Yo, Adrian! Rocky IV was pretty fun to watch!

Rating: 7/10 (15 May 2014)

The Rocky Series has gone from being Oscar Winner Motion Picture to Over the Top Cheese fest. Rocky IV may be weird, but it's still fun to watch! After all, Rocky IV is most financially successful entry in the Rocky franchise. At less, it's not unwatchable as Rocky V. Rocky IV is probably one of those movies where you should leave logic and reasoning at the door and just have a wild time. I can't hate this movie. It's a guilty pleasure to watch. It's gloriously over the top. Written and directed by Sylvester Stallone, the movie starts off, with Rocky Balboa (Sylvester Stallone) enjoy his life, after his big win fight from 1982's Rocky 3. The fun is short-lived, as Soviet boxer, Ivan Drago (Dolph Lundgren) is looking to dethrone the reigning boxer champions of America. Motivated by patriotism and an innate desire to prove to himself that, he still got it, Apollo Creed (Carl Weathers) challenges Drago to an exhibition bout. The results were not in his favors as Drago beats Apollo mercilessly. Incensed by Drago's cold indifference and feeling a deep sense of guilt, Rocky decides to avenge Apollo's lost by agreeing to fight Drago in Russia on Christmas Day in an unsanctioned 15-round bout. Can Rocky beat the Russian, or will Drago prove to the world, how great, he is as a super athlete? It's awesome to see the near titan like figure of a maxed out Dolph Lundgren towering over the much smaller Stallone. You really can see him as a big challenge to Rocky Balboa even if the plot is pretty damn predictable. Lundgren as Ivan Drago is fine. . I do love the great one-liners from Drago throughout this film. Drago remind me a lot of Max Schmeling. Schmeling was a German boxer who fought Joe Louis in two fights that were seen as conflicts between the United States and Nazi Germany, the same way Drago's fights with Apollo and Rocky were Cold War conflicts. And like Schmeling, Drago dramatically won the first fight and received a vicious beating in the second, the major difference being Joe Louis was avenging his previous loss instead of the death of a friend. Max Baer, another fighter from the same era as Louis and Schmeling, may have been another influence, as Baer killed a man in the ring in a rather similar manner to how Drago end Apollo Creed. The action scenes are great, but Rocky hasn't really been known for boxing realism from the get go. Filming the fighting scenes was a nightmare, as additionally, Stallone claimed that Lundgren nearly forced Carl Weathers to quit due to being too aggression. Indeed, Stallone also got injury by Lundgren, due to the fact, that Lundgren punched him so hard in the chest, Stallone's heart had slammed up against his breastbone and began to swell, cutting off the blood supply and restricting the oxygen flow throughout the body. He nearly died. The cold war propaganda backdrop is a bit cartoony, as the Russians fighter is so one-dimensional evil. I do have to say, Brigitte Nielsen as Drago's wife is amazing add on. She was so fine, back then. Not only did Stallone made the Russians made out to be vicious, but also cheaters, due to the illegal steroids use. The movie makes sure to make Rocky look good, as his character use old fashion hard work farm training to get his muscle tone. Honestly, throwing heavy logs, chops down trees, pulls an overloaded snow sleigh, jogs and even climb a mountain in heavy snow and treacherous icy conditions isn't a very healthy way to train for a fight as a boxer can get back & neck problems. It's so over the top unrealistic. In truth, Sylvester Stallone also cheated to get his body in shape, by using steroids for training for the movie. So all that training montage is damn shame, misleading. I do like the supporting characters returning back, but the film really gave them nothing to work with. Paulie (Burt Young) just accompany Rocky everywhere and use for a bunch of awful jokes like him owning a robot. Yes, a robot, just go with it! Talia Shire as Adrian, just does the old, I'm mad at you wanting to fight routine. It's so tired some. Sylvester Stallone Rocky Balboa here is so far from the Rocky Marciano mixed with Joe Frazier and inspired by Chuck Wepner, Rocky from the first movie. It really feels like two different people. They don't even have "scrolling Rocky" logo in the opening. The world peace speech in the end was somewhat lost in translation as I couldn't understand, a word, he was saying. The movie did give us some great music. 'Hearts On Fire' by John Cafferty, "No Easy Out' by Robert Tepper, and 'Living in America' by James Brown are great songs. Still, I really hoping for the Bill Contri 'Gonna fly now' to make appearance in the film. Vince DiCola did a good job with the soundtrack. Overall: a very enjoyable film with some good 1980's film cheese.