History YMMV / RockyIV

* VindicatedByHistory: Sort of. It's still considered a terrible (or at least very cheesy) film by many, but the way ''Film/{{Creed}}'' was able to use Apollo's death to launch its own story, which is now regarded as the best the series has been since the first film, gives it a more respectable place in the franchise. ''Film/CreedII'' revisiting the Drago plotline and giving increased depth to Ivan and the events of this film also helped.

** Actually, Stallone cut an ''hour'''s worth of footage out of the movie so it would be 90 minutes long, play more times in theaters, and make more money (and it worked). A lot of the montages are there to replace the numerous scenes that were removed entirely, such as Rocky being stripped of his title by the boxing commission, Rocky trying to train in America but repeatedly being interrupted by veteran or political groups, and a scene where the feds come to Rocky's home, tell him not to fight Drago, wind up threatening him, and Adrian subsequently throws them out of the house.

** An interpretation of Apollo Creed is that he's fed up with retirement and growing old gracefully, and [[DeathSeeker wants to go out fighting like a warrior]]. Implied by Apollo's line at the end of ''Film/RockyIII'':

*** In ''Film/{{Creed}}'' Apollo's son brings up this point and Rocky shoots it down.

*** Drago manhandling a member of the Politboro (regardless of the provocation) in front of a huge crowd of Soviet fans [[FridgeHorror probably didn't go over well, either]].

** [[FountainOfMemes Ivan Drago's]] signature quote, "I must break you." has been oft-repeated in case of parodies in regards of strong people or [[TheAhnold parodying]] [[Creator/DolphLundgren his actor.]] The same goes with his KickTheDog / MoralEventHorizon quote, which is also oft-modified for expressions of ignorance or LackOfEmpathy: "If he dies, he dies."[[note]]The format: "If [Subject A] [Verb A], [Subject A] [Verb A]."[[/note]]

** Sylvester Stallone's [[JustForPun rocky]] marriage with Brigitte Nielsen led to Creator/AndrewDiceClay's quip about the film: "In ''Rocky IV'', Dolph Lundgren told Stallone "I must break you." Brigitte Nielsen told him "I '''will''' break you."

* MoralEventHorizon: Drago's NoHoldsBarredBeatDown of Apollo, resulting in his death. A blink-and-you'll-miss-it moment is he pushes away the referee who was trying to break it up, implying he ''[[AxCrazy consciously meant to kill Apollo]]''. What he say's afterwards grinds in what kind of person he is.

** [[FountainOfMemes Ivan Drago's]] signature quote, "I must break you." has been oft-repeated in case of parodies in regards of strong people or [[TheAhnold parodying]] [[Creator/DolphLundgren his actor.]] The same goes with his KickTheDog / MoralEventHorizon quote, which is also oft-modified for expressions of ignorance or LackOfEmpathy: "If he dies, he dies."

** Ivan Drago's signature quote, "I must break you." has been oft-repeated in case of parodies in regards of strong people or [[TheAhnold parodying]] [[Creator/DolphLundgren his actor.]]

* MemeticMutation: "Whatever he hits... he ''destroys''!"

** The main villain of the movie being a [[TheJuggernaut nigh-unstoppable]] HuskyRusskie boxer looks oddly prescient today. At the time, Soviet boxers weren't allowed to compete, but tended to dominate at the Olympics. In the late 90s, as the Iron Curtain laid dormant and ex-Warsaw Pact countries started allowing their boxers to compete in international competition, Eastern European boxers quickly took over the scene, especially in the cruiserweight and heavyweight divisions. Ex-[=WarPac=] heavyweight champions after 1999 included Vitali Klitschko (Ukrainian), Nikolai Valuev (Russian), Siarhei Liakhovich (Belarusian), Oleg Maskayev (Russian), Ruslan Chagaev (Tatar), Sultan Ibragimov (Russo-Dagestani), and Alexander Povetkin (Russian).[[note]]Andrew Golota (Polish) also ''would'' have been a heavyweight champion if not for exceptionally corrupt judgement in a fight he clearly won against John Ruiz. Also him [[DickDastardlyStopsToCheat deciding to throw low blows]] against Riddick Bowe after dominating him for the entire fight.[[/note]] Currently the statistically most successful heavyweight champion of all time (longest reign, most defenses, longest undefeated streak, etc.) is a Ukrainian, Wladimir Klitschko, who has a rather similar physique to Drago (he's a more personable, thankfully).

