Rambo III

Having single-handedly defeated the Vietcong in First Blood Part II, there was no going back for John Rambo: once a tortured soul, he was now a larger-than-life comic-book hero righting the world's wrongs through extreme violence and that was how he would have to stay in order to keep his fans happy. Rambo's next mission would have to be bigger, the villains more evil, and the body count higher. With the US in the midst of a cold war with Russia, the answer was obvious: send Rambo to kick Russian butt in Afghanistan.

Armed with a knife that would shame Crocodile Dundee, several big guns, and his trusty bow with explosive-tipped arrows, Rambo frees his ex-commanding officer Col. Trautman (Richard Crenna) from a Soviet fort and liberates the Mujahadin, laying waste to hundreds of the enemy in the process.

But while the film's numerous battle scenes certainly deliver on the promise of much carnage, with some of the biggest on-screen explosions of the 80s, the film offers little in the way of genuine excitement or tension thanks to Rambo being virtually indestructible. The spectacular action also has the effect of making proceedings seem rather dull whenever Stallone eases off the trigger, resulting in this film being a marginally less enjoyable affair overall than the previous movies.

Ironically, for all of Rambo III's glorification of violence in the name of a noble cause, the closing message, dedicating the film to 'the gallant people of Afghanistan', unintentionally but effectively illustrates the futility of war.