Reluctantly retired from boxing, and back from riches to rags, Rocky takes on a new protege who betrays him, as the champ's son must adjust to his family's new life after bankruptcy.
Rocky Balboa proudly holds the world heavyweight boxing championship, but a new challenger has stepped forward: Drago, a six-foot-four, 261-pound fighter who has the backing of the Soviet Union.
Director:
Sylvester Stallone
Stars:
Sylvester Stallone,
Talia Shire,
Burt Young
Rocky struggles in family life after his bout with Apollo Creed, while the embarrassed champ insistently goads him to accept a challenge for a rematch.
Director:
Sylvester Stallone
Stars:
Sylvester Stallone,
Talia Shire,
Burt Young
Thirty years after the ring of the first bell, Rocky Balboa comes out of retirement and dons his gloves for his final fight; against the reigning heavyweight champ Mason 'The Line' Dixon.
Director:
Sylvester Stallone
Stars:
Sylvester Stallone,
Antonio Tarver,
Milo Ventimiglia
A small-time boxer gets a supremely rare chance to fight a heavy-weight champion in a bout in which he strives to go the distance for his self-respect.
Director:
John G. Avildsen
Stars:
Sylvester Stallone,
Talia Shire,
Burt Young
The former World Heavyweight Champion Rocky Balboa serves as a trainer and mentor to Adonis Johnson, the son of his late friend and former rival Apollo Creed.
Director:
Ryan Coogler
Stars:
Michael B. Jordan,
Sylvester Stallone,
Tessa Thompson
John Rambo is released from prison by the government for a top-secret covert mission to the last place on Earth he'd want to return - the jungles of Vietnam.
Director:
George P. Cosmatos
Stars:
Sylvester Stallone,
Richard Crenna,
Charles Napier
Former Green Beret John Rambo is pursued into the mountains surrounding a small town by a tyrannical sheriff and his deputies, forcing him to survive using his combat skills.
Director:
Ted Kotcheff
Stars:
Sylvester Stallone,
Brian Dennehy,
Richard Crenna
In Thailand, John Rambo joins a group of mercenaries to venture into war-torn Burma, and rescue a group of Christian aid workers who were kidnapped by the ruthless local infantry unit.
Director:
Sylvester Stallone
Stars:
Sylvester Stallone,
Julie Benz,
Matthew Marsden
Framed by their ruthless arch-nemesis, a mismatched LAPD crime-fighting duo has to put its differences aside to even the score with the evil kingpin who put them behind bars once and for all.
Directors:
Andrey Konchalovskiy,
Albert Magnoli
Stars:
Sylvester Stallone,
Kurt Russell,
Teri Hatcher
Rocky Balboa is forced to retire after having permanent damage inflicted on him in the ring by the Russian boxer Ivan Drago. Returning home after the Drago bout, Balboa discovers that the fortune that he had acquired as heavyweight champ has been stolen and lost on the stockmarket by his accountant. His boxing days over, Rocky begins to coach an up-and-coming fighter named Tommy Gunn. Rocky cannot compete, however, with the high salaraies and glittering prizes being offered to Gunn by other managers in town.Written by
Murray Chapman <muzzle@cs.uq.oz.au>
In the ensuing years following the film's release, Sylvester Stallone acknowledged that the injury Rocky suffers subsequently forcing him to retire, referenced in the film as a potentially lethal form of 'brain damage', was inaccurate. Stallone stated that having discussed the story with many boxing medical professionals, the injury Rocky suffered was a milder form of brain damage, similar to that of a long term concussion that many boxers suffer from and by modern day standards are still able to gain licenses to box and would not have prevented Rocky from gaining a license to box nor killed him. See more »
Goofs
After the fight is over, Rocky makes the statement that (paraphrased) he is sure that his kid has been watching the fight even though he should have already been in bed. With the time difference in Moscow, even if the fight had finished in Russia by mid-night then it would have been 6 p.m., or early evening in Philly. See more »
In the closing credits Elton John's "The Measure Of A Man" plays while it shows stills from all five Rocky movies. See more »
Alternate Versions
In 2002, director John G. Avildsen released a work-print version of the film online, under the title "Rocky V: Director's Cut". In this version, the opening credits are completely different, with different music. Additionally, the music throughout the film is decidedly different then that used in the final version of the film; in particular, there is a lot more Bill Conti music rather than the songs used in the theatrical cut (although Michael Bolton's "When I'm Back On My Feet Again" plays in this cut when Rocky visits Mighty Mick's). Several scenes are edited differently in the Director's Cut, and often with different dialogue. There are also a number of deleted scenes in the film, including a scene of Rocky getting drunk at the bar prior to visiting Mighty Mick's Boxing, and a scene where Rocky meets Marie from Rocky to find that she is a prostitute and has just become homeless. Additionally, the Director's Cut has a completely different edit of the street fight, with new music, and also includes the Mickey hallucination scene. See more »
