There's no easy way out. There's no shortcut home.

Rating: 7/10 (1 February 2019)

Rocky Balboa (Sly Stallone) is once again doing what he does best, and this time there's more at stake in the grand scheme of things. He's set to fight an imposing, superhuman Russian (Dolph Lundgren, in his big breakthrough role), all in the name of avenging a friends' untimely death and fighting for the greater glory of the U.S. of A.
The formula in these films still works wonders, with Sly in fine form. He's as affable as he's ever been, and functioning as writer, director & star, he came up with an effectively simple, straightforward story. There's no deep thinking with an audience-pleaser like this one, you just go with the good vibes and are more than willing to root for the underdog for another round. Many of Rocky's friends and family have their doubts as to how well he'll fare against a monster like Lundgren, but as he sees it, THIS is what Rocky does. He's damn good at it, and by God, he's going to persevere.
Sly does know just how to push our buttons, and does it with style. A fair bit of the running time here is devoted to montage; the best one showcases the contrasting methods of training for Sly and Lundgren. The latter has all manner of technology available to him, while Rocky goes completely old-school. And even with all the montage, this may be the shortest Rocky film to date at just an hour and 32 minutes.
Rocky's support system - wife Adrian (Talia Shire, looking the best she's looked in this series), comedy relief brother in law Paulie (Burt Young), corner man Duke (Tony Burton) - continue to supply goodwill for the viewers. Lundgren is a true physical specimen as the cold-blooded villain, even if he doesn't have much of a character to play. Brigitte Nielsen is adequate as his wife. Michael Pataki is good as a Russian braggart. But it's Carl Weathers as Apollo who gives the best performance; Apollo is out to prove to himself and to others that he's NOT over the hill and still has plenty of fight in him.
The rousing rock & pop soundtrack and Vince DiColas' score do help to get you in a fired-up mood. And the editing (by John W. Wheeler and Don Zimmerman) is first-rate.
Good fun for series fans.
However: the less said about the robot, the better.
Seven out of 10.