Rambo Returns to Challenge the Box Office

Jan. 22, 2008 — -- John Rambo could be a great political leader -- he speaks softly and carries a big stick (or submachine gun).

Then again, the disgruntled Vietnam vet is not one for diplomacy. Or diction. Rambo's return will likely blow away this week's box-office competition, but still, check out this week's ABCNEWS.com movie guide to find out which new flicks are worth your time -- and money.

After 20 years in retirement, Sly Stallone's "Rambo" marks the return of the linguistically challenged shirtless solder who packs more heat than the Canadian Armed Forces.

Living a solitary life in Thailand as a bow-and-arrow fisherman (seriously) and venomous-snake catcher (again, not kidding), Rambo gets drawn into saving a group of aid workers held captive by the Myanmar (Burmese) army.

The disgruntled Vietnam vet must dust off the ol' hunting knife and gut the bad guys. Literally. Stallone directs this one, just as he did 2006's "Rocky Balboa." But unlike the character-driven final chapter of "Rocky" -- which was a nod to the series' Academy Award-winning roots, Rambo's fourth installment is an HGH-fueled, flame-thrower-enhanced B-film blood bath that glosses over the political underpinnings of "First Blood." This one's not "for the boys"; it's for Stallone's retirement fund.

Adding a hint of estrogen to this weekend's red meat-filled box office is "Untraceable," a serial-killer thriller starring Diane Lane as FBI cyber unit Special Agent Jennifer Marsh. Along with her partner Griffin Dowd (Colin Hanks), she hunts down a digital baddy who kidnaps people and hooks them up to Internet-linked booby traps -- the more visitors who traffic his death-porn site, the faster his victims die.

Directed by Gregory Hoblit, the man behind 2007's "Fracture," this tech-savvy flick will make you second-guess that next visit to a celebrity news blog. To quote the great Chris Crocker, "Leave Britney alone!"

On the indie-film front, comes two January films that -- gasp --