Sylvester Stallone Confirms Rocky IV Director’s Cut will be “amazing” – What would make it better?

Are you excited about a Rocky IV Director’s Cut? Yes or no, it’s “amazing” says Stallone.

Rocky IV ⭐️⭐️½ 

Of all the Rocky films to offer a Director’s Cut, one definitely toward the bottom of the list (for me, anyway) would be the one co-starring Dolph Lundgren’s iconic Russian pugilist Ivan Drago.

Too bad, according to Stallone, it’s coming and he has one word to describe it …

Sylvester Stallone has revealed that he is working on a director’s cut of Rocky IV, which he says will be “amazing.”

Rocky IV: Sylvester Stallone Confirms He’s Working on a Director’s Cut – IGN

This movie is ranked #7 out of 8 on my Rocky ranked films list (see: Ranking Stallone’s Rocky and Creed Films). Ouch, only the mediocre Rocky V starring the late real fighter Tommy Morrison as Tommy Gunn would get me less excited.

This is the era of popularity for alternative versions (see: More Director’s and Extended Cuts, yes, Snyder Cut is Coming To HBO Max in 2021), This weekend HBO Max has released Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice Ultimate Edition, which adds 30+ minutes to the original theatrical release. Clearly, they are whetting the appetite of Snyder cut fans.

Now back to Rocky IV: The Director’s Cut. No release date was mentioned in any of the sources I clicked through and read, just restating that Stallone confirmed it. Rather than just do that here, let’s discuss what we’d like to see in an alternate cut of this movie.

Here are a few things I think would make Rocky IV better:

• More Carl ‘Apollo Creed’ Weathers hyping the “exhibition fight that doesn’t mean anything” – I love it when he talks smack in the Rocky films
• Drago with a few more barely intelligible lines like, “I must break you.”
• Drago and Rocky mixing it up at the press conference. I always thought Stallone played Rocky too subdued as he announced the fight with Drago would be in Russia. It was his then wife Bridget Nielson as Drago’s wife that has all the passion in that scene. Give me Rocky throwing down with somebody, shoving somebody, something. Instead he plays that scene too Debbie downer mode. Sure, his friend was killed, but … well, come on.
• Eliminate or severely cut that utterly stupid end of the Russia fight speech “If I can change, you can change, we can all change!” — one of the most out of character Rocky speeches in any of the filmse
• Was there a third training montage we could have? No, no, I’m kidding here. I did like Survivor’s song “Burning Heart” but it played off too much like trying to recapture the magic of “Eye of The Tiger” from Rocky III.

Shall I go on? Let’s use the comments. What would you like to see in a Rocky IV Director’s Cut? Or would you not like to see one at all? Which Rocky film deserves a Director’s Cut?

Rocky in an immigration issue movie? Please, no

Like to think I’m a fairly open-minded idea guy when it comes to movies and TV shows. Sure, some story ideas seem worse than others, but I’ll give just about anything a chance.

When it comes to Sylvester Stallone using his iconic boxing character, Rocky, to take on real-world immigration issues? That idea sounds terrible.

Asked if this Rocky VII would touch on real-world immigration issues, Stallone said, “Yes. Do you tell someone that you just met in the street who’s struggling and homeless to get out, or do you take him in? If you take him in, you’re in trouble.”

Sylvester Stallone Updates New Rocky Movie, Doesn’t Expect to Appear in Creed III With Michael B. Jordan

In fairness to Stallone, maybe he can make the film interesting, but am I alone in the world that prefers to see Rocky in/around the boxing ring? I mean, I’d rather see rebooting the whole series with a new, younger actor playing Rocky than an aging Stallone going into border patrol mode.

(maybe he boxes President Trump and the winner gets their solution enacted?)

That comes from somebody who is skeptical of most reboots/remakes of great films. I mean once you’ve made something as awesome as Rocky, why bother making the same film again? It’s great already, why do we need another re-imagining of it?

Can’t say I really want to see Rocky as the Mick character any more either. We’ve been there and done that with Creed and Creed II. Perhaps, the former boxer turned trainer Rocky just needs to accept that it’s time to hang up the gloves?

