Bad Movies of the 1990s: Rocky V

Out of the five Rocky films, I would rate Rocky V as the worst among them, hands-down. By the time it came out, I was getting awfully afraid that all of these continuing sequels would end up having us follow the monosyllabic pugilist into his senior years, (a fear that came to bite me in the butt in years to come, but I'll deal with that another time).

In Rocky V, Sylvester Stallone once more stars as boxer Rocky Balboa. Although the previous Rocky installment ended on the expected high note, things are not so hot for him this time around.. His vast fortune is gone, due to his accountant mishandling his money and he got sufficiently knocked around by the Russian boxer in the last film to cause some brain damage. (How can anybody tell)?

In a nutshell ...things are rocky for Rocky. Yes, it's lame and I said it, but now that I've gotten it out, I can pull myself together and move on.

It turns out that Rocky, wife Adrian (Talia Shire) and their son.Robert (Sage Stallone) have little choice except to move back to the old hood after going through a humiliating bankruptcy, since Rocky's injuries have forced him into retirement. ( Okay, here's a question. In the previous Rocky movie, the son was a little kid, yet his age has been miraculously accelerated by a number of years in Rocky V, even though the fight with the Russian just recently took place.

Are Rocky and Adrian the parents of a mutant child? Anyway, Champ and family try to adjust as best they can to their new living situation and he ends up mentoring ambitious young boxer Tommy Gunn, portrayed by Tommy Morrison, a real life boxer related to the late actor John Wayne. Rocky then becomes Tommy's trainer and manager, so the young hopeful can obtain his dream of winning the heavyweight title. He encourages Tommy and shows him the tricks-of-the-trade, getting so caught up in the whole thing that he ignores his son.