“Rambo III” has more explosions and shootouts than the first two pictures in the series combined but the problem isn’t the action. The problem is that the rest of the film that doesn’t work. “Rambo III” delivers a solid last half an hour but the first full hour is a serious chore to get through.

“Rambo III” begins with a ridiculous fight involving sticks as we continue to follow Vietnam veteran John Rambo (Sylvester Stallone “Rocky”, “Cobra”). He gets recruited by the Americans for a secret mission to rescue his old friend Trautman after he’s kidnapped in Afghanistan by Russian forces. Rambo goes in, meets the locals, causes a couple of mundane shootouts then in the last half an hour, things really get kicked up a notch.

Sylvester Stallone is not my favourite action star but he worked in the original “Rambo” film (titled “First Blood”) because he focused on personality not the stack of bodies the character created and the sequels just don’t seem to get that. The Trautman character is given more to do than in the previous films and he’s alright here. The enemies are pretty average but then the “Rambo” movies have never been known for their villains so I’m not particularly surprised.

“Rambo III” is another action film like “Commando” and “Red Scorpion” where the sole ambition was to make entertaining action sequences, nothing more and nothing less. I think it’s a little better than the second “Rambo” movie simply because it has more action so it at least does what it sets out to do a little better but it comes nowhere near matching the charm of the original. If you want to see better films involving stunts like the ones seen here, any of the “Indiana Jones” or “Mad Max” films are superior so I’d go and watch them if I were you. If you are desperate to see another Rambo or Stallone film then I guess you could do worse.