Leonard Maltin rates Rambo III as best in series - Rambo III (1988) Discussion

[–] Hendry_William_French 10 years ago

Siskel (who was always the tougher critic) gave it his thumbs up. I think Ebert said it was a good action movie but failed on the substance side, thus he was thumbs down.

Still, Maltin and Siskel saying it was a good movie is actually pretty interesting. They were usually tough on dumb action films thus recognized this one was something a bit different from your standard stuff.

Water, my ass! Bring this guy some Pepto Bismol!

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[–] mrmathexpert4 10 years ago

I have seen over 3,000 films, and I consider Rambo III the best of the series. It's just perfectly put together. First Blood is quite good, and Rambo II has its moments but is not a great picture.

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[–] Hendry_William_French 10 years ago

I reckon Rambo III is far superior to the first two in terms of its scale, action and scope (four different filming locations across the globe). It's also a different type of movie in tone and set up.

However, I thought First Blood I & II were better made from a film making perspective. They had better dialogue and acting thanks to better scripts and direction.
The characters were more varied and colorful. FBII alone had two villains in Murdock and Podovsky and it worked really well. The standard of acting in the first two was better as they had better actors as well (no disrespect to the ones in RIII, as outside of Crenna, Stallone and a cameo by Kurtwood Smith I'd never seen or heard of the other actors in the third movie).

Water, my ass! Bring this guy some Pepto Bismol!

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[–] TheHestinator 10 years ago

Rambo III is, as of right now, my favorite of the series. Sure, First Blood may be the best if you wanna talk about artistic quality and that sort of stuff, but when it comes to entertainment value, III beats them all. It's just so over-the-top and '80sish. Overall, I'd rate the franchise (with all receiving an 8/10):

1. Rambo III
2. Rambo: First Blood Part II (almost on par with III)
3. First Blood
4. Rambo (still a great movie, though)

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[–] 10 years ago

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[–] 10 years ago

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[–] Hendry_William_French 10 years ago

and I loved the whole "rescuing Trautman" aspect of the film, because it made everything that much more personal for John in this one

Agreed. I also loved how Trautman got in on the action in this one. He was running around with Rambo, firing AKs and shooting heavy machine guns and stuff. It was awesome to see them finally together fighting as a team in battle just like what was described in the first movie.

I am Djour Djilios. could you spell that please? I don't think so. Try it with a "D".

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[–] 10 years ago

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[–] Wuchak (8836) 5 years ago

Siskel gave it a thumbs-up while Ebert admitted that it delivered as an action flick, but lacked in the human interest department, which means he gave it a thumbs-sideways. You can see their review here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vyh3M5_mEQQ

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