Rocky Balboa Getting Involved In His Most Personal Fight

Rating: 7/10 (15 October 2017)

The fourth movie of Rocky a.k.a Rocky IV has Rocky Balboa involved in his most personal fight in terms of friendship and as an American citizen as his next opponent Ivan Drago,a boxer from the Soviet Union with whom the United States is in Cold War with and who killed his best friend and former opponent Apollo Creed on the ring during a boxing exhibition match.
Sylvester Stallone stars,wrote the screenplay and directed the movie.Others in the cast includes Talia Shire,Burt Young,Carl Weathers and Tony Burton - all of whom reprise their roles as Adrian,Paulie,Apollo Creed and Duke respectively together with Dolph Lundgren as Ivan Drago and Stallone's ex-wife,Brigitte Nielsen,who does the speaking for Drago as the boxer's pretty pretty Russian wife.
No question this fourth Rocky film is by-the-numbers or formulaic movie and one could consider it simply as an action film or the weakest Rocky film yet before Rocky V was released.
Personally,I consider it as the second to the worst Rocky with the exception of Rocky V.No question that it earned a lot at the box office when it was released more than 30 years ago.Aside from the underdog theme that made the Rocky movie franchise and its spin-off movie franchise Creed very popular,this fourth movie added American patriotism as well as the Cold War as new themes together with revenge and friendship especially when Rocky went to the Soviet Union to fight Drago after killing Apollo in the ring.No question who was going to win the fight between Rocky and Drago as the viewer expected to see Rocky avenge the death of his friend and win for the Americans.In addition to that,we also get to witness the Soviet fans liking Rocky near the end of his fight(really?) and gaining their admiration.While there were no character development made on the characters from Rocky,Adrian,Paulie and Rocky Jr.,the film simply could be classified as an action film or purely a sports film.
While there is a lot of fun and entertainment in it especially by showing how technology is used to develop athletes like Drago,it does not present any new message about life and life's challenges unlike its previous films especially Rocky I,it definitely is somehow shallow and empty for the movie is just like a 2-hour MTV as well filled with 80's music like Hearts of Fire.