Our POST Movie Reviews continue as Rocky Balboa travels to the USSR to face his greatest challenge yet: Communism.
ROCKY
VERSUS
DRAGO
Rocky trains his friend Apollo Creed in a match against Drago, an indestructible Russian boxer. But when Apollo is killed in the ring during the match, Rocky vows to avenge his friend’s death.
Leave your feedback, questions, and favourite quotes below. Tune in to the review Tuesday on Patreon as John and I are joined by film buff and friend, Ed Boxler.
This was the first movie in the Rocky franchise I ever saw, so I find it difficult to separate my feelings about the film from those of the kid version of myself who watched it decades ago on VHS with school friends.
At that age, this film felt like near perfection, featuring:
That said, I do remember vividly even my younger self laughing out loud at the notion of the Soviet crowd chanting Rocky’s name, and Gorbachev himself instigating the obligatory cheesy movie standing ovation.
I’ll always have fond memories of this film, but I rewatched it on Saturday for the first time in many years, and it strikes me now as not at all surprising that it was pretty much panned by critics, who had, I guess, seen the calibre of the franchise go into sharp decline at this point.
** One thing that struck me on rewatching: I was particularly disappointed that Apollo’s only real purpose in this film is to die, and to do so by taking a fight that this very savvy character in the earlier films would have known was well beyond his ability.
Imran from Huddersfield
Could this be the cheesiest movie in the franchise? Possibly… with the big foreign baddy, avenging a fallen friend and some fist pumping montages… but then that’s the charm isn’t it? Rocky going to Russia to defeat the monster and win over the people… 'cos If I can change and you can change, then everybody can change!.. assuming that change is to be more American of course.
Dolph is definitely the star of the show for me, with his physicality and nailing what few lines he had that they’re now still quoted decades later… but the decision to kill of Creed and thus his absence for the rest of the movie is felt. Still, enjoyable fare but I would put it 4th from the first four entries so far.
Question - Do you see WWE ever going back to storylines inspired by real-world politics? Or is that almost certainly a thing of the past now.
What can I say about Rocky 4?
It’s a beloved film by many, but also on a filmmaking level, a really bad movie. Montage after montage after montage. Gone is any sense of realism or believability in the character, replaced with Rocky as an 80’s Action hero. Settling the cold war, in the ring.
I won’t argue that it’s not a crowd pleasing or fun film… But really sticks out when you put all the film’s next to one another - as the odd man out in terms of quality of film.
Continuing with Rocky as a mirror to Stallone’s career and journey through Hollywood, Rocky has become a superhero. Stallone, for better or worse too, settled into a role of movie mega star, for which he would be best thought of for the next 15 years or so. Occasionally the actor he was known as early in his career would shine through in roles - but many people had accepted him as the action hero caricature.
It also doesn’t help that John Rambo too went through a similar, but much more accelerated, turn from realistic character to action hero. In the same year as Rocky 4, Rambo II was released. Seeing Rambo become largely a one dimensional over the top war hero. And then by Rambo III, he too was fighting the cold war, joining forces as a freedom fighter along side the Taliban to take down the evil Russians.
Back to Stallone and Rocky 4… I guess at this point in the 80’s, it was inevitable where the character would go. Nothing about Americana in 1985 was average or realistic…A movie star president. Hulkamania running wild. G.I Joe. Monster trucks. The rise of other action heroes like Chuck Norris and Arnold Schwarzenegger…
Rocky becoming a superhero makes sense to a degree. And of course nothing says 80’s excess like a robot helper.
Brandon from Ottawa
I’m excited to hear your thoughts on this one. ROCKY IV is far and away my sentimental favorite of the entire franchise. Much like Drago, this entire film is like the 1980s on steroids. Simply climbing the steps in Philadelphia not big enough? How about having Rocky scale a mountain! The stakes are raised in every conceivable area. We go from Rocky fighting as a virtual unknown in the first film all the way to Rocky having to carry the virtues of democracy on his shoulders against the tyranny of Communism on the world stage. I mean, it’s blown up to the point where we’re led to believe that Balboa had ended the Cold War at the movie’s conclusion!
You may have already discussed this in your review, but Stallone is currently working on a director’s cut for this one. He said on his Instagram that he is planning on removing Paulie’s robot from the film. When asked why in the comments, he simply said, “I don’t like the robot anymore.”
How dare he?!