Rocky V (1990) Review

"One more round."

-Rocky Balboa

After returning from Russia, Rocky Balboa (Sylvester Stallone) learns his accountant has stolen and lost most of his money.  Thinking he can win more in a fight, Rocky visits the doctor and learns he has permanent brain damage from his last match.  Rocky has no choice but to move his family back into his old neighborhood.  He becomes a trainer for a young up-and-comer, Tommy Gunn (Tommy Morrison), and begins neglecting his family to focus on work, but Tommy doesn't have the same sense of loyalty as Rocky.

What Works:

I said in my earlier review of the Rocky films that the formula was starting to become stale as the series went along.  Say what you will about Rocky V, but it at least tried to do something different.  It doesn't always work, but it isn't stale.  I like parts of the direction this movie takes.  Making Rocky finally suffer physical consequences for all the abuse he has taken is interesting and making him a trainer instead of the fighter is very fun.

I've been critical of Talia Shire in this series.  In previous films, she hasn't been able to match Stallone's performance in their argument scenes.  I think Shire has her best performance of the series in this film.  When she yells at Rocky in their street, she is finally able to match Stallone's performance and I think the scene works very well.  

Richard Gant plays one of the film's villains, George Washington Duke, a boxing promoter and does a memorable job.  He's very easy to hate and extremely obnoxious.  I only wish Rocky's final fight had been with him instead of Tommy.

The street fight finale isn't something you could call good, but I enjoyed it way more than I should have.  In all honesty, it's very stupid, but I was laughing like crazy throughout and was wholly entertained.

What Sucks:

As I said above, this movie is very different from the rest of the series.  Sometimes that works, sometimes it doesn't.  It's a little weird to never see Rocky in the ring and the scene where Rocky is watching Tommy fight on TV and copying his moves on a punching bag is weird and doesn't work at all.

The family drama elements should have worked.  Stallone, Shire, and Sage Stallone all do a solid job in the argument scenes, but the writing for this plot falls flat and it's never very interesting.

Tommy Gunn is by far the worst villain of the series up to this point.  Morrison just isn't a great actor and his motivation for turning on Rocky seems a little forced.  With a better actor, I think Tommy Gunn could have worked fine, but there's a reason Morrison never had another acting job.

Verdict:

I had extremely low expectations going into Rocky V and I think that's the main reason I enjoyed the film.  It does something different from the earlier films, Talia Shire gives her best performance of the series, George Washington Duke is a solid villain, and the street fight finale is at least entertaining if not exactly good.  This movie has plenty of flaws with Tommy Gunn, the family drama, and some of the different elements simply don't work, but Rocky V is definitely not as bad as I was lead to believe even if it is the worst of the first five Rocky movies.

 6/10: Okay