Camp meets propaganda to create nearly the ultimate 80s flick

Rating: Null/10 (30 April 2003)

Awesome camp combines with propaganda filmmaking to shame Eisenstein and Riefenstahl, in another entry in the always-entertaining Rocky series. ROCKY IV was released in the same year in which Stallone gave us RAMBO: FIRST BLOOD PART II, and refashions Rocky Balboa as another superpatriotic icon of American brawn (he even gives a Rambo-esque "political" speech at the end). Jingoism aside, ROCKY IV is also as 80s as it gets, with a supporting role for Brigitte Nielsen, as well as a robot addition to the Balboa household that looks like the kind of thing that could nowadays be picked up for a few dollars at Toys R Us, and more soft rock and synth pop tunes than you could shake a stick at. (Stir in Kim Basinger and some gratuitous nudity, and you'd pretty much have the ultimate 80s movie.) In a move that perhaps no filmmaker has ever replicated, the running time is padded out by the awesomely cheeky means of dropping an MTV-style promo consisting of clips from earlier ROCKY flicks into the middle of the movie! Still, ROCKY IV is slick and fun, with some great moments: the scene in which Russian boxer Ivan Drago (a superb Dolph Lundgren), finds himself being raised on a moving ring into the Las Vegas venue where he's fighting Apollo Creed, accompanied by a live performance of James Brown's "Living In America" and the tackiest imaginable celebration of Americana, complete with dancers and fireworks, is truly inspired - Drago clearly has no idea what's going on, and the expression of bewilderment and contempt on his face is priceless. As the larger-than-life Creed, Carl Weathers dominates the first third of the picture, while Talia Shire and Burt Young are as good as ever.