i must break you...

I made more headway on my catching up on Rocky project by watching Rocky IV this weekend. Again, like the one right before it, it was enjoyable enough, but cannot compete with the first two movies. A sub-plot involving some pretty creepy robots, a flashback scene of Rocky and Apollo running on the beach, and Paulie tagging along to Russia….how can you go wrong? Well Mr. Stallone, I will tell you where you went wrong. In a movie where patriotism dripped freely from every scene, you did NOT make a Toby Keith fan out of me. Perhaps I am dead inside, but that scene with Apollo smugly dancing around in an “Uncle Sam” suit made out of sequins and topped off with the dumbest looking top hat I have ever seen actually forced me to cheer for the Russian. I’m sorry – but that is not acceptable now, and how could it have possibly been acceptable in 1985?

I did love the speech given at the end by Rocky. It didn’t seem to make a lick of sense, but I loved it! "If I can change, and you guys can change...then everybody can change..." Prolific.... Maybe something that deep only made sense in the thick of the cold war.

All in all, the first 2 movies were very good and inspirational. The next 2 have been entertaining and really funny – but more in the “not meant to be funny” kind of way.

Rocky V – you are up next, and then I will begin the Jaws series which I missed when I was busy missing the Rocky series growing up.