo takes a page out of John Woo's The Killer.

Much like Rambo: First Blood Part II, Rambo III is another politically driven action film. And once again, the Russians are the villains. When one looks at history, this film came out right at the end of the Cold War. Therefore, the portrayal of Russians as our villains was both very outdated and a step backwards if you ask me. The film's politics are even more outdated in comparison to today's world. During an interrogation scene, Troutman even compares the Russian's invasion of Afghanistan to American's occupation in Vietnam. 

Well, if anything has become a tradition with these Rambo reviews it has been that I have to list at least two awesome quotes. And I most definitely have two for you. Read them and weep.

"What do you say John?" - Troutman

"F*** em!" - Rambo

"Are you insane? One man against trained commandoes...Who do you think this man is God?" - Zaysen

"No. God would have mercy. He won't." - Troutman

I also have to point out something that I noticed while watching my Blu Ray of this film. I normally always have the subtitles on. I live in a very open house where it is always noisy. Therefore, I like to have the subtitles on so that I don't miss a word of dialog. Around the end of the film, I noticed that the Blu Ray's subtitles were showing up on both the top and bottom of the screen during the dialog of the film's villain, Zaysen. The subtitles on the bottom were clearly from the film itself while the subtitles at the top were from the Blu Ray. I than realized that almost all of the dialog from the film's Russian speaking characters is not supposed to be understood by the American audience. Therefore, the film actually was translating what the Russians were saying in some scenes!

One of these translations is so bonkers and hilarious, I have to share it. When Rambo is sneaking around the Russian prison camp, he has to constantly avoid guards. One of these guards actually says, "Man, I have been here for two months and I haven't received any letters yet." That is hilarious! That line was in the script somewhere but not in the final product on the big screen back in 1988. However, it made it onto my copy of the Blu Ray. I feel bad for that Russian soldier! What a bad day for the guy. If anyone else has noticed this, please contact me!

Razzie Award winning actors side by side.

I have heard many people state that Rambo III is the worst film in the series. To be honest, I think it is a far better film than Rambo: First Blood Part II. First Blood is still the best film of the series, but Rambo III is a better action film. First Blood Part II set the groundwork for the series' new direction. Rambo goes on a mission, blows stuff up, kills over 60 people, the end. However, if I were to pop one of these movies in to show to a friend or watch over and over again, I would definitely choose Rambo III. The music is great, the action is epic, and the story is sweeping and massive. Every element of Part II is pushed to the extreme in this film.

The film also ends on a happy and uplifting note. I won't spoil it exactly though. However, this would be the last Rambo film for a whopping twenty years. I'm sure many people thought that this would be the finale for a long time. However, Stallone surprised everyone when he brought back the character 20 years later in the fourth and final film in the series. Get ready to experience the last Rambo adventure in...Rambo!

Rating: 8/10 - A fantastic action film packed to the brim with explosions, gun fire, and sweeping music. Rambo III is highly recommended and required action viewing.

Franchise:

First Blood (dir. Ted Kotcheff, 1982)

Rambo: First Blood Part II (dir. George P. Cosmastos, 1985)

Rambo III (dir. Peter McDonald, 1988)

Rambo (dir. Sylvester Stallone, 2008)

Rambo-a-Thon, Part 2 - Rambo: First Blood Part II (1985)

Director: George P. Cosmatos

Cast: Sylvester Stallone, Richard Crenna, Charles Napier, Steven Berkoff, Julia Nickson

Country: United States

Rating: R

Run Time: 94 minutes

Rambo: First Blood Part II takes the Rambo series in a completely new direction. Instead of being a serious and dramatic action film like First Blood, First Blood Part II is a "man on a mission/one man army" flick. While the first film depicts a man of war struggling with his inner demons, this film shows a man of war one arm an M60 without a shirt and massacre countless Vietnamese and Russian soldiers. Oh, and there's a Frank Stallone song called "Peace In Our Life" in the end credits. If anything, we are most definitely into the excess of 80's action now.

Troutman and Rambo are the best of buddies.

First Blood Part II is set 3 years after the events of First Blood. Colonel Troutman (Richard Crenna) finds Rambo (Sylvester Stallone) in jail (it's a spoiler I can't really avoid in order to set up the plot, sorry). He offers Rambo the chance to earn a pardon and freedom if he can help find POW's in Vietnam. When Rambo accepts, he is told that he is not allowed to engage the enemy. He is only supposed to take pictures and than come back to base. And as we all know, that's not going to happen. Instead, Rambo goes on a one man killing spree and kills every Vietnamese and Russian soldier in his sights. Literally.

The first thing that I would like to point about this film in contrast to the original film are its screenwriters. In addition to Stallone, director James Cameron (The Terminator, Aliens) helped write the film. Cameron had just previously directed The Terminator in 1984, one of the greatest action films of all time. Therefore, his screenwriting presence may explain the excess of action found in this film. 

