RAMBULL III

RAMBO III (1988)
dir: Peter McDonald

RAMBULL III
MAD #283, December 1988
w: Stan Hart
a: Angelo Torres

The third part of the Rambo saga. They got rid of First Blood from the title and it this point this was the biggest budget of any film thus far, and the setting this time was the Soviet-Afghan war before we became involved.

John Rambo (Sylvester Stallone) is visited again by his old army partner Col. Sam Trautman (Richard Crenna) and Robert Griggs (Kurtwood Smith) for another top secret military mission, fighting the Soviets. He's found stickfighting in Bangkok and they attempt to recruit him, but he is now living in a monestary and dismisses them, saying he has retired from warfare.

Funny how they joke here and further on about how old Richard Crenna was when Stallone is now so much older. More about that later.

Rambo has a change of mind and heart when Trautman is captured by the Russians. He goes to Pakistan, but the CIA will disavow his existence if anything happens to him. Once there he's led to a Mujhadeen village with the help of Mousa (Sasson Gabai). The village's leader Masoud (Spiros Focas) doubts his toughness but he proves worthy in their fighting games.

The Real McCoys was a sitcom with Crenna in the early 60s. Tabloids not reporting intrnational conflicts may be a joke here but not far off from reality with news now being a la carte.

Masoud is also aided by Hamid (Doudi Shoua), the boy who wants to be like Rambo.They help Rambo through a minefield where he is wounded and cauterizes the wound himself.

Rambo finds Trautman where he is about to be tortured and rescues him. They both escape the Soviets by hijacking a helicopter and outsmarting then with the Mujhadeen army.

Cracked often featured the movie on the cover before seeing it, to be timed with the release of the movie, then have their parody a few issues later. It was a sales strategy.

RAMBOZO III
Cracked #241, December 1988
w: Joe Catalano
a: Walter Brogan

Brigitte Nielsen, Sylvester Stallone's ex-wife, was also an action star.

Cracked also used the “don't try this at home” joke.

IF RAMBO FOUGHT OTHER WARS
Cracked #238, September 1988
w: George Gladir
a: John Severin

CRACKED INTERVIEWS RAMBOZO
Cracked #238, September 1988
w: Joe Catalano
a: Rob Orzechowski

Having not seen the movie yet, the assumed this would also be set in the jungle like its predecessor and not in the desert.

There was a reboot of the Rambo series that I never saw. I don't know what to expect since it was made in 2018. Sylvester Stallone was then 72.