Rocky IV

When remembering the match in the USSR or even just reading some of the comments here quoting lines directly from the movie, a chill runs down my spine and it's the right moment to forget words like "propaganda". A long flashback memory while driving a car, training in the snow, Drago destroying equipment in the gym, and somewhere in the back of my head a voice telling me that cheering like this is something I should perhaps do at the age of twelve, not in my thirties. The most bombastic and deservedly the best part of the series. (13/05/2006)

One of the best movies with Rocky, mainly because there are five fights in the foreground, like in the third one, but this time they are brilliantly balanced with human destinies. The change in Rocky's relationship with Apollo reached its peak here, but the star of this film is simply the great Dolph Lundgren, who starts his career here with a truly great role. An unforgettable part with a great finale and actually a message that may sound stupid today, but had its justified meaning in its time. (18/03/2014)

Nostalgia’s a bitch. I loved this movie when I was little; an irresistibly naive echo of the Cold War. It's impossible not to root for an American who has to lift a log and run across a snowy landscape to train, as opposed to a Russian who is groomed by a team of physiotherapists in top-notch conditions. I almost felt like pulling out the American flag and cheering Sly on at the top of my lungs :) (28/09/2003)

Seeing this film again after several years is an experience that can’t be forgotten. Rocky IV is the epitome of everything that we loved about the action movies of the 1980s. Good man of steel vs. bad man of steel, good America vs. bad Russia and, if you like, the power of the pure spirit of nature vs. the power of modern technology. There’s revenge for the friend who had been killed, intensive training and a final fight that is so packed with energy that you you want to get up and start throwing punches. Dozens of films at that time offered all of this, but few could serve it all up with such scope and showmanship, and in such a dynamic music-video-style package as Rocky IV. (19/05/2002)

With the fourth installment, the series of Rocky Balboa films has moved from films that bypass me thematically to the category of films that, pardon my French, piss me off. It is rare to see this sort of stupid propagandistic film. There are propagandistic works that have quality directing, polished screenplays, and excellent casts and performances, but Rocky IV has none of that. If I had to look at this matter objectively, I would have to be squatting on Jupiter. Overall impression: 10% (for Gorbachev with the large red spot on his head). (24/02/2009)