John Rambo's former Vietnam Colonel, Samuel Trautman, has been assigned to lead a mission to help the Mujahedeen rebels who are fighting the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan.When the mission goes belly up and Trautman is kidnapped and tortured by Russian Colonel Zaysen, Rambo launches a rescue effort and allies himself with the Mujahedeen rebels and gets their help in trying to rescue Trautman.......The third Rambo film was a notorious flop at the time of its release, and for a short while, was the most expensive film ever made. It's not a bad film by any means. Silly, but certainly not bad.The real reason I believe as to why the film failed, was because audiences were becoming a little tired of the muscle bound one man armies against the world. After all, Die Hard showed that an action star can be an everyday, vulnerable person, as did Lethal Weapon.So the days of the greased up, muscular soldier with the magical gun that hold infinite bullets, were numbered.Schwarzenegger had the right idea, and branched out into other genres (but still kept his trademark puns), and it appeared that Stallone was always one step behind him (his foray into comedy, Judge Dredd etc). So Rambo III was the start of a downward spiral in Stallone's career (box office wise) that would last for five years.So Rambo III is pretty much the same as part II, but this time everything is bigger, from Stallones muscles, the knife, and the set pieces. The makers must have thought that this was a license to print money, hence it being the most expensive film produced at the time.There is a lot of humour, Schwarzenegger type one liners that are scattered across the script, but it falls flat, not just by Stallone's delivery, but for the fact that the makers have now turned a tortured character into a comic book character.Still, there's action aplenty, the film looks beautiful, and Stallone's hair is beyond wonderful.

Continuing my plan to watch every Sly Stallone movie in order, I come to another sequel, 1988's Rambo 3.What does Stallone do after two movies under perform at the Box Office?? He usual go to response, was to go into his comfort zone and do another Rocky movie. This time however he opted for another sequel to his second most popular franchise, that starting Vietnam Vet and War Hero John Rambo. With the 'First Blood' part dropped from the title all together and the movie just being called Rambo 3, even though there were was never a Rambo or Rambo 2. Plot In A Paragraph: Col. Trautman (Richard Crenna) goes on a mission to aid the Afghanistan freedom fighters against the invading Russain army. He seeks out Rambo (Stallone) for help, he refuses saying his "war is over". When Trautman is captured by the Russains, the one man army goes to save his former Colonel. The one man army routine is now old, as is the mullet!! The dialogue is poor, the villains incredibly dull and it's boring to watch Rambo single handedly take out an entire army yet again.Stallones ego was apparently again out of control, and he had the original director Russell Mulchahey fired, along with members of the cast that he didn't approve of. The most ridiculously over the top movie in the franchise, had the Misfortune of awful timing (Russia left Afghanistan a few weeks before the movie's release) and despite some impressive action set pieces, it just isn't a very good movie.

Sylvester Stallone returns once again to one of his most iconic roles, playing Vietnam Veteran John Rambo, who this time goes to Afghanistan amidst the Soviet Invasion to rescue his Vietnam commander officer, Col. Trautman (Richard Crenna), from being held hostage by the evil Colonel Zaysen (Marc de Jonge).Stallone as Rambo continues to prove he is a force to be reckoned with, wiping away enemy combatants left and right as he displays his very formidable set of fighting and survival skills. It was satisfying seeing him deal with the arrogant and sinister Marc de Jonge and his merciless army, especially when you see the Afghan citizens in peril. Him teaming up with the Afghan rebels and the determined Afghan boy served as a good plot element to the story.Filmed in a fast pace with plenty of action and tension, it is one of Stallone's most intense performances, showing him the will to fight for good and to protect those he trusts and the innocent that are in peril. Despite some of the cheesy acting, it's a very good action sequel for some edge-of-your-seat excitement.Grade B

Sexagenarian Colonel Trautman (Richard Crenna) leads a mission into Afghanistan to help rebels fighting the Russians. He's captured and, naturally, Rambo (Sylvester Stallone) must come to the rescue. The least of the Rambo movies by a wide margin. It doesn't even feel like a natural progression from the first two movies. John Rambo's character is especially 'off' in this one. He's more talkative and sociable than in the last two movies. He even makes jokes. The dynamic with Trautman is also off. In the other movies, Trautman was a father figure. Here he's more of a buddy. Despite my problems with how the parts are written, both actors do fine with what they're given.The pacing is poor and the script seems entirely too invested in getting us to care about the Afghan rebels and their fight against the evil Soviets. Aside from making the whole thing feel dated (even more so than the second Rambo movie in my opinion), it's like they forgot what people watch a Rambo movie for. If they had trimmed a lot of this stuff in the first half, the movie would have flowed better and that could have made for a more effective actioner. A lot of the dialogue is pretty corny, too. The best part of the movie is the cinematography from John Stanier, which is far better than you would expect for a movie such as this. Watchable for fans of the first two movies but nothing special.