Review of Rocky IV (1985) by Danny C — 07 Sep 2010

Rocky III is a very hard act to follow. While there are some really great things Rocky IV does, there are also some really bad and corny things. The story revolves around a mammoth Russian amatuer boxer named Ivan Drago (Dolph Lundgren) who invades the American boxing world and creates a huge media frenzy. Drago immediately challenges Rocky but gets another former champ instead in Apollo Creed. Unfortunate deaths really do happen inside and out of the ring but this is where it gets a little sticky.

Drago accepts the challenge and fights Apollo. During the second round Drago beats Apollo relentlessly to the point of killing Apollo. Having no remorse the Russian states (in one of his three lines in the movie) "If he dies, he dies!" Rocky seeks vengeance for his fallen friend and challenges Drago to a non-title fight to be held in Russia on Christmas day. Apollo's former trainer and father figure Duke becomes Rocky's head trainer and good friend.

It's certainly the most campy and corny of the series but it's still mindblowing nontheless. Seems to me that everyone says "the one with the Russian is my favorite" and it's very clear that without Dolph Lundgren this film would've probably flopped on its ass. The typical ending to a revenge story is the good guy wins avenging his buddy and that's pretty much what happened here. But again this is where it gets sticky. Not only does Rocky beat the unbeatable Siberian Ball but the entire Russian crowd begins to cheer for Rocky at the end. But minutes before they were booing and jeering, almost hateful actually. By the end of the fight it seems as if Rocko settled the Cold War, political war and boxing war all within one fight.

Other than the mild corniness and obvious Stallone and Lundgren roiding, Rocky IV offers some good shit with a great revenge storyline. This one also includes a really awesome training montage that's different than the rest. Rocky goes back to training old school in Russia. Lifting rocks, wheel barrels, running in the snow and benching huge logs. Classic '80s action film stuff and it's still a ton of fun to watch.