Review – Rambo 3

Being the dumbest installment in the Rambo series is quite a distinction. This picture earns the title by leaping into the Reagan Era Paranoia tank and swimming all the way to the bottom. One expects a certain amount of single mindedness from a war movie, but this dumb little tale of valiant Rambo’s attempts to rescue his old buddy Col. Troutman from the evil Soviet aggressors abuses the privilege. Perhaps the chief fault is that it openly acknowledges the parallels between the Russian misadventure in Afghanistan and U.S. problem in Vietnam a decade or two earlier, recognizing both as a futile waste of life while pushing doggedly onward nonetheless. I was also put off by the tautological combat zen of our hero’s motivation: he fights wars because he is meant to fight wars. As an action movie stuffed with plenty of big explosions and violent death, it meets the basic requirements. Otherwise it does little to justify its existence. See if desperate