Rocky IV

The fourth film in the franchise is a gloriously cartoonish and ridiculous Cold War spectacle that still packs a punch.

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PRE GAME 🥊

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Welcome back to Balls on Film! 👋🏻

Thanks for joining me for this final 2024 edition of the newsletter. I’ll be back with more sports movies in early January, but I wanted to end the year on a high with one of the most ridiculously cheesy sports movies that I can remember.

I’d like to thank my cousin, John, for stopping by again this week to continue his reviews of the Rocky franchise with Rocky IV. It features a boxing match that takes place on Christmas Day, so it’s about the closest thing to a festive sports movie that we’ve got right now.

As I’ve mentioned before, John writes comics and his work includes And Then Emily Was Gone, Oxymoron: The Loveliest Nightmare, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Universe #6 and Glasgow-based crime thriller Sink, all to critical acclaim. His horror anthology series Hotell has been optioned for film, with an adaptation from writer/director Elle Callahan currently in development.

We’re doing something a bit different for the halftime show this week. Instead of telling you what I’ve been watching over the last few days, I’m going to select my favourite movie and tv show of the year. There’s been a lot to choose from! 😊

With that, I’ll hand over to John. I’ll be back at half time!

John: Hello! Thanks to my cousin, James, for inviting me back again to cover Rocky IV. Let’s get to it!

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FIRST HALF 🥊

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Following Apollo Creed’s tragic death at the hands of Ivan Drago during a match, Rocky Balboa is consumed by grief and driven to seen vengeance.

MGM

Rocky IV is a ridiculous movie. If Rocky III saw the series take a turn into the realm of the broad and larger-than-life, then Rocky IV is downright cartoonish. Rocky Balboa seems to single-handedly end the Cold War, Paulie has turned from a somewhat tragic character into prat-falling comic relief, and Rocky has gone from the ultimate underdog to a man with apparently unlimited funds and resources living in a luxurious mansion and jetsetting across the world.

MGM

There's even a talking, dancing robot who periodically pops up in scenes to deflate any semblance of reality the film may have generated. Stallone's direction has turned pure camp, with at least half the film taken up by 80s synth pop montages. The film suffers from the absence of Burgess Meredith and the gravitas he brought to the previous three entries. Perhaps most unforgivably at all, this is the first film in the series where the iconic Bill Conti theme doesn't make an appearance.

MGM

By most objective barometers, Rocky IV is not a good movie. And yet I still have a certain fondness for it. Perhaps it's because this was the first Rocky movie I saw back when I was a kid. Or perhaps it's because in amidst the gloss and the cheese, there are some good things at play. Ivan Drago is a suitably intimidating antagonist, and perhaps misunderstood as this monster representative of Russian Evil. But while Clubber Lang was a nasty piece of work, when you cast aside his "Soviet Otherness", the only really villainous things he does are take steroids and utter the famous "If he dies, he dies" line. What he does to Apollo Creed is awful, but could fairly be passed off as an accident that arguably Apollo himself is partly responsible for. Really, as the ending where he rejects anti-American promoter Nicolai Koloff and says he fights for himself underlines, he is really just a deeply committed sportsman who wants to fight the best and be the best. If you take her at face value, even Brigitte Nielson's Ludmilla makes valid points about how Americans will never give Russian athletes a fair shake. And ultimately, the film isn't about Rocky Balboa winning the Cold War for America by proxy so much as it is about healing the rift between Russians and Americans by showing them their shared values.

MGM

Kudos once again also to Carl Weathers, whose arc as Apollo Creed stands out as one of the most rewarding elements of the whole series. The conclusion it comes to here is sad, but utterly fitting, and while Rocky IV seems to lose sight of so much else of those earlier films, in Apollo's arc there is an organic through-line that carries from I to IV, with Weathers selling it all beautifully.

MGM

So, Rocky IV is goofy as hell, playing like some lurid fever dream that makes you think Drago and co are justified in their contempt for nauseating American excess. But if you can't at least crack a smile at Apollo Creed and James Brown rocking down to "Livin' in America" or Rocky overcoming the odds in the ring once more, your heart must truly be stone cold.

Rocky IV is available to rent or buy via most digital stores.

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HALFTIME 🥊

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Let’s take a break for halftime.

