Instead of giving the audience a character driven story, Sylvester Stallone creates a film that looks more like an extended rock video than a continuation of his Oscar winning story. The plot concerns Ivan Drago, a scientifically enhanced Soviet boxer who kills Apollo Creed in an exhibition match. This places Heavyweight champion Rocky Balboa in the position of avenging Creed's death in a boxing match to be held in the Soviet Union. The full screen presentation is fine for undiscriminating audiences, however the Letterboxed transfer remains preferable. The transfer is super looking, thanks to Bill Butler's glossy, music video like cinematography.
Colors are vivid and the image is finely detailed.
Digital compression artifacts remained in check throughout both presentations. The Dolby Digital 5.1 channel soundtrack had good channel separation in the front, but I was hard pressed to detect anything happening in the rear. Other soundtrack options include a matrixed Dolby Surround track, plus French and Spanish language tracks. Subtitles are available in English, French and Spanish.