Rocky IV

This '80s sequel was a hit when it came out, but it hasn't necessarily aged well. Around the time this movie was made, "Weird Al" Yankovic came out with a parody of the Survivor hit "Eye of the Tiger" called "Theme from Rocky XIII, aka The Rye or the Kaiser" in which Rocky Balboa, long past his prime, now owns and operates a neighborhood deli. This was a few years before sequels and spinoffs of any hit movie (to say nothing of remakes) were to be expected from Hollywood, and the song perfectly encapsulates the problem with nearly all sequels: They wear out the welcome of the original idea. This definitely applies to Rocky IV. While relevant to its time with its Cold War rivalries acted out in the boxing ring, and perhaps relevant in light of contemporary tensions between America and Russia, it's still a movie that is as 1980s as it gets, and sometimes hilariously so.

Scenes in which a Mikhail Gorbachev-lookalike, flanked by similarly dour-faced members of the Politburo, looks proud then displeased then inspired by Rocky's post-fight pleas for peace and unity in the world are almost too corny to be believed. The montage songs sound like the direct inspiration for the song "Montage" from Team America: World Police. And the few lines Dolph Lundgren is given makes the early work of Arnold Schwarzenegger seem like the best of Sir Laurence Olivier by comparison. And then there's that utterly bizarre female robot who was a birthday gift for Paulie. All of this and then some makes this an entertaining movie, but not necessarily for the reasons Sylvester Stallone intended.