** An interpretation of Apollo Creed is that he's fed up with retirement and growing old gracefully, and [[DeathSeeker wants to go out fighting like a warrior]]. Some dialogue in ''Film/{{Creed}}'' strongly implies this is the case. There's Apollo's line at the end of ''Film/RockyIII'':

** The main villain of the movie being a [[TheJuggernaut nigh-unstoppable]] HuskyRussky boxer looks oddly prescient today. At the time, Soviet boxers weren't allowed to compete, but tended to dominate at the Olympics. In the late 90s, as the Iron Curtain laid dormant and ex-Warsaw Pact countries started allowing their boxers to compete in international competition, Eastern European boxers quickly took over the scene, especially in the cruiserweight and heavyweight divisions. Ex-[=WarPac=] heavyweight champions after 1999 included Vitali Klitschko (Ukrainian), Nikolai Valuev (Russian), Siarhei Liakhovich (Belarusian), Oleg Maskayev (Russian), Ruslan Chagaev (Tatar), Sultan Ibragimov (Russo-Dagestani), and Alexander Povetkin (Russian).[[note]]Andrew Golota (Polish) also ''would'' have been a heavyweight champion if not for exceptionally corrupt judgement in a fight he clearly won against John Ruiz. Also him [[DickDastardlyStopsToCheat deciding to throw low blows]] against Riddick Bowe after dominating him for the entire fight.[[/note]] Currently the statistically most successful heavyweight champion of all time (longest reign, most defenses, longest undefeated streak, etc.) is a Ukrainian, Wladimir Klitschko, who has a rather similar physique to Drago (he's a more personable, thankfully).

** The main villain of the movie being a [[TheJuggernaut nigh-unstoppable]] HuskyRusky boxer looks oddly prescient today. At the time, Soviet boxers weren't allowed to compete, but tended to dominate at the Olympics. In the late 90s, as the Iron Curtain laid dormant and ex-Warsaw Pact countries started allowing their boxers to compete in international competition, Eastern European boxers quickly took over the scene, especially in the cruiserweight and heavyweight divisions. Ex-[=WarPac=] heavyweight champions after 1999 included Vitali Klitschko (Ukrainian), Nikolai Valuev (Russian), Siarhei Liakhovich (Belarusian), Oleg Maskayev (Russian), Ruslan Chagaev (Tatar), Sultan Ibragimov (Russo-Dagestani), and Alexander Povetkin (Russian).[[note]]Andrew Golota (Polish) also ''would'' have been a heavyweight champion if not for exceptionally corrupt judgement in a fight he clearly won against John Ruiz. Also him [[DickDastardlyStopsToCheat deciding to throw low blows]] against Riddick Bowe after dominating him for the entire fight.[[/note]] Currently the statistically most successful heavyweight champion of all time (longest reign, most defenses, longest undefeated streak, etc.) is a Ukrainian, Wladimir Klitschko, who has a rather similar physique to Drago (he's a more personable, thankfully).

* VindicatedByHistory: Sort of. It's still considered a terrible film by many, but the way ''Film/{{Creed}}'' was able to use Apollo's death to launch its own story, which is now regarded as the best the series has been since the first film, gives it a more respectable place in the franchise.

