Rocky IV

The sheer effort Dolph (Ivan Drago), Sylvester (Rocky Balboa) and Carl (Apollo Creed) must have gone into training for this film must have been truly awesome. They all look amazingly fit and sculptured. I think more so than any current modern day boxer.

Kudos to Dolph who in almost his first major feature film (his first was View to a Kill) made, at least for me, a major impact. Despite his lack of dialog "I must break you" is right up there with Schwarzenegger's "I'll be back". He looked amazingly strong - a freak almost - just as the plot intended. Scary. He looked even taller than the 6 inch difference between him and Stallone (Lundgren 6'4", Stallone 5'10").

I would think that difference in height/reach would make him nigh on impossible to defeat if this were REAL. Of course it is a movie. Dolph is the highlight and was sad to see Apollo's demise (but at least it shut him up). The writers must have based Apollo's character on Muhammed Ali surely! Am currently watching Rocky V and is interesting so far!

Here's another low-brained but very entertaining "Rocky" movie with one more interesting villain. Instead Of "Apollo Creed" or "Mr. T.," we now have "Ivan Drago,"(Dolph Lundgren) a giant Russian who is more like a machine. He's "indestructable" (and on steroids, too, and unlike some baseball slugger, he admits it!). He has the latest in technology, nutrition, etc., but you just know the much-smaller disadvantaged hero "Rocky Balboa" (Sylvester Stallone) will somehow find a way to chop this "Goliath" down.

Minute-for-minute, this might be the most entertaining of all the Rocky films, and looks good on DVD despite some graininess in the first five minutes. Rocky's wife "Adrian" (Talia Shire) never looked better: mature and pretty; the gruff and profane manager played Burgess Meredith is gone and the repellent obnoxious slob "Paulie" (Burt Young) has only a few lines.

This is the ultimate "David vs. Goliath" tale in every aspect and the final bout - held in Russia - breaks the all-time Rocky record for most punches ever thrown at two fighters. Of course, any real-life human would have been knocked cold about 50 times had they suffered the blows "Rocky" did in this fight!

This is a real flag-waving film with Rocky draping the Stars and Stripes around his shoulders. It's a totally unrealistic story but, all of these in the series were similar, credibility-wise, so just go along with it and enjoy the story. It's only an hour-and-a-half and story literally flies by.

In 1976, a phenom was born. By now we are all aware of the story of how Stallone wrote the screenplay for Rocky in three days after watching a fight between an extreme underdog and a highly favoured champ. Stallone was a nobody back then yet he still stood his ground and didn't sell out to the producers until they promised him the title role. The rest they say is history. Well 9 years later, after three Rocky films, in my opinion comes the best one. I realize that Rocky was all story and then a climatic boxing match and that is what won the film the Oscar. And even though I can admit that this film is not as concerned with character developement as it is with training montages and bulging muscles, it is by far and away the most entertaining film of the 5. And that is what I enjoy about the film. I love that Rocky IV has some of the best training montages ever filmed. I love that it has the heart of a lion when it shows Rocky scaling a mountain that you know damn well he shouldn't be able to. And I absolutely love the boxing match at the end of the film. This was completely choreographed by Stallone and he and Dolph Lundgren boxed for real for about 75% of the match. Stallone felt that it needed some authenticity so that was the way to do it. And if you think Robert De Niro is an impressive method actor, try this fact on for size. When filming the boxing match, some of the scenes were so real that Stallone was rushed to hospital because his heart was actually pushed up and his ribcage was slightly shattered. So when you watch that match at the end, just know that what you are seeing is not exactly choreography and trick camera work. They did the best job they could to keep the look of the fight as real as possible. And I think this is the best boxing match ever filmed, with all due respect to Raging Bull.

Stallone was in the shape of his life in this year as he filmed Rocky and Rambo back to back and it shows. I have never seen a more sculpted man in the movies than he was here. And I think that added to his superman persona. If you notice in all the Rocky films, he grows a little each time. And that also adds to the enjoyment of the film.

Rocky IV is different than Rocky, there is no doubt. And as much as I love the first one, it doesn't come close to entertaining me as much as this one does. Rocky IV starts fast and it ends hard and in between we are blessed with a great soundtrack and a beautiful montage of all the Rocky films to Robert Tepper's "There's No Easy Way Out" And it is here that even though some will say that Stallone has substituted real human emotion with an MTV ersatz video, I think it works well. There is nothing about this film that I didn't enjoy and if you forget what the experience of watching this one is like, I suggest that you rent it now and take a look at it. And try to remember what it was like when you first saw this film back in the winter of 85. I remember I was in Kokomo Indiana visiting family for Christmas. My mom and I walked into a packed theater and you want to talk about a place erupting like a volcano, then this was the place. When Rocky finally hits Drago to cut him over the eye and Duke yells " he's cut, he's cut! " the crowd went into a frenzy. And you can look no further than that as to why the Rocky films were so popular. It doesn't matter if you are Canadian, American, Portuguese, Polish or Dutch or whatever, Rocky appeals to all of us. Because all of us have been the underdog at some time in our lives and we love to watch him and perhaps live vicariously through him. That is the beauty of Rocky. If Rocky can do it then dammit so can I!

When the movie ended on that cold night back in 1985, and people were filtering out to their cars for the drive home, I swear I could hear the crowd chanting his name, as did the millions..... and millions of the Rock's fans.

" Rocky! Rocky! Rocky!"

Rocky IV is another good entry, but unlike Rocky III, it actually changes up the story to make things fresh. Picking up where the last film left off, the story is Soviet boxing champion Ivan Drago (played by Dolph Lungdren) comes to the U.S. to enter the professional boxing circuit, causing Apollo Creed to come out of retirement to face the monster in an exhibition match, which ends with the former nemesis of the Italian Stallion getting killed in the ring. Rocky, feeling guilt over allowing his death to happen, despite his best efforts to make Apollo stop the match, decides to challenge Ivan, with the match taking place in Moscow.

Yeah, the story is changed up compared to the last three films, which reused the formula of main hero coming from the bottom to rise to the top as an underdog, the story in Rocky IV can be seen as a revenge story, as Rocky agrees to fight Ivan due to Apollo's death. Also, there are some silly moments (like Apollo's entrance, which has James Brown singing Living In America), but the story and characters are good, and while the movie is tied to the Cold War that was erupting at the time, I tend to ignore politics and stick to the elements I like. Worth checking out if you like boxing.

While this movie is short and not as classic as the first one or even 2 or 3, there is a lot of drama in it and great music. The villain is very intimidating and I can't help but get the feels from all of that 80s music. I feel like taking on the world after watching this movie while having a heart of gold at the same time, and THAT'S Rocky!