Rocky V
My love for the Rocky movies is strong as they have always played a part of my childhood into my fragile adult mentality. I remember watching the Apollo Creed/Rocky fight in the first Rocky movie when I was 5 years old and not being to comprehend that a human face can be beat up that badly. I was probably 8 when I first watched Rocky III and had nightmares when a drunken Paulie throws the beer bottle at the Rocky pinball machine (the music is really freaky). I must have watched Rocky IV one hundred times since it first came out and most of the soundtrack is in regular rotation on my IPod (“there’s no easy out…there’s not shortcut hooooommmmeee”).
Anyway, I was always too little to see the first four movies in the theater but when Rocky V came out in 1990, my 12 year old self was there. I actually thought it was a pretty good movie at the time but nearly 19 years later my adult mind is fighting my child mind to change that opinion.
Here’s a debate between the child in me and the adult perspective between various scenarios in the movie:
1.) Thanks to Paulie, Rocky goes bankrupt and is forced to move into a cruddy place in Philadelphia with Adrian, his son, and Paulie…again, the guy who bankrupted him.
Child in me: Wow, that Rocky is so nice that he let his brother-in-law still live with him after causing him to lose his home, his super cool robot from Rocky IV, and all of his nice cars.
Adult in me: I would have slit Paulie’s throat ear to ear if he made me lose millions of dollars…I guess Rocky really did have brain damage from all of those fights.
My second favorite line from the movie is at the very beginning when he’s sitting in the shower after fighting Drago and he says “I can’t stop my hands from shaking”. I love that line for some reason.
2.) Rocky finds a job and begins training a young fighter, Tommy Gunn (aka Tommy Morrison who would go onto a real career and then get AIDS). Tommy and Rocky enjoy success but Rocky blows off his family.
Child in me: Yay for Rocky! He seems happy again even though his son seems really sad and has started smoking. Doesn’t his son know smoking is bad?
Adult in me: I actually like Tommy Morrison’s character but why did Sly Stallone cast his own son in the movie? I actually like his son suffering in this movie. And though smoking is bad, it sure can take the edge off when your Dad is ignoring you (***not from personal experience***)
3.) Rocky loses control of Tommy Gunn as he leaves Rocky for a Don King lookalike George Duke.
Child in me: That George Duke character is really evil.
Adult in me: The actor playing George Duke is one of the worst actors ever.
4.) Tommy Gunn goes berserk and its up to Rocky to take him down. They engage in a street fight. Rocky nearly dies of an aneurysm but not before his old trainer Mickey appears in a strange manifestation to tell him to get up and fight because “Mickey loves him”. Rocky defeats Tommy Gunn and probably goes back to his old life.
Child in me: That fight scene was awesome but I don’t understand how Mickey came back for a few moments there.
Adult in me: Poor Burgess Meredith, the actor playing Mickey, probably needed some money to pay for health bills. If not for Rocky 6, I would assumed Rocky would have died of dementia shortly after this movie.
Sidenote: My all time favorite lines of all of the Rocky movies occur towards the end. I love Rocky’s lines of “my ring’s outside” and of course the semi-famous “well why don’t you just go for it”. My favorite line is when Tommy insults Rocky by calling him stupid and Stallone, in one of his most over the top performances, shouts “What? Brains? you say that I don't have any brains Tommy?”. You need to see these lines being said. I wish I could upload these scenes.
Here's the final fight scene good stuff here:
Love the mullet and the "YOU DON'T KNOW ME!!!" line from Tommy early on. Around the 2 minute mark is when Mickey and Drago appear and gets really trippy. To see how bad that Don King like actor is, go to the 6:15 mark and listen to his "Gooood Daaaamn"
Summary: In all, it doesn’t hold a candle to the first four Rocky movies but for a guilty pleasure, its not as bad as the critics say it is. Whoever decided on HOW they got Rocky back to streets (Paulie bankrupting him and Rocky still letting him live) probably rights for the TV show Heroes since its full of plot development that makes little sense.
