| Rocky IV(1985) Cast:Sylvester Stallone,Dolph Lundgren,Talia Shire,Burt Young,Brigette Neilsen,Carl Weathers Rocky(Stallone) trains for vengeance when his best friend Apollo Creed (Weathers) is killed by a viscous russian boxer who has a 2000 pound punch, naturally Rocky faces the challange of his life in this extremely poor sequel. Rocky IV is without a doubt the lowest point of the series, everything that made the original so heartwarming and entertaining is drained and replaced by an artificial coldness that is like the Russian boxer himself. Indeed Lundgren is one of the best things about this lame sequel because his imposing presence actually makes for a worthwhile bad guy. It's just that everything else, especially Neilsen as Lundgren's wife is so badly done. All the ingrediants are there to make this a great movie, Lundgren is easily Rocky's toughest challange but the overall political message of how Rocky can defend our country is far too ridiculous to even take seriously. Sadly aside from the admittedly well staged climax, Rocky IV amounts to nothing but lamebrained nonsense. Worst of all it's just plain boring. D.Sylvester Stallone * |