[6]

I know I’m being too kind to this over-produced piece of cheese, but I’d be lying if I said I didn’t enjoy it at least a little bit. It falls short of all previous installments primarily because the justification for fighting this time around is the weakest, and also because the drama is more forced. The Cold War very much influenced the American propaganda storyline, which pits Rocky (Sylvester Stallone, also writing and directing) against a towering Russian boxer (Dolph Lundgren) in the Soviet homeland. There are too many montages (even for a Rocky movie) and the soundtrack driven by Vince DiCola and Survivor reeks of the big hair 80s in the best/worst way possible, depending on your point of view. The film introduced the world to Lundgren and Brigitte Nielsen (thank you?) and is best viewed with your Leni Riefenstahl decoder glasses on. The best part is a slick Vegas song number, “Living in America,” performed by James Brown. With Carl Weathers, Talia Shire, and Burt Young.