10 Hated Movie Performances That Were Secretly Genius

Despite Oscar wins and nominations to his name, Sylvester Stallone remains a perennially underrated talent. As an actor and filmmaker, his rise mirrored that of his most iconic creation, Rocky Balboa, and like Rocky, he continues to be popular with an asterisk. While there are undisputed classics in his filmography, such as the original Rocky and spinoff Creed, like his former screen rival Arnold Schwarzenegger much of his back catalogue has been dismissed as cornball eighties machismo - none more so than the two sequels to First Blood, which released in 1985 and 1988 respectively.

While iconic entries in action cinema, Rambo: First Blood Part II and Rambo III are easily dismissed as political relics that contradict the themes of David Morrell's First Blood novel from 1972, as well as the original film directed by Ted Kotcheff. That very much is the case, as the Rambo sequels abandoned anti-war tenets to relitigate the Vietnam War and then kick Soviet ass in Afghanistan, but that shouldn't obliterate their technical qualities - nor Stallone's magnetic screen presence and charisma.

In First Blood, Stallone perfectly captured the exhaustion and fear of Rambo as he is hunted through the forests of the Pacific Northwest, tapping into feelings of resentment and abandonment many Vietnam veterans grappled with upon their return to the United States. The sequels had a different kind of catharsis in mind, however, and Stallone different onscreen objectives. The eighties were in full swing, America was back, and it was time for muscles - not words - to do the talking.

In those Rambo sequels, Stallone's muscles scream more than they do talk, and it's a valid form of expression. Like Schwarzenegger (and largely egged on by his rivalry with the Austrian heavyweight), Stallone developed his own onscreen language through biceps and explosives, typified in the later Rocky films and in the further adventures of the actor's iconic Vietnam veteran.

The prevailing criticism with both these franchises is that they got away from the essence of what made them a hit to begin with. Rambo III in particular is hailed as an embarrassing monument to eighties excess (it was the most expensive movie ever made at the time of its release), but it's also a spectacular achievement in action filmmaking. Stallone commands the screen from the off, asserting his dominance in his biggest, loudest film to date.

The noise papers over some of the perhaps unintentional attempts at exploring how Rambo is manipulated to take up arms again, but Stallone still retains that trademark mix of angst and sorrow in a way only he can.