Thank god for Rocky Balboa

Rating: 2/10 (15 March 2009)

Being a kid in the 90s, the Rocky films have a special place in my heart. I remember in 1996, Rocky 1-4 were shown on consecutive days on TV. I was not aware that Rocky 5 existed until I bought the box set in 2002.
I watched Rocky (9/10), Rocky 2 (9/10), Rocky 3 (8/10) and Rocky 4 (9/10) back to back and with great anticipation I placed the Rocky 5 disc into the DVD player.
When the movie finished, I thought to myself: "what the hell was that?" I expected it to follow the formula of the previous rocky films (the montage, big fight at the end etc) and thought that that was the problem. I watched it the next day and had that same feeling again.
Rocky 5 has the "dodgy sequel effect" on the previous films in that their quality is diminished by the fact that Rocky, our hero whom we look up to and admire for his iron chin and unbreakable spirit has been reduced to a broken down man who trains some punk kid and ignores his own kids in turn.
This is not the Rocky we know and love, this is a derivative piece of junk that is detested by fans (both hardcore and casual). It is a waste of a film. The only reason that this has a 2/10 and not a 1/10 is that the fight at the end is pretty well choreographed.
However. You lucky people who have not seen any Rocky films and are considering purchasing the Rocky box set have the option of not watching this and instead watching the vastly superior Rocky Balboa instead.
Note to Stallone, Still waiting for the following films from you: Rocky 7, another Rambo and Copland 2. Oh, and give my regards to your mom.