I didn't even know this existed until I saw the behind the scenes documentary appear on Netflix.
As a real fan of Rocky IV I immediately sought this out and watched it. And ... meh.
I think it has positives and negatives over the first film. For example, the whole replaying of Rocky III at the start was a little unnecessary, I think ... but the removal of the stupid robot was definitely appreciated.
It was really good to see a different take on the movie ... with more time spent on the relationships between Rocky and Apollo and Adrian.
It said that there's 38 minutes of previously unseen footage ... but the film's still only 90 minutes or so long so they must have taken out a helluva lot.
I was expecting the music video driving montage to have been cut out but it wasn't. And the training montage seems pretty unchanged as far as I can tell.
The other thing that's not changed - and my biggest gripe with Rocky IV - is the lumbering style that Rocky has regressed into after transforming at the end of Rocky III into a nimble fighter with the help of Apollo. Annoys me so much.
All in all it's a different presentation for one of my favourite Rocky films ... but not sure it's that much of an improvement, if at all.
71/100.
As a real fan of Rocky IV I immediately sought this out and watched it. And ... meh.
I think it has positives and negatives over the first film. For example, the whole replaying of Rocky III at the start was a little unnecessary, I think ... but the removal of the stupid robot was definitely appreciated.
It was really good to see a different take on the movie ... with more time spent on the relationships between Rocky and Apollo and Adrian.
It said that there's 38 minutes of previously unseen footage ... but the film's still only 90 minutes or so long so they must have taken out a helluva lot.
I was expecting the music video driving montage to have been cut out but it wasn't. And the training montage seems pretty unchanged as far as I can tell.
The other thing that's not changed - and my biggest gripe with Rocky IV - is the lumbering style that Rocky has regressed into after transforming at the end of Rocky III into a nimble fighter with the help of Apollo. Annoys me so much.
All in all it's a different presentation for one of my favourite Rocky films ... but not sure it's that much of an improvement, if at all.
71/100.