Rocky V

Rocky V (1990)

Runtime: 104 minutes

Directed by: John G. Avildsen

Starring: Oh, you know who is in this by now

From: United Artists

You know, Tommy Morrison's real life story was FAR more interesting than this film.

Thank goodness for Rocky Balboa then later the Creed movies-no one would want this to be the last appearance of an iconic character as V just isn't too good and even Sly has later regretted making this film. The idea of Balboa having a fall from grace and/or him becoming a manager like Mickey is not automatically a bad one, but the way it was done here just did not work. There have been a plethora of cases where athletes have become rich but they either squandered their cash or someone ripped them off so this idea is a valid one... how it's done here isn't all that believable and personally, I thought that robot alone would be enough to get them out of debt...

The fact that this starts right after Rocky IV not only hurts the story when it comes to logic, the timeline is also screwed up as Rocky Jr. is suddenly years older than he was in the last film. As for Rocky Jr.'s storyline, all it did was make Rocky Sr. look like a jerk and a goofus for ignoring Jr. and instead focusing on the bland character that was Tommy Gunn. As already alluded to, the time that real life boxer Tommy Morrison (who portrayed Gunn) spent on Earth ended up being far more intriguing and actually more cinematic than the role he played here... Morrison's career wasn't what it could have been as he spent too much time skirt chasing and partying and well, he got AIDS... which he later denied having but of course that is what he died of. Gunn is just a dork who was seduced by Don King... er I mean “George Washington Duke”, a promoter that made King look subtle in comparison. And the ending of V is different, but that is about the only compliment I can give it.

Sly getting to act with his real life son Sage (who passed away in 2012) was I suppose a nice thing but this is a film which also did not fully realize another interesting idea-that being Balboa is brain damaged from all the brutal fights he has had. In this modern era of CTE and everyone being concerned about concussions, the idea is ahead of its time-and them bringing back Burgess Meredith in a dream sequence was another fumble because the Mickey here did not act like the character we saw in the first three movies. This isn't unwatchably bad but it is a weird misfire which introduces rap to the franchise and yet they also somehow got ELTON JOHN to sing the end credits song and it wasn't one of the best things he ever recorded, that is for damn sure.


Who knows when I'll get around to seeing the other films w/ Rocky, but that will eventually happen.