Rambo's back; body parts fly

Sylvester Stallone recently brought one of his signature character out of mothballs for a surprisingly decent coda with "Rocky Balboa." Now, 20 years after the laughable third installment in the Rambo series, he gives his superhuman Vietnam vet a grim, hyperviolent send-off that could give you post-traumatic stress disorder.

In embarrassing '80s icon John Rambo's last sighting, he decimated the Soviet army in Afghanistan, shirtless and with beautiful, flowing hair. But harsh images from the Burmese civil war set a different tone right away here.

The surly hulk has settled into the quiet life in Thailand, catching cobras, running a boat, forging metal stuff, and sweating. When American missionaries (Julie Benz and Paul Schulze) ask for a lift across the border to aid refugees, he reluctantly agrees. They're so annoyingly self-righteous they deserve to die, but when they're captured by the Burmese junta, Rambo goes back in — with a handful of mercenaries — to get 'em.

"When you're pushed, killin's as easy as breathin'," he says. And he has the lungs of a Kenyan marathon champ.

"Rambo" isn't as good as its recent companion piece, but it's shockingly entertaining in the no-nonsense degree to which director/co-writer/producer/star Stallone goes for the jugular — and rips off the whole head. The movie's (literally) visceral assault is an over-the-top amplification of "The Wild Bunch" climax by way of "The Matrix" by way of "Schindler's List." Guts fly, limbs get blown off, a throat is torn out, women are raped, children are killed, scores of people are cut to ribbons with machine-gun fire, or blown up — a book I have describes Rambo as "carnography," and this may be the hardest-core mainstream carnography to date.

I don't see lunchboxes for this one.

Mark Rahner: 206-464-8259 or mrahner@seattletimes.com