Rocky V

Rocky V represents the sad nadir of the Rocky franchise, fittingly the film also coming in a low point in Stallone's own career with both Rocky and Stallone being far from their spotlight. Strangely the film features the return of John G. Alvidsen to the director's chair but that only plays into the abomination that is this film. This film is a bizarre chimera as it attempts to return Rocky to his working class Philadelphia roots in a grounded film yet somehow never lost the ridiculousness of 3 and 4. It's a horrendous mix of the two sides of the franchise. The thing is the film is not bereft of interesting ideas Rocky dealing with post-fame theoretically could have potential, Rocky training a new fighter could be intriguing, Rocky trying to help his son dealing with his father's fame could be something. I mean these sort of would be something in the later two sequels, but not here in this film. It takes all these concepts and runs them through the film's odd tone that dilutes it to a whole lot of nonsense. Whether this is Stallone taking the idea of Rocky's brain damage a little to heart in his performance, the character of the new fighter Tommy Gunn being terribly performed and written, even something as simple as its horrible remix of the main theme featured in the final fight. The film is just a mess with no cohesion as it is too silly to be a serious re-examination of the character, but it takes itself far too seriously to just be some fun. It is tone deaf throughout with the only bits of anything worthwhile being Richard Grant as Don Kingalike George Washington Duke just because he's so over the top, or the flashbacks involving Burgess Meredith who stayed consistent as Mickey even post-death of the character. Although even those elements are problematic in some way as Mickey's speeches hardly reflect the nature of the character we knew in the previous films. Although even if you allow those elements to be considered "good" they make up very little of the film, leaving just the awkward mess that is the rest of the film.
1.5/5