BY GLENN WHIPP >FILM CRITIC.

Meet the new Rambo. Same as the old Rambo.

Twenty years may have passed, but little has changed for the monosyllabic fighting machine who once battled communist bogeymen an

Rambo movie No. 4, titled simply "Rambo," is a throwback to a brand of action flick that fell out of favor when Stallone and Schwarzenegger aged and suitable replacements (anyone remember Howie Long on the big screen?) could not be found and groomed.

Hollywood moved on to Marvel and different formulas, but Rambo remains Rambo, a relic of the '80s. Interestingly, the relative ab new "Rambo" something of a curio that will satisfy genre enthusiasts whose taste for (first) blood cannot be quenched by costumed The movie, which Stallone co-wrote and directed, finds a jowly Rambo lurching to life after a couple of decades of inactivity. Wh a moment and mumbles, "It's complicated."

That's as much of a back story as you'll find here, with Stallone never hinting at the possibility that Rambo is now a relic of a s to Rambo's first killing spree by saying, "Taking a life is never right," it's clear moments later that what this 98-pound weakl "War is in your blood," Rambo tells himself, while forging a new killing stick. "When pushed, killing's as easy as breathing.' I'll say! My note-taking has its limits, but one writer tallied Rambo's personal kills here at 84. This is all in the service of cidal thugs while delivering "medical supplies and prayer books."

Rambo's generous offer of help goes against the bleep-the-world attitude he expresses initially. But he has a moment with idealis ment, Rambo remains peculiarly uninterested in sex -- and after telling her approximately 153 times that you can't change the world, ed you have enough ammo.

While the intervening decades haven't altered Rambo, they have sharpened movie magic, giving the new "Rambo" a gruesomeness onl s are gutted, fried and blown to bits with a special emphasis paid to decapitations. (Again, I lost count.)

Not that restraint has ever been a Stallone hallmark, but he seems positively giddy here, if in an old-school way. The man hasn't ape, torture and blood-letting on display in "Rambo," it wouldn't be far off the mark to call him Roth's spiritual godfather.

Glenn Whipp, [phone]

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RAMBO - Two stars

>R: strong graphic bloody violence, sexual assaults, grisly images and language

>Starring: Sylvester Stallone.

>Director: Sylvester Stallone.

>Running time: 1 hr. 33 min.

>Playing: Area wide.

>In a nutshell: Still killing after all these years.

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Sarah (Julie Benz) and Rambo (Sylvester Stallone) seem to lose track of their eye-for-an-eye tally as the bodies pile up in their quest to free Christian missionaries in Burma in "Rambo." It's 62-year-old Stallone's fourth venture into the franchise, and it's been 20 years since the previous sequel.