History YMMV / RamboIII

* SoOkayItsAverage: General consensus is that it’s a fine action film overall, but nowhere near as powerful as the first or as engaging as the second. Doesn’t help that it came out in the late 80's, a time where [[SeinfeldIsUnfunny these types of big action movies and their clichés were everywhere and played out at this point]].

* CompleteMonster: [[DirtyCommunists Colonel Alexei Zaysen]] is a Soviet [[InsaneAdmiral military officer]] who is determined to see through the [[UsefulNotes/SovietInvasionOfAfghanistan genocidal campaign against Afghanistan]. Zaysen has headed up a variety of war crimes, including the mass rape and slaughter of pregnant women; disguising mines as toys so [[WouldHurtAChild children]] will be blown up; and regularly seeking villages to massacre the occupants. Running a heinous extermination camp, Zaysen regularly [[ColdBloodedTorture tortures]] Afghanistan citizens to death through electricity, fire, and beatings just for fun, and when he captures Col. Samuel "Sam" Trautman, he subjects the man to these same torments. When Rambo tries to save Trautman and help the Afghan rebellion, Zaysen gleefully leads a helicopter squad to kill hundreds of men, women, and even babies.

* SugarWiki/AwesomeMusic: The last of the Rambo movies to have Music/JerryGoldsmith as composer and a great score to go out with at the time. [[https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Y1yt1v4mZ-k I’ll Stay]] in particular makes for the ultimate coda to his ''Rambo'' scores. "I'll Stay" was intended to be the end credits music but was supplanted by a Bill Medley Music/GiorgioMoroder-produced CoverVersion of "He Ain't Heavy, He's My Brother", perhaps in hopes of a BreakawayPopHit..

* SugarWiki/AwesomeMusic: The last of the Rambo movies to have Music/JerryGoldsmith as composer and a great score to go out with at the time. [[https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Y1yt1v4mZ-k I’ll Stay]] in particular makes for the ultimate coda to his Rambo scores.

* HarsherInHindsight: One terrorist attack later and the glorification of America's intervention in Afghanistan took a turn for the worse. The Taliban offensive and subsequent fall of the US-backed government in 2021 didn't help either.

** "This film is dedicated to the brave Mujahideen fighters of Afghanistan." became quite a meme, both in the sense of how badly the film aged and putting in other unrelated movies for snark. As noted above, however, it's actually an {{urban legend|s}}; the final dedication is actually to "the gallant people of Afghanistan" as a whole as opposed to the Mujahideen specifically.

* CompleteMonster: [[BigBad Colonel Alexei Zaysen]] is a [[ColonelKilgore brutal and psychotic]] Soviet commander who will go to any length to [[UsefulNotes/SovietInvasionOfAfghanistan take over Afghanistan]]. He owns a prison camp and enjoys torturing and killing his prisoners using methods such as electrocution, severe beatings, and tying their arms to a rope and yanking it in the air. When he finds [[Characters/RamboJohnRambo Rambo]] in an Afghan village, he launches an attack, killing dozens of innocent men, women, and children.

** Even in late 80's it was easy to dismiss portrayal of Soviet Army as brutal, but incompetent, as propaganda. In 2022, after Russian invasion in Ukraine, this portrayal unexpectedly become rather accurate.

* UnintentionalPeriodPiece: The film was criticized for being dated right as [[ExaggeratedTrope it hit theatres]]. The anticommunism goes UpToEleven in a time when the UsefulNotes/ColdWar was actually thawing, and worst of all, the Soviet Union acknowledged defeat and began to withdraw from Afghanistan ten days ''before'' the movie's release. This is before one even considers the impression of Afghanistan that many Westerners have formed since UsefulNotes/TheWarOnTerror, when [[YourTerroristsAreOurFreedomFighters those previously considered "freedom fighters" were increasingly regarded as or conceptually associated with "terrorists."]]

* CompleteMonster: [[BigBad Colonel Alexei Zaysen]] is a [[ColonelKilgore brutal and psychotic]] Soviet commander who will go to any length to [[UsefulNotes/SovietInvasionOfAfghanistan take over Afghanistan]]. He owns a prison camp and enjoys torturing and killing his prisoners using methods such as electrocution, severe beatings, and tying their arms to a rope and yanking it in the air. When he finds Rambo in an Afghan village, he launches an attack, killing dozens of innocent men, women, and children.

* CriticalResearchFailure: ''Rambo III'' managed to put the hammer and sickle in the center of the Soviet flag rather than in the corner. How do you even make that mistake?