80's Time Capsule

Rating: 6/10 (23 August 2019)

Here's a fun game; if you had to choose films to show to millennials to explain the 80's, what would you pick? The serious minded amongst you might go for Wall Street or if you wanted to illustrate how Vietnam stilled loomed in the American psyche you could go for Platoon. Cold War hysteria could be summed up by The Day After or WarGames. But if it's pop culture you're after, then you might choose a John Hughes film, or if you wanted to show how MTV culture took over then you might go for Flashdance.
But maybe the best choice would be Rocky IV which squishes together all of the above in just 90 minutes. PLUS it features a talking robot and a pulsing soundtrack of 80's power rock.
In the film, Rocky fights for World Peace by attempting to beat the living snot out of an evil Russian. No, don't laugh, just 6 years after this film was released, the Soviet Union fell. Coincidence? I think not.
The film itself is literally one cliche after another, accompanied by endless montages. And yet it is still somehow lovable. Possibly because it IS so familiar, so formulaic, so flashy and so desperate to work its audience into a frenzy.
In the end, while you will find yourself cringing at the dialogue, it's hard not to get caught up in it all. I defy even a hardened cynic from enjoying the movie.
But seriously, what the heck is it with that talking robot? I've seen this film about a dozen times and have no idea what the point of it is. Poor Burt Young, his character went from being a serious Pauly to being a stooge for a glorified vacuum cleaner.