We are making our way through my Rocky/Creed review series today. We are in week number four and we are talking about Rocky IV. So let’s get started!
The Good:
And for me when it comes to this movie the thing I think that it just nails is that it’s one of the more motivational movies on this list. You get plenty of scenes that just make you want to work-out and go do something productive. That’s how good this movie is at doing that, being a motivational movie with lots of training montages to have you engaged from beginning to end. And I would do this, with how motivated this movie is. It's probably the most motivational movie in the Rocky franchise so far. Keep in mind, when I’m writing this I’ve only watched the first four movies so that my change once I see the other ones. But this is a movie that has a lot of training montages, and some of the best training montages of the entire franchise so far. And actually when the training montage started I realized I had seen this before. And when Family Guy did their take on the original Star Wars trilogy. And when Luke (or Chris) was training with Yoda in Something Something Dark Side Guy it was cutting between Luke training and Drago training. So it kind of brought me to something I use to watch pretty frequently.
Another thing with this movie is that it is very much a product of 1985. I would say that this is the goofiest of the Rocky movies so far. Where you can tell that is a total 80s movie, it’s a movie that really could only be made in the 80s. When you have the first fight between Apollo Creed and Drago, Creed does this full on dance number of welcoming Drago to America that lasts for several minutes. Then you also even have Paulie who gets this robot as like a made. It’s a total 80s thing to do, but it’s kind of fun. I mean the whole movie is ridiculous but it’s a fun type of ridiculous.
And one of the things I think this entire franchise is doing really well at is casting talent. And making their talent really good in their movies. Continuing one of the positives of Rocky III is that I just really dug the bromance between Rocky and Apollo. And when they are on screen together you feel that they really do care about one another and there is a deep friendship there. It also helps that Sylvester Stallone and Carl Weathers have great chemistry with one another. Also this is some of the best that Paulie has ever been. He gets some really fun and funny moments sprinkled in the movie. And then of course you have Dolph Lundgren as Drago, possibly the most iconic of the Rocky villains. We will talk more about the character of Drago later on, but for what Lundgren needed to do I thought he did it well.
Another positive, it’s very quick moving and it doesn’t overstay its welcome. This movie is only 1 hour and 31 minutes long, so it’s very easy for you to watch this movie and enjoy it. And that’s what I appreciate about the franchise as a whole is that all of the movies are fairly short. All of them don’t overstay their welcome they get to the point
Finally, one of the more iconic parts about this movie is the soundtrack and it’s all just filled with great and memorable songs. And the songs are played mostly over the training montages, and since the training montages are great, the songs actually help get you amped up for the training montages. I’m somebody that enjoys a large portion of 70s and 80s music more than the modern stuff. So hearing soundtracks from the 70s and 80s is fun to hear.
The Bad:
Of the first four movies in the franchise this is the one that I think is the most flawed. But it’s still a solid movie that I would go positive on. So I think the biggest flaw with this movie is that the movie is too goofy. Where the movie has dance numbers with Apollo Creed it has all of this insane over the top stuff going on. But then it also wants to be more dramatic at certain points. So when Drago kills Apollo Creed I didn’t find that it has that emotional weight that it should have had. And just like when you have dramatic moments between Rocky and Adrian in the back half of the movie, it should be a lot more tense and emotional then it actually is. But as is, it just comes off as melodrama to me and not all that impactful.
Second thing here is that I don’t feel that Rocky was given much of an arc. If you’ve read my reviews of the previous three movies, that was one of the positives that I mentioned in each of the reviews. That each movie gave Rocky this powerful and somewhat emotional arc that really worked for me. With this movie, I don’t think that was the case. You have Rocky getting revenge over Apollo Creed’s death, but at least for me what I picked up on there wasn’t much there to be engaging to me. Wasn’t much there that stood out the same way the first three movies did.
Finally, even though Ivan Drago is the more classic and iconic villain of the franchise. I didn’t feel that he was all that compelling or interesting of a character. Dolph Lundgren has the same expression on his face for the entire movie. I’ve heard that they do flesh out Drago’s character in Creed 2 so I’m sure my thoughts on him might change after watching that movie.
Final Thoughts: Rocky IV is certainly one of the more iconic films of the franchise and one of the more beloved films of the franchise. But as for me, I saw a lot more flaws than I think most people do. Now don’t get me wrong, it’s still entertaining. It has all of the entertainment that you want. But I think the tone really held this movie back along with Rocky’s arc and the lack of development for Drago.
The Score: 8.2/10 (B-)
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