Matinee: Rocky IV
August 26, 2011 § Leave a Comment
So for we had seen Rocky Balboa become heavyweight champion of the world, wrestle Hulk Hogan, go toe-to-toe with Mr. T twice and now Rocky Balboa attempts to shock the world once more by ending the cold war and unite the Soviet Union and America in perfect harmony by ways of 15 rounds of boxing action.
No one, probably not even Sylvester Stallone himself expected the Rocky films to be as big as they are. He never expected the first film to get made, never mind the following 5. But we as audience members accepted the films for what they are, good clean fun.
Rocky IV was never going to win the awards like the initial film that sparked the hysteria, it was never going to win the praises of the critics, but we really don’t care. We don’t go to watch a Rocky film to be astounded by Sylvester Stallone’s astounding talent as actor or a director, we don’t watch a Rocky film to be impressed by the original and outstanding storylines and plot structure, we watch a Rocky film to be etertained by the sheer ridiculousness of it all. The boxing is unreleastic, but we don’t care. The dialogue is unreleastic, but we don’t care. Everything about this film is completely laughable, but we really don’t care. All we care about is Rocky. The mumbling, crooked-mouthed, tree trunk of man that he is and you can’t help but raise a smile, laugh and jump up and cheer when he finally kncoks Ivan Drago to the canvas. It’s complete pro-America bullshit, but we lap it up. Rocky does it for Apollo, he does it for America and he triumphs over adversity for the greater good. Absolute nonsense, but absolutely brilliant. So much so, that I’m going to grow a beard, chop some logs, run through some snow and then up a mountain, benchpress a cart “DRAGO!!!” all while listening to some classic 80s pop music. Cue training montage
Image courtesy of toutlecine.com
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