Rambo III stands as a prime example of the sentiment behind the action films that became so successful in the 80's. It has NO pretensions of being anything more than mainstream action fare. Whether it's deliberate or not, the writers have made the character of John Rambo nothing more than a cartoon action hero - he embodies everything that is 'American macho'. This completely over the top (no Stallone pun intended) superhero is thrown into a wonderfully over the top story, where there's never any doubt he'll win and little chance that he'll have too much trouble in his task (a leg wound and a hole through his stomach are just an opportunity to show how incredibly tough and resistant he is). The action scenes unashamedly adhere to the 'Hollywood guide to entertaining violence' (probably in existence somewhere) and the viewer is exposed to endless guns, bullet hits, tanks, guns, sweat, helicopters, guns, dead extras, muscles, guns, explosions, blood and guns. Which is, of course, incredibly good fun to watch.
The story is fantastic in it's simplicity - nasty bad guy in charge of evil communist army is cruel to local rebels so good old Sly has to penetrate converted mountain base, rescue his friend and destroy the entire opposing army. Marvellous. The ultimate action-adventure that could be written by an excited 5 year-old.
This could have been incredibly boring given the horrendous script and there are times when it is in danger of becoming like one of the billions of B-movie action films that grace the bottom shelf of video shops these days, but Stallone's hyper-macho performance and Peter MacDonald's direction keep things lively. To be fair it's probably Vic Armstrong who is most worthy of praise for coordinating what are undeniably some of the most amazing battle scenes ever, combining helicopters, horses and an unbelievable amount of explosions. I doubt in the modern days of CG that we'll ever see this many pyrotechnics in one film again. So, well done Mr Armstrong for keeping the film firmly in the A-movie category.
Obviously, just given the film's title, people should know what kind of film to expect and anyone, like me, who is capable of ignoring a bad script and disengaging the brain, should relish the visuals and have a fun hour and 40 minutes.
8/10 for being so completely over the top.
The story is fantastic in it's simplicity - nasty bad guy in charge of evil communist army is cruel to local rebels so good old Sly has to penetrate converted mountain base, rescue his friend and destroy the entire opposing army. Marvellous. The ultimate action-adventure that could be written by an excited 5 year-old.
This could have been incredibly boring given the horrendous script and there are times when it is in danger of becoming like one of the billions of B-movie action films that grace the bottom shelf of video shops these days, but Stallone's hyper-macho performance and Peter MacDonald's direction keep things lively. To be fair it's probably Vic Armstrong who is most worthy of praise for coordinating what are undeniably some of the most amazing battle scenes ever, combining helicopters, horses and an unbelievable amount of explosions. I doubt in the modern days of CG that we'll ever see this many pyrotechnics in one film again. So, well done Mr Armstrong for keeping the film firmly in the A-movie category.
Obviously, just given the film's title, people should know what kind of film to expect and anyone, like me, who is capable of ignoring a bad script and disengaging the brain, should relish the visuals and have a fun hour and 40 minutes.
8/10 for being so completely over the top.