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

Rocky IV

Rocky IV is a fascinating film to examine given the way an altered perspective through time can mean so much. In contemporary reviews the film was mostly derided and received several Razzie nominations for its name. Today though it has far more than a cult following as it fortified itself well into pulp culture, and not as a bad film. It instead has become this embodiment of the 80's specifically the idea of an American exceptionalism where a single man can not only single handedly defeat the will of the Soviet Union not through war rather fighting a single foe, and delivering a speech that defies explanation. Now in a contemporary view of the time this may have seen ridiculous however looking at the film as an artifact of the Reagan era 80's it is a different kind of ridiculous. The film takes Rocky even further into the absurd from the 3rd film. The thing is this is never problematic despite how different is from the first film because of how wholly it embraces this idea. This puts forth the idea from the outset with the film basically opening with Rocky having bought his brother-in-law Paulie a robot for his birthday. The film simply is not hiding this there, or in any facet as Stallone directs the film with all the gusto of this over the top exercise in the realization of Rocky as this titan facing down the foreign dragon, here aptly named DRAGO, rather than the Philadelphia brawler we met in the first film. The key is the sheer embracement of this excess idea in every regard as the film is more montage than man now, with well most of the film being made up of montages to lead Rocky to avenge his friend Apollo and perhaps save the world entire. The film does not hide in its ridiculousness it relishes it and in turn is a wildly entertaining realization of the film that could have only been made in 1985. There is a reason it has cemented a place in pop culture almost as strongly as the original film and that's because what it does it does well. Now that may seem silly or illogical, but boy is it so much fun in all its silliness and all of its lack of any normal sense.
4/5