ROCKY IV

This time Rocky becomes more like Charles Bronson, as he looks to avenge the death of his best friend Apollo at the hands of Ivan Drago (Lundgren) a Russian superman who can punch 2000 PSI and is honked up on steroids, he also kills Apollo Creed (Weathers) in an ill advised exhibition match and so Rocky goes to Siberia trains to beat the Russian and well you can pretty much guess the rest.

The only thing that changes about this formula is the villain, and Dolph Lundgren makes for an enjoyable villain, certainly imposing and the best thing in this ridiculous and boring sequel. Stallone pads this thing out so much, that there is less time for the training montage, in fact the scene between Rocky and Adrian with the cake is truly as painfully corny as it gets, there is a really, really stupid robot this time and the film doesn’t even work in the vein of the third one, Indeed because Stallone loads this thing with endless music videos and would be moments of heart, it’s only in the second half that Rocky IV comes somewhat alive and thankfully the final fight is a real show stopper, but to get to that you have to watch some really dumb music videos and overall this makes Rocky IV dull and ridiculous.

Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3