Rocky V (1990)

A lot of people really didn’t like this one, I think in part because it was a ‘downer’ in the narrative. The Balboa family accountant turned out to be a crook and misinvested all their money, in addition to which some minor brain damage sustained in the last film makes Rocky ineligible to fight in the United States. So the family returns to the mean streets of Philly from whence they came, Rock tries coaching an Oklahoma youth, but he turns out to lack the champs ‘heart’, and the two street fight much to the Don King stand-ins chagrin. Again, I more then acknowledge that this one wasn’t as good as those that proceeded it (and some of the stuff with the kid was kind of hoacky), but viewing it as part of an arc, and in close proximity to my viewing the other entries in the series, I liked it enough to give it a 3 out five. Of course the true and satisfying conclusion to the Rocky chronicle comes in the 6th feature, Rocky Balboa, made sixteen years after this entry. That latter being perhaps the saddest and most surpassingly profound entry in what I must still call an impressive series.