Imperfect, but overly maligned

Rating: 7/10 (12 April 2008)

Here is a movie that has taken a lot of heat. Looking back on it after having watched the new final film in the series, Rocky Balboa, I believe some of the extreme negativity came from two places - the fatigue that comes from watching a fifth installment in a movie series, and the belief that this would be the last movie in the series.
As the final film in the series, this movie was a disappointment - Rocky is a boxer, and he never steps into the ring. Also, it is a stylistic departure from the film that immediately preceded - V looks and feels much more like Rocky I than Rocky IV, which may have been jarring to some.
Rocky V works better as a fifth installment rather than as the final film. We can overlook the fact that there is no training montage and that Rocky does not step into the ring. We can accept the stylistic departure from Rocky IV because Balboa continues in the vein of Rocky V. We can get past the unrealistic plot point of Rocky losing all of his fortune, because we see he finds a way to get by in Rocky Balboa.
There are still some things that are simply bad in Rocky V that Rocky Balboa does not make acceptable, namely the fight at the end. Rocky V does not build naturally to a fight - this is a movie that is ultimately about overcoming hardship and the complexities of family life. The fight did nothing to conclude that story - it seemed contractually obligated. It is also strange that his son magically ages several years during the few months that Rocky is in Russia.
Still, it is an acceptable installment in the series, if not an acceptable ending. Stallone gives a better performance than he did in III or IV, and it develops the father-son element of the greater story quite nicely.