* {{Padding}}: The film is fairly short already at 89 minutes. If you take out the end credits, the obligatory repeating of the final scene of ''Film/RockyIII'' as the opening scene to this movie, and a somewhat baffling midpoint montage of moments from the first three movies including this one, the film actually contains closer to about 75 minutes of new footage. And ''that'' 75 minutes is further watered down by [[BigLippedAlligatorMoment BLAMs]] and montages, meaning the story itself is less than an hour.

** It's possible that the VillainHasAPoint moments mentioned on the main page were intentional, and that Stallone was trying to paint the Americans and Soviets as NotSoDifferent in their fanatical patriotism and aggressiveness. Trouble is, if this were true, it's undermined by the Soviet characters being such [[StrawmanPolitical cartoonish strawmen]].

* StrawmanPolitical: One of the most cartoonishly negative depictions of the USSR in American media, which is saying something. The Russian characters are a near-silent, hulking muscleman with [[LackOfEmpathy little empathy]] towards his opponents, his wife who ''smiles gleefully when Apollo dies'', and their {{Jerkass}} promoter, a Communist functionary who spends the whole film baiting Apollo, Rocky and insulting America.

* FairForItsDay: As with most Cold War-era films featuring Russians as the villains they are cartoonishly evil, talking of their superiority to anything American with a clinical coldness to it. But Drago shows [[JustFollowingOrders dissatisfaction with how his superiors treat him as a tool]] and shares mild WorthyOpponent feelings towards Rocky, while Rocky's speech at the end has him mention his respect to the people of Russian and calling for peace between the two nations rather than simply being satisfied with victory.

* FairForItsDay: As with most Cold War-era films featuring Russians as the villains, the Russians are cartoonish, but Rocky's speech at the end is notable in calling for peace between the two nations rather than simply being satisfied with victory.

* FightSceneFailure: "[[Website/CollegeHumor Just to give you an idea how hard these guys were punching, sometimes the punch didn't even land! But their head flew back anyways, like from the air or something.]]
** [[ArtisticLicenseMartialArts "These guys landed 91% of their power punches, that's unheard of!"]][[note]]The choreography isn't stellar. Rocky and Drago just take turns delivering power punches to their opponent's unprotected face. They barely even put their gloves up, much less make any attempt to dodge or weave. For comparison, in the recent heavyweight title fight between the top ranked Tyson Fury and Deontay Wilder, the fighters landed 36% and 17% of their power punches, respectively.[[/note]]

* FightSceneFailure: [[Website/CollegeHumor Just to give you an idea how hard these guys were punching, sometimes the punch didn't even land but their head flew back anyways, like from the air or something.]]

** Drago manhandling a member of the Politboro (regardless of the provocation) in front of a huge crowd of Soviet fans probably didn't go over well, either.

* BigLippedAlligatorMoment:
** Apollo Creed's entrance in his fight against Drago. It starts with an over the top performance that belongs more to a Broadway musical than a boxing ring, has Music/JamesBrown singing, and has Apollo dressed up as Uncle Sam and dancing. Drago, who is usually TheStoic, [[OutOfCharacterMoment is utterly bewildered by this spectacle]], and probably qualifies as the OnlySaneMan for this scene. Even Rocky seems somewhat embarrassed, as when Adrian looks at Rocky at one point like, "How long is this gonna go?" Rocky's return gesture is like, "Beats me, this ain't my idea!"
*** "[[Website/CollegeHumor Creed is clearly exhausted by the dance number he did with James Brown five minutes earlier, and before the second round is over... that’s it.]]”
** Paulie's robot buddy. Especially Apollo's reaction to it.

* {{Padding}}: The film is fairly short already at 89 minutes. If you take out the end credits, the obligatory repeating of the final scene of Rocky III as the opening scene to this movie, and a somewhat baffling midpoint montage of moments from Rocky movies including Rocky IV itself, the film actually contains closer to about 75 minutes of new footage. And ''that'' 75 minutes is further watered down by [[BigLippedAlligatorMoment BLAMs]] and montages, meaning the story itself is less than an hour.