Fans of the franchise mainly hate Rocky V. It took the triumph of Rocky IV and turned it into a tragedy for the Italian Stallion, with him suffering a potentially deadly injury due to his bout with Drago. Wiped out financially thanks to Paulie (who else?), Rocky, Adrian (Talia Shire – in her last entry in the saga) and Robert (Sage Stallone) have to relocate to Philly, where Rocky takes over Mickey’s old gym. There he finds a prospect, Tommy Gunn (the late Tommy Morrison), who he can turn into a contender, only for ego and a Don King-like promoter to get in the way, concluding in a ridiculous street fight. Stallone has slammed the movie over the years, but is it as bad as all that?
To give Stallone credit, he wanted to take Rocky V back to the gritty vibe of the first film, even bringing back director John G. Avildsen, but here’s the thing – Avildsen was not the same filmmaker he was in 1976. Avildsen went on to do the Karate Kid movies, and when he came back to Rocky V, he made it soft. And the blame cannot be all put on Avildsen’s shoulders, with him uploading a darker work print of the movie to youtube shortly before his death which hinted at his original vision for the film. Sly and Avildsen seemed to want one thing, and the studio wanted another. The resulting film would kill the franchise for sixteen years, only for Sly to triumphantly bring it back (resurrecting his career in the process) with the classic Rocky Balboa. So join us on this episode of Sylvester Stallone Revisited as we re-examine this much-maligned piece of Sly’s filmography.