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Brutal, bloody finale: ‘Rambo’ goes over the top, then shoots holes in it

So, have you heard that Sly has released a new comedy?

There’s no other way to describe “Rambo,” the fourth installment in the saga of the supernaturally skilled but severely damaged Vietnam vet who still can’t find a way to bury those old ghosts.

“Rambo,” which opens with the unnerving words, “A film by Sylvester Stallone,” is quite possibly the most graphically violent R-rated flick ever.

It’s so far over the top that it does a loop-de-loop and ends up under the bottom, so absurdly surreal that laughing in dazed disbelief — as I and a great many others did at my screening — seems the only logical response.

What else is there to make of a scene in which a Burmese army unit descends on a tribal village and savagely destroys everyone in it — shooting kids point-blank, turning flamethrowers on old women, bayonetting babies?

In pre-release interviews, Stallone (who co-wrote, directed and produced) says he personally appealed to the ratings board to keep an “R” because “art” that can influence people’s awareness shouldn’t be watered down.

OK, it’s true that there is a tribe called the Karen that lives on the Burma-Thailand border. And it’s true that they have been fighting for independence from Burma (Myanmar) for almost 60 years. And it’s true that the Burmese military has brutally repressed them, to include the kinds of atrocities shown in that scene.

But what, then, is to be made of the later scene in which Rambo takes his inevitable revenge on the troops who razed the village?

It goes on for 20 minutes, with Rambo on a heavy machine gun slinging lead the entire time — a CGI orgy of exploding heads, severed limbs and ripped-open guts. And as if that’s not enough, doughnut holes are blown in several bodies through which daylight can be seen on the other side.

“Art,” indeed.

What Stallone seeks to do here is bring John Rambo full circle to some form of closure, as he did two years ago with Rocky Balboa.

He pulled it off with Rocky, ending that saga on a graceful and dignified note. But it proves much tougher to do with Rambo, who’s always been pure cartoon.

The 61-year-old actor is much thicker than back in his heyday; the jowls are heavier, the eyes droopier, the monosyllables more gravelly and guttural.

If nothing else, these attributes are quite apt for this character at this point. Rambo is still a bitter misanthrope, now almost more animal than human, eking out an existence — it can’t even be called a living — by trapping cobras and pythons to sell to a threadbare riverbank snake show in the Thai jungle.

He’s approached by a group of missionaries, including Sarah (Julie Benz), who want to hire him to take them upriver in his longboat to a Karen village on the Burmese border so they can, as Sarah says, help change the world for the better.

Rambo’s reply: “F--- the world.”

But he can’t resist a cute gal, and soon they’re headed upriver. After Rambo drops them off, Burmese troops led by Maj. Tint (Maung Maung Khin), a sadistic, homosexual pedophile (no, I’m not kidding), raze the village and take the missionaries hostage.

A church elder asks Rambo to ferry a small group of mercs, led by a mouthy former SAS officer (Graham McTavish), back upriver for a rescue attempt. And you know Rambo’s not staying on the sidelines for that one. After all, he has “war in his blood.”

Stallone can blather all he wants about “art” — and he may even half-believe it. But it’s hard to imagine any viewers buying that load; this is about blood, guts, carnage and mayhem.

Hard-core action-film fans who have tracked this saga from the start (I’m a charter member of that club) no doubt will want to check out “Rambo.”

But honestly, there’s not much point anymore.

Rated R for language, sexual assaults and extremely graphic violence. Got a rant or rave about the movies? E-mail cvinch@militarytimes.com.

‘Rambo,’ 2½ stars