I’ve mostly still been watching festive movies in my spare time over the last week, so I thought I’d look back at the year, and crown my favourite movie and tv show that I watched in 2024. Bear in mind, these are just my favourites - I’m not stating that these were necessarily the best.

BEST MOVIE OF 2024 🏆

The Substance

I couldn’t not award The Substance as my favourite of 2024. The craziest movie of 2024, with some of the best practical effects I’ve seen in horror for a while. Demi Moore, Margaret Qualley and Dennis Quaid are all great and Quaid’s character in particular might be one of the most repulsive I’ve seen too. This movie just kept going to wilder and wilder places, and I loved that the excellent trailer and marketing campaign didn’t really give all that much away. One of the most memorable cinema experiences I had all year.

Honourable Mentions: Juror #2, Longlegs, Civil War, Alien Romulus, Suncoast.

BEST TV SHOW OF 2024 🏆

The Bear - Season 3

The first two seasons of The Bear set impossibly high standards, which were always going to be difficult for a third season to live up to. The show’s return was met with some criticism from fans, but for me, it was still my favourite television of 2024. The way that this show can make me laugh, feel sad, warm and fuzzy and then incredibly stressed out all in the same episode is something that very few other shows have been able to do. I can’t wait for it to return in 2025.

Honourable Mentions: Mr & Mrs Smith, Presumed Innocent, Slow Horses Season 4, The Traitors (UK version).

I’d love to know what your favourite movies and tv shows of 2024 were, so please let me know in the comments or via e-mail. You can reply directly to this newsletter via your inbox, if you’d rather get in touch that way.

A quick reminder: if the newsletter isn’t going to your inbox, and going to junk mail instead, please be sure to locate the mail in your junk folder, and mark it as not spam. Alternatively, just reply to any email from me with a quick hello, and it shouldn’t happen again!

Let’s get back into the ring.

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SECOND HALF 🥊

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Let’s jump into some awards and bonus content.

BEST SCENE 🏆

Seeing Drago cut and weakened here is pure pantomime, but it’s a joyous moment.

BEST LINE 🏆

Drago: “If he dies, he dies.”

MVP AWARD 🏆

It’s got to be Ivan Drago, for being the most formidable and menacing opponent that Rocky had faced until this point. He also wins this for some of his hilariously memorable lines alone, as highlighted above!

IMDB TRIVIA HIGHLIGHT 🏆

Per IMDb:

During filming, Dolph Lundgren and Carl Weathers really did not get along and got into an altercation. Lundgren threw Weathers into a corner of the boxing ring. After that, Weathers shouted profanities at Lundgren while leaving the ring and announced that he was calling his agent and quitting the movie. Only after Sylvester Stallone forced the two actors to reconcile did the movie continue. This event caused a four-day work stoppage while Weathers was talked back into the part and Lundgren agreed to tone down his aggressiveness.

BEST LETTERBOXD REVIEW 🏆

This movie made history.

Minty on Letterboxd

BONUS FEATURE 💿

Here’s Sylvester Stallone and Dolph Lundgren revisiting the fight from the movie. It’s great seeing these two sitting together to reminisce about this.

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POST-GAME 🥊

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James: Thanks to John for joining us again this week! I hope you all enjoyed his take on Rocky IV. Let us know what you thought of the movie in the comments.

That wraps things up for the 2024 season. I’m taking a break for a couple of weeks to enjoy Christmas and New Year with family and friends. I’m very much looking forward to relaxing, being off work, getting away from social media for a bit and over-indulging in food. I’ll be back with the next edition of Balls on Film on Friday January 10th. If you have a particular sports movie that you’d like me to begin the year with, let me know! 😊

I’d like to thank all of you again for your incredible support this year. Launching something new can be daunting, and when I started this, I had no idea if anyone would read it. I started off this year at a bit of a low point, having been diagnosed with skin cancer in January. I had been wanting to start working on this project for a while, and after many doctor consultations and a couple of surgeries, I got the all clear and decided to focus on something more positive and get to work on creating Balls on Film. Working on this newsletter and building this community really helped me focus on something positive after going though such a worrying time, and all of your subscriptions, comments, likes, shares and messages have meant a lot! I can’t wait to continue this quest to review every sports movie ever made with you in the new year.

I hope you all have a wonderful and safe end to the year, and I hope you get to watch some good sports movies too.

See you in 2025! 👋🏻

🎉 🎉 🎉

~James