Rocky ended the Cold War?

ROCKY IV (1985)

Reviewed by Jerry Saravia

"Rocky IV" is the flashiest and emptiest "Rocky" sequel - an MTV video masquerading as a movie and it is something of a letdown, despite the usual rousing finish.

Sylvester Stallone is back as Rocky Balboa, the prosperous underdog who basically has nothing left to prove. He has a mansion, he still has his loving wife, Adrian (Talia Shire), his son, Rocky Jr. (Rocky Krakoff), and his lonely, exasperating brother-in-law, Paulie (Burt Young). Paulie is so lonely that nobody is in attendance at his birthday party except for his sister and Rocky and, get this, a robot!

Cut to a glitzy exhibition fight between Apollo Creed (Carl Weathers) and a Russian boxer on steroids, Captain Ivan Drago (Dolph Lundgren), where there is most certainly going to be a loss (and it is treated as anything but an exhibition fight). Cut to Rocky being the Drago's next likely opponent. Cut to Adrian who doesn't understand why Rocky is going to fight (especially when Rocky refuses to get paid for it). Cut to Rocky training in the cold barren lands of Russia in one of thirty montages in the film, as well as intercutting between Rocky's fierce training outdoors and Drago's training indoors (and close-ups of steroid needles).

The training montages are effective, though some of the linking shots are obtrusive to say the least. For example, Drago fighting one opponent who falls to the floor in slow-motion is intercut with Rocky chopping down a tree - the tree falls as does the opponent. Nice idea, but slipshod in execution. I also like how Rocky trains by pulling dog sleds, carrying logs (as he did in "Rocky II"), running in the three feet of snow, and so on.

"Rocky IV" is reasonably entertaining but it is so preposterous that it makes Rambo look more human than Rocky by comparison. I like that Stallone, serving as writer and director, tackles the formerly Communist Russia as his subject, but did all the Russian diplomats and promoters have to be so cartoonish? And what about the actor playing Gorbachev who applauds with the Russian audience who cheer for Rocky to win the fight? And what about the preposterously cartoonish villain, Drago, who hardly ever utters a single syllable? In fact, Drago's wife (Brigette Nielsen) does all the talking at the press conferences while Drago only has his angry stare in his arsenal of facial expressions.

"Rocky IV" is silly and hardly has much drama in it. All we get are montages set to music and the rousing climax with Rocky draped with an American flag. It is a propagandistic music video - something I never expected the Rocky movies to ever be.