1990 was a Terrible year for Pop Culture

Rating: Null/10 (10 January 2004)

The Rocky movies have always been products of their times, and Rocky V is no different. The story is unbelievably stupid, but what makes this film truly wretched for me is the corny 1990 pop cultural references. 1990 was a sh*tty, sh*tty year. M.C. Hammer, Andrew Dice Clay, New Kids on the Block, Arsenio Hall, Milli Vanilli, a lousy President with Bush Sr. and a terrible movie called Rocky V. Believe me, I'm well into my 20's and old enough to remember 13-14 years ago very clearly. 1990 was a year that wasn't really the late 80's, but it was caught in a bizzare limbo time where the 1990's was still in it's embryonic stages of development and not fully there. So what you had was lots of ugly left over neon and silly grungy fashions thrown together in a forgettable collage or mush of pop culture. And some VERY EMBARRASSING club dance and rap songs. Remember C&C Music Factory? *shudder*, ugghhh...
Back to the movie, the story picks up immediatley after Part IV, which would keep the film in 1985, but it's 1990 and his son has visibly aged 5 years as has everyone else. Whatever. After the repeated and very brutal beatings to the head that Rocky received from Ivan Drago in Part IV, Rocky now has brain damage. What a surprise? Rocky was an idiot that couldn't even read in the first movie, then he became super smart and cultured in III and IV. But at least in the first movie he was a lovable idiot, in Rocky V, Balboa is just a complete moron. Balboa has also lost all the money and fame he had in III and IV and now he's back in the poor house as a bum just like in the first movie from the mid 1970's. Obviously, Sylvester Stallone wanted to capture the heart and feel of the first movie, but he failed miserably. This is an embarrassing film, much like Karate Kid Part III. The Don King like villain and the new upcoming fighter Tommy Gunn are just flat out stupid.
This movie was released in 1990, and it never helped Rocky V that EVERYTHING in this movie looked horribly outdated by late 1991. The the other films, while contexualized in their own time as well, were more stylish and timeless. Sure Rocky III and IV screams 80's as does I and II the 70's, but they were all in a good way. Rocky V just stinks.