The Least 'Rocky' Movie Of The Rocky Franchise

Rating: 8/10 (4 January 2007)

Continuing my plan to watch every Sly Stallone movie in order, I come to Rocky IV.
I will say right from the off, this movie is the greatest cinematic going experience of my life. Nothing even comes close. The double header of 'Rocky 3' and 'First Blood' gave Stallone the best year of his career in 1982. After flopping big time in 1984 with Rhinestone, as the new muscle man on the block Arnold Schwarzenegger scored big with The Terminator. Stallone hoped lightning would strike twice in 1985 with the pairing of the patriotic 'Rambo: First Blood Part 2' and even more patriotic 'Rocky IV' The whole plot of Rocky IV could be put on the back of a postage stamp, so my usual plot in a paragraph part will be tricky, but here we go.
Plot In A Paragraph: Apollo dies in a boxing match with a Russian. Rocky seeks revenge. Nothing else happens.
This is the least 'Rocky' of all the Rocky movies. Stallone is nothing like the Rocky character of the previous movies. It's basically Just Stallone being Stallone. This is the only Rocky film where the music is not composed by Bill Conti. No 'Gonna Fly Now' no Museum steps, in fact no Philadelphia at all. This is also the only Rocky film that doesn't begin with the word "ROCKY" scrolling across the screen in some shape or form. But more damagingly it lacks any real heart.
But despite the fact that the film is wafer thin, unrealistic and pretty silly, I still can't help but love Rocky IV. Stallone really took to the MTV style of editing in 'Rocky 3' and does it again here, with the training montages, Survivor/James Brown/Robert Tepper tunes, etc. very well. I personally enjoyed the contrasts-see Stallone chop wood. See Drago pump iron. See Stallone run across a snowy field. See Drago run on an Olympic treadmill. See Stallone do crunches while half-suspended from a loft. See Drago bend every conceivable advanced weight machine outta shape as he flexes and trains. See Stallone eat his spinach. See Drago take his Steroids....
Stallone was in the shape of his life in this year as he filmed Rambo and Rocky movies back to back, and it shows. I have never seen a more sculpted man in the movies than he was here. One of the silliest things about Rocky IV is the fact that it's basically just one big music video – it should have been renamed Rocky: The Musical.Whenever a bit of character development is called for another music video kicks in.Apollo's is whipping up patriotism 'living in America' Oh, Apollo's dead? We'll have a music video of Rocky moodily driving his car ('There's no easy way out'). Oh, Rocky's got to go to Russia? We'll have shots of Russian soldiers and we'll play some pop song about two worlds colliding "Two worlds collide, rival nations."
But ignore that and watch it again and try to remember what it was like when you first saw this film back in the summer of 85. I remember I was 8 and my sister took me to see it.I remember the place was packed and you want to talk about a place erupting like a volcano, then this was the place. When Rocky finally hits Drago to cut him over the eye and Duke yells " he's cut, he's cut! " the crowd went into a frenzy. And you can look no further than that as to why the Rocky films were so popular. It doesn't matter if you are American, Portuguese, Polish or Dutch or whatever, Rocky appeals to all of us. That is the beauty of Rocky. If Rocky can do it then dammit so can I! When the movie ended on that cold night back in 1985, and people were filtering out to their cars for the drive home, I swear I could hear the crowd chanting his name, as did the millions..... and millions of the Rock's fans.
" Rocky! Rocky! Rocky!"
On my normal scoring chart this would rate a 7. But childhood nostalgia bumps it up to a generous 8