BACK COVER SYNOPSIS: East meets West when Rocky takes on a vicious Soviet fighter who literally killed his last opponent! Sylvester Stallone writes, directs and stars in this war between nations in which the only battle is fought in a boxing ring. Rocky (Stallone) proudly holds the world heavyweight boxing championship, but a new challeneger has stepped forward: Drago (Dolph Lundgren), a six-foot, four-inch 261-pound fighter who has the backing of the Soviet Union. This time, Rocky's training regimen takes him to icy Siberia, where he prepares for a globally-televised match in the heart of Moscow. But nothing can truly prepare him for what he's about to face - a powerfully charged fight to the finish in which he must defend not only himself, but also the honour of his country!

FILM REVIEW: “Rocky IV” is ridiculous. It’s a 90 minute music video filled with caricatures, cringe-worthy dialogue and sequences, and a title character who is a shadow of his former self. In many ways, this was always going to be inevitable. How many times could you keep telling Rocky’s story? After all, Rocky III really should have brought it to a close, but no, as it turns out, Rocky still has another fight; but given the impossible nature of the opponent this time around who literally kills everyone else he fights because of his intense strength and power, how is that Rocky can stand up to the pressure? Sure, he’s the ultimate underdog but come on! Not to be completely unfair, this instalment of the franchise is fun, but it’s the type of fun where you’re laughing at it, not with it. Given the history of the first film, and to a lesser extent the previous sequels, “Rocky IV” is a real joke; a comic book cartoon meant for kids or people who don’t know any better (certainly Stallone should have known better given he wrote and directed this film!).

As with the previous films, “Rocky IV” opens with a recap of the final scenes of the previous film, in this case Rocky’s victory against Clubber Lang. ‘Eye of the Tiger’ gets pumped out again through the soundtrack for good measure. We then open with Rocky and Apollo (Carl Weathers) enjoying retirement. However, a Russian amateur boxing team visits the US, with its head fighter Ivan Drago (Dolph Lundgren); they are keen for Drago to fight American champions and defeat them. It’s their belief that the Russians create superior athletes and it’s not long before Apollo gets it in to his head that he wants to teach these guys a lesson. But when the big exhibition fight between Apollo and Drago ends up with Apollo knocked out dead, Rocky gets personal; and he takes the fight with Drago to Moscow on Christmas Day to even the odds.

Aside from the Russian elements, which are truly dire, at least in the way the characters are represented and the us versus them motif is played out, this film is just a retread of previous plot lines; just like Rocky II, only cheesier and sillier. Mickey’s death in Rocky III was tragic and moving. Apollo’s death in this film is a gimmick, and an arbitrary plot point designed to inject a false sense of drama for Rocky and makes a mockery of Apollo’s character. Ivan Drago is an impossible opponent; aside from his cartoony nature as an almost super human soldier, it’s just impossible that Rocky, who is now retired and past his prime (which is even stated by Rocky in one of the opening scenes) can muster the physical strength needed to go the distance with him. Then there’s the music video nature of this film; it’s song after song after song to the point where you’re wondering if you’re actually sitting back watching MTV or you’re watching a film. But the worst element of this film has to do with the treatment of US-Soviet tensions. Made during the 80’s when the Cold War was still hot, the idea that Rocky could somehow bring these two sides together is presumptuous and silly, highlighted in Rocky’s clumsy and misguided final speech in the climax. Or maybe it was seeing a wannabe actor playing Gorbachev rising to his feet at the end and clapping Rocky’s speech that did it in for me.

“Rocky IV” is a silly film that denigrates the franchise, despite some fun moments.

TECHNICAL REVIEW: The video transfer is reasonable, and again is an improvement over the previous instalment “Rocky III”, but it’s still not great. The picture is a little soft and grainy for much of the running time; thankfully there aren’t many film scratches or jumps. The colours are better than in the previous Rocky DVD transfers but still are a bit muted. The audio track is of comparable quality, not rising much above its original mix. The soundtrack is a bit more pleasing in that Rocky IV has several songs, and at times it resembles an 80’s music video, especially as the songs come out reasonably clearly through the sound system. Overall, it’s okay but should have been a lot better.

EXTRAS REVIEW: The only extras on this disc are additional language tracks (German, French, Italian, Spanish) and subtitles (French, Italian, Spanish, Dutch, Swedish, Finnish, Norwegian, Danish, Portuguese, Polish, Greek, Hungarian, Hebrew, Turkish, and English and German for the hearing impaired), so there’s nothing of note to review.

BOTTOM LINE: Rent it.