Am not saying there can’t be a Rocky VII, but perhaps telling the story of another Rocky character years later, like Clubber Lang would be better? What happened to Clubber, anyway? Now at least there is a story I could get interested in.

The Rocky universe isn’t exactly in the same gigantic story galaxy as Star Trek (see: Is The Star Trek Universe Played Out?)

What do you think? Do you want more Rocky Balboa? Rocky doing taxes. Rocky on Broadway. Rocky in a western. Rocky vs. Predator. Rocky in a science fiction setting. Animated Rocky vs. ___ … (OK, I’ll admit some of these wild ideas seem interesting).

Ranking Stallone’s Rocky and Creed Films

My rankings of all 8 Rocky / Creed films to date

New York Post’s Peter Botte has ranked (WARNING: spoilers in his mini-reviews) all 8 Rocky films as follows:

1. Rocky
2. Creed
3. Rocky II
4. Rocky III
5. Creed II
6. Rocky Balboa
7. Rocky IV
8. Rocky V

Last year, I made a list and ranked the Rocky and Creed movies. Our rankings are pretty similar, although I felt Rocky II and Rocky III were better than Creed. If rewatching again, I might give an equal star rating to Creed II and Rocky Balboa as both were about equally entertaining to me. I give a slight nod to Creed II because it was nice to see Ivan Drago and Rocky on the screen together again, but it would have been better if they had brawled a bit.

In the outtake footage, there was a dust-up in the hospital.

Wish that hadn’t been cut! Director’s cut, Stallone, put that back in!

Here’s how I ranked them, you can click through on the titles and read my non-spoiler reviews:

1. Rocky ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️½
2. Rocky II ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
3. Rocky III ⭐️⭐️⭐️½
4. Creed (review pending)
5. Creed II ⭐️⭐️⭐️½
6. Rocky Balboa ⭐️⭐️⭐️
7. Rocky IV ⭐️⭐️½
8. Rocky V ⭐️⭐️

Creed for me could not have happened without Rocky III, so how could Creed be a better movie? Sure, it could be, not arguing that really, but … well, subjective.

From here on, if you haven’t seen all the movies, go watch them on streaming. As of this writing they’re all available (for purchase) on Amazon Prime Video.

… you’ve been warned SPOILERS ahead …

Now, the acting, I’ll readily admit was better in Creed than Rocky III, but my goodness, Mr. T as the menacing Clubber Lang? Not to mention what happened to Mickey! MICK!!!!!!!! (in that incoherent Stallone crying scene).

What is Rocky saying?!? Maybe Mick could understand him … somehow

Rocky II felt like a solid continuation of Rocky, sort of in the way that Halloween II would continue where Halloween left off (only Halloween II was not a very good movie — but the timing of both movies was similar). I enjoyed in Rocky II how we learned Rocky needed to fight, to do all he knew how to do, to be a man. That was a really good, clever and logical story.

After Rocky II the series sort of became campy and there were notable inconsistencies. For example, in Rocky II Stallone isn’t skilled enough to do commercials, but in Rocky III he’s doing advertising and commercials everywhere? Sure, maybe he learned how to be in front of the camera, but it’s a stark inconsistency versus explained or shown character growth (maybe in the montage segments, it is explained?). I also think Rocky’s accent is much more pronounced in the first two Rocky films than in later ones.

Then again, how he became rich from the title defenses that were with “has beens” as Mickey put it, were a huge part of Rocky’s character arc. So maybe Stallone did explain it all in his rags to riches trilogy.

Stallone tried returning to the heart of the first two films in Rocky Balboa and I liked the boxing realism. It was a smart play what he did with Adrian, as well, although I did kind of miss seeing her and Rocky together.

Overall, I’m not sure we need any more Rocky or Creed films, the stories are a bit long in the tooth, but it sounds like we might be getting at least one more. I suppose if Stallone and company can dredge up a storyline that we haven’t seen explored with Rocky’s character.

How do you rank the Rocky films?