For some reason or another, certain movies achieve a reputation as being worse than they actually are. Rocky V is one such film that is affected by the as I call it Phantom Menace syndrome. This refers to Movies that are interesting in their own way but fail to live up to the hype or expectation of previous instalments, or simply do not follow the formula that everyone derided for being too predictable anyway. For me, Rocky V is the best of the sequels to the 1976 original, as it does not follow in the Rocky tradition of simply having a bigger guy to fight than in the previous film. Rocky IV was a great spectacle but it was more comical than anything to think that an entire Russian government could be funding one over-sized boxer who could kill a man with one flurry of punches, not to mention turn a blind eye to illegal doping. The fifth instalment in the anthology goes back to the more personal story of the character, and deals much more realistically with the aftermath of loss and the twisted nature of professional prize fighting.
Stallone recruited his own son for the role of Robert (Rocky's son) and the result is one of the best father son relationships ever committed to celluloid. The scene where Rocky realises that he has been a negligent father and must make his peace with the boy is affectionate and heartfelt and could never been as realistic without the real life history behind these two people.
OK, there are some flaws and I am not too naive to suggest this movie is worthy of an Oscar. The casting of Tommy 'The Machine' Gunn could have been better as real life boxer Tommy Morrison sometimes appears wooden and is never really threatening enough to Rocky for the final fight to have any tangible tension. Similarly, aside from the final tune of Elton John's 'The measure of a man' the music does not measure up to the awesome and inspirational anthems that have accompanied previous instalments. Any Flick in the early nineties that used rap music as its primary soundtrack has ultimately dated for a modern audience.
My advice would be to watch this movie in full before you judge it. There are some sad moments in this fall from grace story as well as few goofs in terms of weak acting. But it's not as bad as people say and as the sixth instalment nears completion it's about time everyone got back into the Rocky spirit for one more round.
A good film. 7/10
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For some reason or another, certain movies achieve a reputation as being worse than they actually are. Rocky V is one such film that is affected by the as I call it Phantom Menace syndrome. This refers to Movies that are interesting in their own way but fail to live up to the hype or expectation of previous instalments, or simply do not follow the formula that everyone derided for being too predictable anyway. For me, Rocky V is the best of the sequels to the 1976 original, as it does not follow in the Rocky tradition of simply having a bigger guy to fight than in the previous film. Rocky IV was a great spectacle but it was more comical than anything to think that an entire Russian government could be funding one over-sized boxer who could kill a man with one flurry of punches, not to mention turn a blind eye to illegal doping. The fifth instalment in the anthology goes back to the more personal story of the character, and deals much more realistically with the aftermath of loss and the twisted nature of professional prize fighting.
Stallone recruited his own son for the role of Robert (Rocky's son) and the result is one of the best father son relationships ever committed to celluloid. The scene where Rocky realises that he has been a negligent father and must make his peace with the boy is affectionate and heartfelt and could never been as realistic without the real life history behind these two people.
OK, there are some flaws and I am not too naive to suggest this movie is worthy of an Oscar. The casting of Tommy 'The Machine' Gunn could have been better as real life boxer Tommy Morrison sometimes appears wooden and is never really threatening enough to Rocky for the final fight to have any tangible tension. Similarly, aside from the final tune of Elton John's 'The measure of a man' the music does not measure up to the awesome and inspirational anthems that have accompanied previous instalments. Any Flick in the early nineties that used rap music as its primary soundtrack has ultimately dated for a modern audience.
My advice would be to watch this movie in full before you judge it. There are some sad moments in this fall from grace story as well as few goofs in terms of weak acting. But it's not as bad as people say and as the sixth instalment nears completion it's about time everyone got back into the Rocky spirit for one more round.
A good film. 7/10