Balboa verses Drago in a battle of east verses west (Rocky 4 (DVD))

Member Name: welshwickedone

Product:	Rocky 4 (DVD)
Date:	16/10/06 (1237 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Good story, entertaining.

Disadvantages: None

Rocky IV (Film Review Only).
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The Plot.
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The story of the heavyweight boxer Rocky Balboa continues... This time we get to see both Apollo Creed and Rocky Balboa take on the new opponent Ivan Drago, Russia's top boxer.


The Storyline.
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In this film in the continued story of Rocky Balboa, the top Russian boxer Captain Ivan Drago (Dolph Lundgren) arrives in America with the hopes to take The Heavyweight Boxing Title from Rocky Balboa (Sylvester Stallone). Ivan Drago's wife, Ludmilla Vobet Drago (Brigitte Nielson) lays down the challenge to Rocky, who due to retirement refuses, however after a few cross words Apollo Creed instead put himself up as an opponent for the giant Russian.

As Apollo trains for the fight with the help of Rocky and his trainer Duke, Rocky expresses his concerns for Apollo and suggests he backs out of the fight, but Apollo will not and instead persuade Rocky to be his ringside man along with Duke. Rocky accepts and the fight is set to begin with Apollo making his usual over the top entrance, whilst the Russian watches from the ring.

The fight begins and Apollo soon learns that the Russian is not the weak opponent that Apollo thought he was and takes a terrible beating in the first round. Soon Rocky realises the fight cannot continue and drops the towel to end the fight, but sadly he is too late and Apollo is on the floor and sadly dies.

The Death of Apollo its Rocky hard and he soon takes up the challenge of fighting the Russian giant. The World Boxing Federation refuse to accept the fight and Rocky still goes ahead with it, agreeing for the match to take place on Christmas Day in Russia. Adrian argues with Rocky as she is totally against this fight and Rocky heads off to Russia with Paulie and Duke to train, leaving Adrian and Rocky Jnr behind.

Rocky trains intensely with the help of Duke and Paulie and as the fight draws closer a surprise visit is waiting for him on his return from a running session. Adrian has come to support him as she has missed him terribly and the training gets to full intensity. The Fight is on, the arena is set, and as Rocky enters the ring, he gets a very hostile welcome from the Russian crowd. Drago enters trying to show off whilst making his entrance and soon the fight begin. Will Rocky survive against this man of iron, let alone win, and what makes this Russian so strong? That you will have to watch to find out.


My Opinion.
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I am sure you are aware by now I am a great fan of Sylvester Stallone and particularly the Rocky films, which he starred in, wrote and directed. However, out of all the Rocky films so far I have to say that this truly is my favourite. It is probably my favourite for many reasons but one that always comes to mind straight away with this film is the fact that I love Dolph Lundgren too.

Stallone in my opinion has truly out done himself with the directing of this movie in many ways and has made it extremely entertaining with great special effects as well. He has done a good job with the other Rocky movies, do not get me wrong on that but I fell he really has done the best so far in this particular film.

Stallone yet again, gives us an absolutely fantastic and versatile performance in his role as Rocky Balboa and make his character show feelings that come across as very believable for us to watch. To be fair in all his performances as this character, each time the character is made to become more and more realistic and heartfelt. Although I must confess having seen the trailer for the up and coming Rocky 6 called 'Rocky Balboa', I do have feelings that we may be in for a bit of a let down.

Talia Shire and Burt Young have also brought back fantastic performances in this film for us to watch again, each showing how there characters are changing along with the circumstances of there lives. Carl Weathers appears for us again as Apollo Creed; however, this is his last Rocky film. On saying that though, he certainly gave us a performance to be able to say he went out in style giving his character everything during the short time in this film.

Tony Burton who stars as Duke the trainer gets a higher role in this film and really does make a fantastic and emotion character to entertain us. He gives many feelings for us to go along with and feel ourselves in his performance and is a fantastic character to watch.

Now to Dolph, what can I say? Well really, the best way to put his performance as Ivan Drago is to say that he acts like a piece of wood, dull and lifeless with no feelings in any of his lines. Ok he has a great body and being tall and muscular is about the only thing that made his appearance in this film acceptable. Luckily, all the other actors were able to take away his lack of acting ability and carry him, but you can see why they never gave him too many lines to try to carry off. It is easy to see why he never really went the distance in the acting industry of this performance was anything to go by.

Brigitte Nielson I found had a very forced role in this film. Realistically there was no need for her to have hardly any lines or make any real appearances in this film, but I think we all know that the only reason she had as much of a role as she did id because she was dating Stallone at the time. I am in no way saying that her acting was as bad as Dolph Lundgren's was, but I am saying that really she did not need to be in the film as much as she was which made her character very boring.

I think it only fair to mention in my final section that I think it is good the Sylvester Stallone has also managed to get a very important message across in this Rocky film as well as making it extremely entertaining. He has always been proud in the fact that he has never used any form of anabolic steroid and gives a great message in this film by telling everyone that the use of Anabolic Steroids does not make you a winner.

Technical Details.
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Cast.
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Rocky Balboa Sylvester Stallone
Adrian Balboa Talia Shire
Paulie Pennino Burt Young
Apollo Creed Carl Weathers
Duke Tony Burton
Ludmilla Vobet Drago Brigitte Nielson
Captain Ivan Drago Dolph Lundgren
Rocky Junior Rocky Krakoff

Director Sylvester Stallone

Certificate PG
Year 1985
Languages English - Dolby Digital (5.1)
Duration 91 minutes (approx)


Quick Fact File.
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It was only two months after the release of this Rocky movie that Sylvester Stallone and Brigitte Nielson got married, but it was very short lived, as they were divorced only two years later in 1987. Nielson’s career continued well for several years after her Rocky performance but sadly dwindled and she has not stared in a film role for nearly 7 years now.

Carl Weathers was formally a professional American and Canadian league football player before diverting into an acting career. The film Rocky was shot over a 28-day period at a cost of 1.1 million dollars and went on to make a massive 117.2 million dollars at the box office.

Dolph Lundgren holds a 3rd Degree Black Belt in Kyokushin Karate and admits to experimenting in the use of anabolic steroids to improve his physique for his role in 'Rocky IV' (The fool) and he also used them prior to his role in the film 'Showdown in Little Tokyo'. Full name Dolph Hans Lundgren he was born of Swedish origin on 3rd November 1957. He has also made many other film appearances as the lead actor in films such as Master of the Universe as He-Man and Dark Angel as Jack Caine.

Welshwickedone ©

Summary: One of my favourite of the Rocky films 9.8/10