This was one prescient movie. A Russian heavyweight (see Klitschko brothers) and a Russian doping scandal (Russia was banned from the Olympics for state sponsored doping).

When Ivan Drago comes to America to fight against whoever the U.S. has to offer Apollo Creed is all to anxious to get into the ring. He is older, fiver years removed from boxing, and no longer on top but he can't help but challenge the Russian.

That was the fight before the fight. Every Rocky movie has the fight before the fight: a fight against self, a fight against doubt, a fight against family--something. In this part Apollo had to fight against those who were telling him it wasn't worth it. Once Apollo was killed in the ring by the hulking Drago, Rocky had to fight against the objections of his wife, Adrian.

There was no deterring Rocky from fighting Drago. He was fighting for Apollo Creed, he was fighting for America. For me, this was one of, if not the most patriotic movies I've ever watched. They made the Russians such monsters that I was rooting for Rocky like I'd root for my favorite sports team. I was all in. I was emotionally invested in seeing Rocky destroy the Russian.

Rocky IV, I think, was a bounce back movie. One was a classic, two was good, three fell off IMO, and four was a reclamation of greatness. That's a rare feat that probably has not been accomplished in film. Usually, if a third movie is a stinker there is no fourth, or if there is a fourth it's just as bad if not worse. Rocky IV is the most memorable Rocky for me after the first.

The peaks of the Rocky franchise are the first movie and the fourth movie. Rocky is the Academy Award-winning drama and Rocky IV is the exhilarating, montage-driven 80s popcorn flick. Yes, this is a silly movie, but Ivan Drago is an intimidating opponent, and I think we all shed a tear or two when Apollo died. If nothing else, this movie gave us one of the best workout soundtracks ever - thanks, Rocky IV!

By the mid 1980s. There was a kind of symbiosis between music and the movies. MTV goes to the movies.

Rocky III had the Eye of the Tiger as a killer soundtrack and a lot of fast edits. The movie felt like an extended music video at times.

By the time Rocky IV arrived. Sylvester Stallone as writer, director and star wanted to wrest the franchise away from it more serious and downbeat roots.

Out went the Rocky fanfare at the beginning. Much of Bill Conti's stirring themes are missing. In comes a lot of rock and synth songs plus James Brown.

Stallone had always been vocal that he always wanted Rocky to fight a big Russian. In Swede Dolph Lundgren he found him. The Cold War provided the basis of the story.

Lundgren plays Ivan Drago, a man machine from the Soviet Union who now want to enter the world of professional boxing.

Apollo Creed is annoyed with the proposed Russian takeover of boxing and challenges Drago to an exhibition bout with Rocky as his trainer.

Rocky having seen footage of Drago in action thinks this is a dumb idea but reluctantly agrees. Creed is battered by Drago and dies in the ring.

To avenge Creed's death. Rocky agrees to fight Drago in Russia without backing of the boxing boards, the US government and Adrian.

Drago is bulked up by dope by the Soviets and its state of the art training systems. Rocky chops wood, runs up a mountain, lives frugally in a log cabin. He does not even have any sparring partners. The US Embassy in Moscow have not even bothered to look him. Maybe they thought that some black guy was still heavyweight champion of the world!

Stallone reinvents the David v Goliath tale. He also takes a leaf out of Ronald Reagan's 1984 re-election campaign with the training montage. It is a cheesy addition to the Rocky saga aimed at the feel good Reaganite demographics of the mid 1980s. The story is wafer thin. The political subtext is kindergarten level.

I re-watched the movie with the Director's cut. The James Brown stuff seemed to have gone on longer. There seems to be a bit more Dolph Lundgren who turned out to be a genuine discovery. Given that Dolph has shown more acting chops, maybe Stallone should had risked given him more lines in Russian.

The Director's cut winds down the jingoistic ending. No surprise given the era when the film was released, there was a nuclear arms race.

Now the Russian have realised and Stallone seems to be aware of this. You can buy off right wingers and their friends in the media with what they love best, money.

In the movie, Rocky tells the people the Berlin Wall is wrong and divides people. Now some Americans rather liked a president who wanted to build a big wall and get Mexico to pay for it.