Cameron and Stallone helped give birth to the "one many army / man on a mission" sub genre in action cinema. This kind of film usually involves a protagonist going on a mission and single handedly slaughtering countless henchmen and enemies along the way. It's also worth noting that another great "one man army" film, Commando, came out a few months after this film. First Blood Part II and Commando were both commercial successes that sparked a slew of rip offs (Missing In Action, Strike Commando, Full Reprisal) and parodies (UHF, Hot Shots Part Deux, Tropic Thunder). As I watched First Blood Part II, I could not help but think of "Weird Al" Yankovic doing his best Stallone impression. If you have never seen Weird Al's UHF, I implore you to check out the Rambo sequence. It's hilarious!

"Hey, how about some shoe-horned romance for ya?"

Remember when I said that First Blood had some incredible lines? Well guess what, so does First Blood Part II! Here are two gems I couldn't help but love:

"Rambo, I want you to forget the war. The old Vietnam is dead." - Troutman. "I'm alive, it's still alive, isn't it?" - Rambo. 

"Why did they pick you? Because you like to fight?" - Co Bao

"I'm expendable." - Rambo

It turns out that Stallone was quite the action movie wordsmith back in the day. I also would like to point out that his line, "I'm expendable," inspired the title for his latest franchise, The Expendables.

The performances in First Blood Part II are all pretty solid. Unlike First Blood, Rambo is reduced to being an invincible action hero. Gone is the vulnerable nature of the first film and out comes the steroid induced muscles of the second. He does a fine job though and clearly gives his all with this character. Richard Crenna comes back as Troutman, Rambo's one and only true friend. I love the friendship between these two characters. Troutman just wants to help Rambo out as best as he can and cares about him a lot too. 

Other notable performances include Martin Kove of Karate Kid fame playing a helicopter pilot, Julia Nickson as Rambo's female partner, and Charles Napier and Stephen Berkoff as the two main antagonists. Napier plays Murdock, a real asshole of a marshall. He's no Brian Dennehy from the first film though, no way. Berkoff is fine too as the film's main Russian villain. He isn't given any time to develop and only appears in two very lengthy scenes (the interrogation and helicopter chase scenes).

Hell yeah.

As I stated before, this film is a big improvement in the action department. The whole final 30 minutes of the film is essentially one big action scene. Rambo breaks out of imprisonment, sneaks around in the woods, steals a helicopter, destroys an entire village, and than has a one on one helicopter battle with the film's Russian villain. However, the small beats of action that lead up to this are fairly weak, much like in Commando. It could be argued that this is what I like to call a "third act build up" film. Nearly all of the action and special effects are saved for the very end in order to send us off on a big explosive note.

The film's message seems to concern how the U.S. lost the war in Vietnam. Therefore, this mission to save POW's is kind of an "our turn to win" type of scenario. Rambo says it best, "Do we get to win this time?" I also liked how Rambo just wants acceptance for the POW's and soldiers who have to go back home and be yelled at by protesters. Even though he's mainly a killing machine, Rambo is also a man with a heart.

As I stated before, this pro-soldier message is perfectly represented by Frank Stallone's cheese ball song, "Peace In Our Life", that book ends the film. First Blood also ended on a song and I realized that I did not talk about it in that review. That song, "It's A Long Road", is the most '80's thing about the first film. It's very cheesy and ends a rather serious and somber film. However, "Peace In Our Life" fits in just fine in this film. This film is already cheesy and ridiculous. Therefore, a corny Frank Stallone song ties it all up in a nice bow.

When the headband goes on, it's business time.

Rambo: First Blood Part II is one of the most notable and excessive '80's action films of all time. For my first viewing of the film, I found it to be pretty enjoyable. However, it is pretty jarring to take a character from a very serious film and drop him into a ridiculously excessive film. The film drags in the second act, features underdeveloped villains, and wraps things up very quickly. Therefore, First Blood Part II is the perfect representation of a popcorn flick. Throw out your thinking cap and sit back and relax. If watching someone blow stuff up is your cup of tea, than you'll go crazy for this film. I also found it to be a good sequel that helps build upon the mythology of the first film. It continues Rambo's story and still feels like an important stepping stone in his life. All in all, I would highly recommend this film because of its awesome action scenes and importance to the American action genre.

Rating: 8/10 - The first Rambo sequel is a silly but entertaining action film. All action fans should seek this film out. You owe it to yourself to see the birth of the "one man army" film.

Franchise:

First Blood (dir. Ted Kotcheff, 1982)

Rambo: First Blood Part II (dir. George P. Cosmastos, 1985)

Rambo III (dir. Peter McDonald, 1988)

Rambo (dir. Sylvester Stallone, 2008)