Rocky IV

Rating:
Summary: Rocky destroyed
Review: I think, Rocky II, III, IV an V, sunk the Rocky image, the unique, the original is Rocky (1976) and Bill Conti's Music. I put 1 star,
cause I can't give it 0

Rating:
Summary: Captain Amazo and Rocky vs. The Red Menace
Review: In the 80's even while we were busy shooting at Megatron from the back of a Trans Am, one thought lingered in our minds: The Commies are out to get us. At least, that is, until The Italian Stallion, Rocky Balboa, used the power of his dreams to knock Socialism flat on it's Red ass, all to a soundtrack by America's Ultimate Band, SURVIVOR!

Even though Rocky III had Hulk Hogan AND Mr. T, this film's combination of 80's power rock and the Cold War makes it, in my (totally sweet)opinion, it just might be the single greatest thing ever achieved by America since we launched Jim Kelly and his karate dog sidekick into space on a star-spangled taco.

Rating:
Summary: An entertaining movie, but it didn't have that "Rocky" feel.
Review: I'm a huge Rocky fan so, therefore, I feel it is my duty to watch each edition in the Rocky series whenever I know its on even if I don't happen to like it as much as the others. Rocky IV falls into that category. It's an entertaining film. The fight scenes at the end are only surpassed by the fights scenes from Rocky II, and it's edited extremely well, but it just didn't feel like a real Rocky movie. In IV, there is a Russian invasion into the world of boxing. The Soviets boast about an indestructable boxer, Ivan Drago (Dolph Lungren) that is the "wave of the future". This angers Apollo Creed to the point that he come out of retirement to take on the huge Russian. He persuades Rocky to be in his corner. This is where the main plot comes into play. Apollo dies at the hands of the huge Russian and now Rocky must avenge his death by challenging Drago to a fight in Mother Russia. I don't want to give the rest of it away, but I'm pretty sure you can figure out how it ends.The thing I found most disapointing about this film is that it had the least amout of character development of any of the Rocky releases. The usual characters are there (Adrian, Paulie, Apollo and even Duke the trainer plays a significant role) but they all just seem to be props for the Rocky character. Adrian is reluctant for Rocky to fight, but doesn't really add much to the plot, Paulie acts like more of a doofus than his usual "edgy" self, and Duke (Tony Burton) is trainer who hasn't died yet. And Rocky himself acts closer to Stallone's Rambo character than the usual fun-loving, wise-cracking Rocky. This film just didn't have the heart of any of the previous Rocky films. They didn't even have "Flying High" to accompany the usual "big fight training montage". Maybe Stallone didn't want the usual formula which is odd since this movie seems extremely formulatic(sp?). Anyway, as I said, it's entertaining, and it's not the worst movie ever made (in-fact it was the third highest grossing film of '85), but for me, personally, I'll give this film a "thumps sort of in the middle."