I'm a huge Sylvester Stallone fan. ROCKY is one of the great American movies, and PARADISE ALLEY, FIST, FIRST BLOOD and the underrated NIGHTHAWKS are all fine films. Throw in the best of his sequels - ROCKY III, RAMBO FIRST BLOOD PART II - and his offbeat gems, like THE LORDS OF FLATBUSH, and you've got a steroid-injected body of work that more than makes up for his dogs (admittedly, too many to list here).

Over the last two years, and after a decade of failed attempts, Sly accomplished the near impossible: he resurrected his two signature characters in ROCKY BALBOA and RAMBO - and they were both good! Real good. RAMBO especially raised the bar for Hollywood cinematic combat gore, with amazing CG by J. Scott Coulter. The Italian Stallion managed to leave the characters that made him an action hero icon on the perfect note: Rocky proved he could still throw a punch and apparently died a happy man, and Rambo finally returned home, to the U.S. and his father, on that lonely road where we first met him. Critics and fans alike applauded Stallone's one-two punch and wondered, "What's next?"

Although there were immediate rumblings of a RAMBO V, Stallone instead decided to tackle THE EXPENDABLES, a mercenary flick that may be the perfect throwback to the genre he helped popularize, co-starring Jet Li, Dolph Lundgren, Eric Roberts, Steve Austin and Mickey Rourke, with cameos by Bruce Willis and Governor Ahnuld. Frankly, it could be terrible, but the man has earned the right to try something "different," and what self respecting action fan could possibly resist this "Marvel Team Up" of 80s big guns? Much less interestingly, he also announced a DEATH WISH remake. Bleh.

But none of this can compare to the mind numbing news that Aint It Cool News broke this weekend: Stallone will indeed revive John Rambo one more time. Part of me says "Why tamper with such a strong series finale?" and the other part says, "Go for it!" But this is developing into one strange story, literally. After RAMBO, Stallone warned that V would take the series in a new direction. Okay, that's understandable: he can only put himself through this pace for so long. But V is going through as many permutations as RAMBO did. First reports had Rambo rescuing a girl from drug lords on the U.S. - Mexican border. Okay, this works for me; it's timely, anyway. But the next story had Rambo instead hunting a government created "Super Soldier" in the Pacific Northwest, the original film's setting. The science fiction super soldier idea sounded lame (think UNIVERSAL SOLDIER), but the idea of Rambo running around his old stomping grounds, as the hunter instead of the hunted, had its appeal. But from Stallone's own mouth, the story's concept is even weirder than that. If RAMBO was spiritually a horror film, RAMBO: THE SAVAGE HUNT is the real deal.

That's right, RAMBO V will be a horror film, with Rambo hunting a predator that is "man's most primal fear," some sort of creature rampaging throug the woods. I dread the reaction of Rambo creator David Morrell, who was so pleased with what Stallone did in RAMBO. This is a bad, bad idea. Maybe ROCKY: THE MISSING CHAPTER can find Rock-o fighting space aliens in gladiator combat in an arena on the moon. How about STOP! OR MY VAMPIRE WILL SHOOT, S.T.A.K.E. or TANGO AND MICHAEL MYERS? Don't go there, Sly! Stop the madness! I'll be following the details of this weird, weird movie as they emerge.