Rocky IV
Dir: Sylvester Stallone
1985
**
It seems that at some point in any American film franchise that has a hero in it, said hero has to fight for his country. It's essentially the same old Rocky story except this time he's taking on the Soviet Union. The formulaic structure is quite tiresome by this point, the original Rocky was about overcoming subversity, a rags to riches romance but Rocky IV is very much a boxing film. No romance, no exploration of hope, none of that mushy stuff, this is about patriotism and punching people for country and glory. Welcome to 1985. It's a horrible story really, Rocky is successful and has everything one could possibly want (including a talking Robot servant in what is easily the franchises lowest point) and it seems the only way he can give a little back is to fight a Russian guy who is miles out of his weight range (it should be noted that his trainer is Cuban, essentially killing two birds with one stone). It is a big dumb slice of American cheese, everything that the film film wasn't. Patriotic nonsense with a complete lack of originality or direction. Mickey's death in Rocky III made sense even though it wasn't particularly welcome but Apollo Creed's death in Rocky IV smacks of lazy writing and is an example of the stupid politics of the decade. It's such a shame that the common marriage of revenge and patriotism entered the world of Rocky and such a shame they killed of one of the franchises best characters. Merry Christmas Rocky junior and rest in peace Apollo Creed you magnificent beefcake. It's rather shocking they made another one after this.