Rocky V

After taking Rocky about as far as he can go as a Boxing champion, I can understand why Stallone made the choices he did with Rocky V. The only problem is I don't think anyone, myself included, wanted to see the guy lose, which is exactly what happened in more ways than one.

The fifth film picks up right where the fourth one left off with Rocky (played by Sylvester Stallone) defeating Ivan Drago and returning to the US. It is revealed that the fight with Drago left Rocky with brain damage and as a result can never fight again (considering the pummeling he took in Rocky IV, this should come as no surprise). To add insult to injury, through some poor management by Paulie (played by Burt Young), Rocky's accountant managed to obtain Power of Attorney over the Balboa financials and a few bad investments later, they are now bankrupt. Forced to sell off his assets, Rocky, Adrian (played by Talia Shire), Rocky Jr. (played by Sage Stallone) and Paulie move back to the neighborhood. Rocky even pulls out his old hat and leather coat to mark the occasion and make his regression complete. Left with few options, Rocky re-opens Mickey's gym and begins training other boxers. One in particular, Tommy Gunn (played by Tommy Morrison), repeatedly asks Rocky to train him to be a World Champion Boxer until Rocky eventually agrees. Things start off well but as Tommy begins to win fights and rise in the rankings due to Rocky's tutelage, he attracts the attention of slimy promoter George Washington Duke (played by Robert Gant), who is basically Don King if he got a haircut. Under Duke's influence, Tommy quickly changes from hungry kid to ungrateful punk who leaves Rocky behind for greener pastures. However, when the press takes him to task for turning his back on the beloved Rocky Balboa, Tommy decides he wants a shot at the former Heavyweight champion for a one on one fight of his own. 

After having Rocky basically end the Cold War in the previous film, I can understand wanting to take the old lug down a few notches and make a more grounded film. The problem with this is that none of it really works. After seeing Rocky grow and even mature over the last couple films, it's disheartening to seem him regress back to his old bum routine from the first two films, not to mention at times annoying. Likewise, Paulie is back on the sauce and becoming about as unpleasant as he was in the first film as well, which is a shame because he was downright lovable in Rocky III and Rocky IV. Meanwhile, Tommy is a bit of a selfish brat right from the get go, which everyone but Rocky sees but Rocky keeps training him anyway. He even lets Tommy wear the Apollo Creed trunks that Apollo wore in the first film and Rocky wore when he fought both Clubber Lang and Ivan Drago despite not even coming close to having earned that right. Perhaps the most disheartening thing is seeing Rocky neglect his own son in favor of Tommy, which seems so uncharacteristic for someone who previously stated that the birth of Rocky Jr. was one of the best things that ever happened to him. The whole thing is such a depressing and mismanaged slog of a film. The street fight between Rocky and Tommy at the end was a nice change of pace for the series. The closing scene between Rocky and Rocky Jr. was also sweet, especially since it was between real life father and son and even more poignant since Sage's untimely passing in 2012. But there is a lot of cloying, annoying and questionable plotting to get through to get to that point. It almost doesn't seem worth it.   

Overall, Rocky V is the unquestionable dud of the series. I can understand the desire to take things back to basics and if it had been handled well, it could've been a winner. As it is the film just falters for much of it's run time, which is a shame because the potential was there.