_**Rambo goes to Afghanistan to fight Russians**_

Living at a Buddhist temple in Thailand as a handy man, Rambo (Sylvester Stallone) is offered a mission by Col. Trautman (Richard Crenna) to go to Afghanistan to assist Afghans against the Soviets. He goes only to rescue someone dear to him. The cast includes Sasson Gabai as Rambo’s sidekick Mousa; Spyros Fokas as wise Afghan Masoud; and Marc de Jonge as Soviet Col. Zaysen.

“Rambo III” (1988) contains what you would want from a Rambo flick: A muscular protagonist, a one-man-army scenario, a noble cause and loads of action. It also has a quality cast, fabulous locations and a good score.

Playing like a Conan the Barbarian adventure set in the modern day, it has a comic book vibe like the previous film, but not as bad. Everything works for an action/adventure flick until the last 15 minutes when it’s burdened by one too many action scenes. The strange thing about movie action is that too much of it becomes boring. That’s the case here with the final act.

Just so there’s no misunderstanding, Rambo was NOT fighting for what became the Taliban. Rambo Meets a man named Masoud, the wise leader of the Mujahadeen who are fighting the Soviets. This character was named after a notable Mujahadeen commander of the Northern Alliance, Ahmad Shah Massoud, who fought against both the Taliban & Al Qaeda. Massoud warned the Euro leaders about Bin Laden and was assassinated by Al Qaeda on September 9, 2001, two days before the September 11th Attack.

My ranking of the Rambo movies is as follows: First Blood, Rambo IV, Last Blood, Rambo III and Rambo II. Only the first two are great, but the other three have their points of interest for action/adventure fans.

The film runs 1 hour, 42 minutes, and was shot in Chiang Mai, Thailand; Arizona; and Israel.

GRADE: B-/C+