Rambone-headed

Hot on the heels of 2006's "Rocky Balboa," the film that resurrected Sylvester Stallone's signature character 15 years after the series' last installment, Stallone's new picture "Rambo" breathes life into traumatized Vietnam veteran John Rambo after an almost-20-year hiatus. \nWe meet up with Rambo amidst his pursuit of the simple life just outside the borders of the civil-war-stricken Burma. He has kept himself fit via a regimen of wrangling exotic snakes for a seedy tourist joint, transporting passengers in his ancient-looking longboat and, of course, keeping a fresh supply of clean-head bandanas.\nUnfortunately, this quiet life is interrupted by a Christian missionary group that requests Rambo's assistance in traveling to war-torn Burma to aid civilians. It's a given that Rambo initially says "no," then quickly agrees due to a lifeless dialogue sequence with the earnest missionary Sarah (Julie Benz) that takes place in the pouring rain for no discernible reason. Also a given is the missionary group's capture, the appearance of a colorful group of mercenaries that aid in the search to find them and Rambo's iron-faced decision to burn all of Burma to the ground in hopes that he can save the whole hopeless lot of them.\nThe film is sprinkled with Rambo's signature characteristics. Rambo still wears head bandanas, and they all look surprisingly fresh and clean. His hair still always seems to be wet. There's still something amazingly fun about watching him scream while firing a fully automatic weapon. The result is an average action film that tries honorably to change the stifling cookie-cutter form of the cliched genre yet falls short in its attempt.\nThe acting isn't all bad. Rather, the movie-poster dialogue seems impossible to say without coming across as a bad actor ("Live for nothing or die for something"). The film's extreme violence is shocking at first, yet in the end it seems excessive. Rambo's faceless enemy lacks any depth that would make him appear scary; his evilness is shown only through the slaughtering of civilians and the defiling of many a young boy.\nThe film is fun at its best, lifeless and unmoving at its worst, but overall able to moderately please the average Rambo fan.