3 out of 5

Director: Sylvester Stallone

By embracing its format and bringing back some of the grit and ugliness of Rocky I and II, Rocky IV ends up being a smoother and more satisfying win than III.  We know the basic gist by now: Rocky is complacent, then something brings him down low, then he decides to fight a big baddie (Dolphy Lundgren in this case) and its a tough fight but ding ding… well, he probably wins.  Rocky’s initial homebody nature is earned in this film, though, because we’ve seen him through three previous films.  Stallone would explore the effect of fame and fear in II and III, so letting Balboa be, seemingly, legitimately happy as a family man at film’s start is a nice change that makes the film easier to swallow than the uneven ‘be a man’ commentary rumbling around in the previous flicks.  Not that that doesn’t show up here, but it’s an odd subversion: the Russians are coming to town and want to fight Rocky; Apollo Creed hears the news and begs Rocky to give the fight to him, with Creed delivering the “fighting is in our blood” justification speech.  …Which Rock will essentially repeat word for word to his wife when Creed is the subject of this entry’s dramatic turning point and Rock has to fight Lundgren to redeem Creed’s – AND AMERICA’S – honor.  Cheesy ‘let’s break down this wall’ talk at the end?  Sure.  Stallone’s obsessed with 80s music and turns the entire middle portion into a music video?  Sure.  Thinly veiled American propaganda?  Maybe.  But we zoom through all of this – Rocky IV is a slim beast and goes for extremes without hesitating – Paulie’s robot, training in arctic isolation, Lundgren training in techno-wizardry – and brings back the bloody beatdowns that Rocky III’s pretty-faced ending lacked.  IV is entirely predictable, but also shows Stallone’s dedication to characters and how subtle tweaks to formula can still keep something fun.