A Sad Ending To A Tired Series

Rating: 2/10 (25 July 2002)

Oh the depths to which the Academy Award winning "Rocky" eventually fell. I can understand Sylvester Stallone wanting to have some closure with the "Rocky" series by bringing it full circle - especially after the abysmal "Rocky IV." The problem is that this fifth installment in the series is only marginally better than the previous disaster. There might be some spoilers coming up, so beware from here on in.
Everything in this movie is stale. It's been done before in the series. We even have Burgess Meredith back in this one, with either some old film that was cut from the original movie, or some new footage that he shot especially for this, as Rocky flashes back to some of the wisdom Micky shared with him (and that we've never seen before) as he prepared for his first fight with Apollo Creed. Burt Young gets to play Paulie as a drunkard again, Talia Shire (who seems particularly uninterested in playing Adrian again and doesn't seem to put much effort into the role) gets to yell "Rocky!" one last time and she offers a couple more pep talks, and Rocky (after being somewhat more cultured in the last couple of movies) regresses to his almost incoherent form from the original. They all seem to be playing caricatures of once great characters. There's even a caricature of Don King, in the character of the evil promoter George Washington Duke (Richard Gant.)
Anyway the storyline is a bit silly, but here goes. Rocky is brain damaged after his fight with the giant Russian in Rocky IV. (Rocky brain-damaged? Who'd have guessed it!) So he retires, but Duke has a particularly rude fighter named Union Cane (now there's a name for a fighter) who wants a shot at the title (shades of Clubber Lang here - I told you there wasn't much original to this.) But Rocky retires, ends up managing an up and comer named Tommy Gunn (Tommy Morrison) who then dumps Rocky because he gets tired of being seen as Rocky's protege (now did he really think that as an unknown being trained by an ex-champ he'd ever escape from Rocky's shadow?) and the two of them - well, if you can sit through it you'll find out what happens in one of the dumbest endings I've ever seen to a movie.
A couple of problems with the story that really bugged. (1) OK, Rocky loses all his money because of a crooked accountant. I can see that. Paulie thinks he should do endorsements. Sounds right to me. He's a two-time heavyweight champion of the world, a hero to the "common folk." Who better to endorse various products? But his handlers say "no." Seems no company would want him as a spokesman because of a minor criminal conviction many years ago. But then his people argue for a return to the ring, based on his immense popularity. Huh? If he's so immensely popular why couldn't he get endorsements? That doesn't make sense to me. (2) After having to move back to the old neighbourhood, Rocky is worried that his son is going to be the target of toughs at his new school. A reasonable concern. So, to make him him seem really tough I guess, Rocky walks him to school the first day and in front of the school toughs calls out "Daddy loves you." (?) That's really going to help. And Rocky Jr. seems a bit too old for all the hugs and kisses dad gives him - my opinion anyway.
Anyway, it's very sad to see how far the "Rocky" franchise fell after an Oscar-winning beginning and two relatively entertaining sequels. This one gets 2/10, only because - as I said - it's marginally better than its horrible predecessor.