Rocky V was inarguably a mess. Most people who have seen it firmly believe it’s the worst in the series. Honestly, haven’t seen many say there was much to redeem about it. Meanwhile, Stallone is actively working on a Rocky IV Director’s Cut which cuts out Pauly’s robot, among other things.
Why is everybody tinkering with the Rocky movies? It’s not just Stallone. The director of the first and last movie, John Avildsen also had his own take.
Yes, it turns out there is a Rocky V Director’s Cut floating around that might improve upon some of the film’s weaknesses.
The Rocky V: Director’s Cut is a decidedly unofficial release that’s tricky to find nowadays, but for those who disliked the sequel, it’s worth checking out. One of the first big changes is the music, with Avildsen’s cut losing many of the rap tracks from the theatrical version and replacing them with cues from series composer Bill Conti, which makes it feel more in line with previous entries. Many scenes are re-edited with alternate dialogue too, but some of the biggest differences are deleted scenes.
Every Difference In Rocky V’s Lost Director’s Cut | Screen Rant
To my knowledge, John Avildsen hasn’t complained about the theatrical cut being compromised, but what worries about me about an increasing number of these Director’s Cuts is reworking films once released being re-released with new versions. I brought this up with the Snyder Cut and still feel this is a very slippery slope.
When we see a movie do we risk seeing another version on streaming that’s the “official” version? Sigh. This could disrupt the movie watching experience. Faith that any creative work we’re watching that isn’t as good as the filmmakers thought isn’t repackaged, repurposed, re-edited and sent back to us again. Is that what we want muddying up the new movie release lists in the future?
Once in a great, great, great while this might make sense. Perhaps with celebrated movies. Not Justice League, not Rocky IV, certainly not Rocky V, not Suicide Squad and the list goes on.
Movies, Movies, Movies 
Entirely disagree 🙂 I’m a huge fan of the entire franchise and Rocky IV remains my favourite.
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Rocky IV is a fun movie, I’ll give you that 🙂 Will see what happens with the director’s cut.
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After re-reading your comment, I’m curious what you entirely disagree with?
Do you like Rocky V? The franchise is good, no disputing that, but I’ve yet to see many defend Rocky V — even Stallone himself has said it didn’t come out as he wished. Rocky Balboa — essentially Rocky 6 — is more in lines with what he wanted to do in Rocky 5.
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MY HUGE APOLOGIES!!! I thought you were slating Rocky IV after I saw the ‘release directors cut’ stuff in the title. I do apologise profusely 🙂
100% agree that Rocky V is the worst film of the whole franchise. I think it has moments of unintentional hilarity (like when his son wears just one, dangly long earring) but so much is wrong with it. Tommy Gun is a shit character. Rocky is a bad, absent father. The most ludicrous thing occurs at the start when they lose all their money and Rocky digs out his out clothes?!!!!! Who digs out old clothes just because they’ve lost their money?! Ha ha ha.
It didn’t have the true heart or emotional edge of the other Rocky films but I still don’t mind watching it. It has its moments (fewer and further between granted) but I don’t hate it. It was nice his real life son was in it and the street fight at the end was pretty cool. Like I say too, the unintentional hilarity can bring a lot of the fun : )
I know that Stallone was never happy with it though and Rocky Balboa is a much, FAR more fitting ‘ending’ to his story.
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I disagree with the notion that celebrated films are the ones that deserve recuts, in fact I think it’s celebrated films that should be left alone. Why not try to bring the best out of bad films and improve them? That’s certainly preferable to the George Lucas method of ruining already-great films, is it not? Plus, sometimes studios really do screw things up against filmmaker’s wishes. And when it’s ALWAYS the director who takes the blame for bad films, can you really blame them for wanting to show the world what they actually intended?
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