Rambo III (1988)

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General		Extras
Category	Action	Main Menu Introduction Main Menu Audio & Animation Scene Selection Anim & Audio
Rating
Year Of Production	1988
Running Time	97:08
RSDL / Flipper	RSDL (46:32)	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Language Select Then Menu
Region Coding	2,4	Directed By	Peter MacDonald
Studio Distributor	Universal Pictures Home Video	Starring	Sylvester Stallone Richard Crenna Marc de Jonge Kurtwood Smith Spiros Focás Sasson Gabai Doudi Shoua Randy Raney Marcus Gilbert Alon Abutbul Mahmoud Assadollahi Joseph Shiloach Harold Diamond
Case	?
RPI	Box	Music	Jerry Goldsmith

Video		Audio
Pan & Scan/Full Frame	None	English Dolby Digital 5.1 (448Kb/s)
Widescreen Aspect Ratio	2.30:1
16x9 Enhancement
Video Format	576i (PAL)
Original Aspect Ratio	2.35:1	Miscellaneous
Jacket Pictures	No
Subtitles	Dutch	Smoking	Yes
		Annoying Product Placement	No
		Action In or After Credits	No

    Everything in Rambo III is bigger: Stallone's bigger, the stunts and effects are bigger, the set pieces and explosions are bigger, even Rambo's knife is bigger.

    We find John Rambo (Sylvester Stallone) stick fighting in Bangkok. When not earning some extra cash in the ring, Rambo lives peacefully with a group of Buddhist monks, helping out as a handyman. Colonel Trautman (Richard Crenna), Rambo's former CO, finds Rambo in an attempt to recruit his services. When Rambo turns him down, Trautman embarks on the Special Forces mission himself (which is odd considering his age), but is captured. This time it's personal, as Rambo travels to Afghanistan, during the war, to rescue Trautman from a ruthless Russian commander.

    A very political film, Rambo is dedicated to the "gallant people of Afghanistan". At the height of the cold war, Rambo aids the Moudjahidin in their fight against the Russian invaders. Interestingly, their "holy war" is glamorised, and the rebels willingness to thumb their nose at the rest of the world is idolised. Of course, some of these Afghan rebels were the Taliban and, following a fine tradition of American colonialism, once trained and heavily armed by the US, these marauding war lords then became very dangerous in a post-cold war world. Anyway, this movie is set when America wanted us to like the Taliban, so we do.

Video

    The transfer is quite good overall.

    The transfer is presented in an aspect ratio of 2.30:1, 16x9 enhanced.

    The sharpness of the image is okay, although some scenes look a little soft, such as at 10:15. The black level and the shadow detail is noticeably better than First Blood and Rambo 2, such as during in the night operation at 14:20.

    The movie is shot in Arizona, Thailand, and Israel, and fortunately, the colour is good. The transfer seems to capture the beautiful lush greenery and desert hues well.

    There are no problems with MPEG artefacts, but the grainy image sometimes does appear a little pixelated. Unlike First Blood and Rambo 2, film-to-video artefacts do not seem to be a problem here. Very small film artefacts appear infrequently throughout, and some edge enhancement is also noticeable at times.

    Again, surprisingly, the only subtitles present on the DVD are Dutch.

    This is an RSDL disc, with the layer change placed at 46:32.

Video Ratings Summary

Sharpness
Shadow Detail
Colour
Grain/Pixelization
Film-To-Video Artefacts
Film Artefacts
Overall

Audio

   Originally released theatrically in Dolby Stereo Surround, and remixed into Dolby Digital 5.1 for this DVD, the audio retains some of its original Stereo Surround feel.

    There is only one audio option on this DVD: English Dolby Digital 5.1 (448Kb/s).

    The dialogue quality and audio sync are fine, although as before, some of Stallone's lines are slurred with his speech.

    The musical score is credited to Jerry Goldsmith, and again it is heavily based on his work for First Blood. The use of ethnic instrumentation with the familiar themes is effective, but the song He Ain't Heavy, He's My Brother, over the closing credits, seems rather silly and out of place.

    The surround presence and activity is limited by its stereo surround source material. The rear speakers are called upon for the score, ambience, and effects, such as the helicopter at 20:54. However, as with First Blood and Rambo 2, there is not much separation between the rears.

    The subwoofer is used to support the explosions, for example at 40:33, and the LFE quality is far better than the first two movies.

Audio Ratings Summary

Dialogue
Audio Sync
Clicks/Pops/Dropouts
Surround Channel Use
Subwoofer
Overall

    Surprisingly, as with First Blood and Rambo 2, there are no extras -- not even a trailer!

Menu

    An animated main menu, with audio.

    Rambo III has been released on DVD in Region 1 twice, initially in 1999 as a single sided, single layered disc with a Stereo-Surround audio track. The extras included a making-of featurette, audio commentary, trailers, trivia, and a "Stallone Movie Retrospective". In 2002 the dual sided, dual/single layered Special Edition arrived.

    In R1 this DVD can be purchased by itself, or as part of "The Rambo Collection Pack" (the three standard DVD editions), or as part of the "Rambo Trilogy" (the three SE DVDs with a fourth bonus disc including production notes, a new 30 min featurette, "Rambo Trilogy", and trivia games).

    Compared with the R1 Special Edition, the Region 4 DVD misses out on:

• DTS audio
• Dolby Digital Stereo Surround audio
• Audio commentary by director Peter MacDonald
• A new 30-minute featurette - Afghanistan: Land In Crisis
• Production Notes
• Cast and Crew biographies
• Spanish Subtitles

    The Region 1 DVD misses out on:

• Dutch Subtitles

    I would have to favour the R1 Special Edition.

    Rambo III has a lot more comedy than the previous two films in the series, and remains a fun, almost cartoon-style, over-the-top action film.

    The video quality is reasonable.

    The audio quality is also reasonable.

    There are no extras.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall