Review of Rocky IV (1985) by Tony P — 23 Dec 2016

The movie joins together familiar elements of the now well established Rocky franchise and the simmering tensions of the cold war in the 1980s. The story concerns a biological freak Soviet amateur boxer called Ivan Drago who comes onto the scene to challenge the established (and mainly US) heavyweight boxing fraternity.

Series veteran Apollo Creed (Carl Weathers) comes out of retirement to take on the Soviet (played by Dolph Lundgren) in a typically camp US exhibition fight. Drago uses his powers to the max. and kills Creed in the process.

Heavyweight champion and Creed friend Rocky Balboa must take on Drago in an unsanctioned fight in the USSR on Dec. 25th! Balboa faces the arctic Russian conditions to train for the bout in Moscow in front of a partisan crowed and members of the Soviet politburo!

The training scenes are great but the final fight is a farce! The sound effects of each punch are worse than WWE. Balboa takes so much punishment from Drago throughout the fight he would be dead in reality.

Anyway as the fight wears on the partisan Moscow crowd start to warm to Balboa much to the annoyance of the Soviet high command. Drago becomes frustrated as Balboa starts to make some impact on the fight cutting Drago in the process and refusing to be defeated. Eventually Balboa somehow knocks Drago out and wins the fight.

In his victory address which is really corny and typically American, Balboa (Stallone) tells the crowd that they have changed, he has changed, everybody can change!

Some issues that annoyed me on watching the film. Why is Balboa's brother in law Pauley (Young) allowed to sit at press conferences and in the corner team. He is a useless peripheral character.

Creeds old trainer Duke doesnt age throughout the series including Rocky Balboa.

When watching the end credits it is revealed that the Russia scenes in reality were filmed in snowy British Columbia, Canada.

The film is relatively short for an action film so is a good time waster if you're bored. Not a bad entry. Certainly better than Rocky V. Stallone should have ended the series on a high here.

The soundtrack is excellent and has some excellent energized anthems throughout.