The Rocky franchise was more aptly named than possibly any other in the history of cinema. The first one was nominated for Best Picture at the Academy Awards, while others in the series, well, they’re terrible. However, having said that, Rocky IV is not one of the terrible ones. It is in fact quite good, something that those spoilsports over at Cinemasins apparently don’t understand. They think this movie has problems, a whole mess of problems in fact. Go check out every single one in this new video.
If we were going to nitpick, maybe there a few issues with Rocky IV. The movie is, possibly, slightly montage-heavy, but seriously, they’re awesome montages. The music is always cool and no movie knows how to put together a montage like a Rocky movie. This is the film series that brought us Eye of the Tiger after all, the single greatest song in the history of all things ever. Although, "the Hangover II of montages" may be the greatest phrase ever uttered in the history of this YouTube channel, so we’ll let that one go.
The kid who plays Rocky’s son is something of an over actor to be sure, but we’d take him over Jake Lloyd any day, just sayin’. We do feel sorry for the guy, though, as we never really realized that the kids he was watching the fight with were total jerks. Obviously they were just taking advantage of the fact that his parents let him watch the fight on pay-per-view.
Our final tally is 115 sins and a sentence of being "Reagan’d," which is probably fair as the movie has the most simplistic view of the Cold War in the history of cinema. Seriously, Red Dawn was probably more realistic and subtle than this. That does not change how awesome this movie is, however. Ivan Drago is probably the most purely evil villain in Rocky’s history. Even Mr. T is more nuanced than the juiced up Russian. But Rocky IV is not looking for nuance, it wants blatant flag waving and rock & roll montages. That’s what we want, and that’s what we get. That's why this movie was a basic cable staple for like a decade. In 1985, the movie was perfect. In 2015, the movie may be ridiculous, but it’s still awesome.
While Rocky IV may not the "best" Rocky film, it is certainly one of the most well remembered. Possibly the most well remembered considering many fans don’t seem to recall how the first movie actually ended. We’re looking forward to the next chapter in Rocky’s storied career when Creed hits theaters tomorrow.
