If “Rocky IV” represents the peak of Sylvester Stallone’s career, “Rocky V” (1990, directed by the first film’s director, John G. Avildsen) represents the point in which Stallone’s career (that being mainly in the ‘90s) started to go downhill.

It’s right after “Rocky IV” and Rocky Balboa (no points for guessing that he’s being played by Sylvester Stallone) is back in the good ol’ US of A after surviving his match with Ivan Drago (along with probably ending the Cold War and causing the Soviet Union to collapse.)

But not everything is hunkydory on the homefront. As it turns out Rocky’s accountant had invested all of Balboa’s money into a bunch of of projects without his knowledge, which then went belly up leaving the Balboa family penniless and with a house that apparently had six years worth of returns, that they also didn’t know about, to pay. 

To make matters worse it appears that those darn commies gave Rocky a gift while in Moscow, that being irreversible brain damage from the fight with Drago, that could kill him if he ever steps back into the ring. 

Left with little to no choice, Rocky and his family are forced to sell most of their belongings and move back to the poorer neighborhood that they had in “Rocky II,” with Rocky taking over as the manager for Mickey’s old gym in order to make ends meet. While there, he meets a young up-and-coming boxer named Tommy Gunn (played by real-life boxer Tommy Morrison) who Rocky sees has potential and takes him under his wing.

“Rocky V” is typically seen as the “bad one” when it comes to the Rocky franchise, and while it certainly does have a lot of problems that’s not to say there are no positives to it at all.

First of all the acting, like in all the films, is still top notch, with the cast giving great performances across the board, with the possible exception being Tommy Morrison who might have been a better boxer than actor. 

Special mention, weirdly enough, goes to Paulie (Burt Young) who actually does great as both the comedic sidekick and the slightly scummy brother-in-law that’s ultimately still loyal to Rocky. Where in the previous films he was either/or.

The scenes with Rocky and Rocky Jr. (played by Stallone’s real life son, Sage) are actually well done, charming, and heartfelt.

It was also nice to see Burgess Meredith return as Rocky’s old crotchety manager, Mickey, in a flashback scene where he gives a sincerely powerful performance.

And it wasn’t an inherently bad idea of going with the more serious tone reflective of “Rocky I” and “Rocky II” and having the characters again at rock bottom, after the cocaine binge that was “Rocky III” and especially “Rocky IV”.

But that’s the key word: “inherently.” As the process of getting the characters to be poor again doesn’t even make much sense, and could be easily fixable.

In the film, they say that the family’s accountant had tricked Paulie into giving him the power of attorney and he used that to invest all of Balboa’s money in a bunch of businesses that ended up flopping. 

But even if that’s the case, how did the bank not see all the weird transactions and immediately try to get in contact with Rocky or at least Adrian (Talia Shire) to confirm it’s really them? If the bank didn’t catch it somehow, then why isn’t Rocky immediately suing them for gross negligence? 

Also, even if Paulie isn’t the sharpest tool in the shed he’s not an idiot. He should know what a hustle looks like, or at least brought it up with Rocky or Adrian if it’s okay, as it’s not really his money. 

It’s also weird how the IRS never hounded the family for the six years worth of returns they owe (but then again, that’s the IRS for ya, incredibly quiet and non-intrusive, especially when it comes to money.)

But even if one ignores all the Superman leaps in logic it takes to get Rocky poor again, they still face the problem of Rocky having so many ways out of the situation, it almost makes it look like this was the Italian Stallion’s scheme all along to get back into the older house.

The film tries to make excuses for why Rocky can’t just do commercials to solve the issue, but they don’t hold any weight. The two reasons they give are Rocky saying he, “ain’t no commercial kind of guy” and that he has a criminal record – which will make it impossible for him to get a deal anyway.

Which is funny seeing how in “Rocky II” he went into commercials in order to make money and in the beginning parts of “Rocky III” the audience is shown the boxer in commercials with his face being plastered on everything short of cereal boxes (oops). 

But even if commercials are off the table, there are so many other options he can go to besides lay down and die. Just off the top of my head he could do book deals, documentaries, toy lines, special appearances, or even ask the Creed family for some financial help, seeing how they kind of owe him one after avenging Apollo’s death, all of which are never brought up or discussed.

Something else incredibly distracting is that the film is supposed to take place right after the fourth one, making it 1986. But the returning characters are all very visibly older and the music, fashion, and style is so ‘90s it pulls the audience right out of the film.

A scene that perfectly captures this inconsistency is when Rocky Jr. is watching “National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation,” the problem isn’t the film itself (as it’s a great holiday watch and a certified classic), but that the movie came out in 1989. So, unless Rocky Jr. is so smart that he made a time machine that he neglected to tell the rest of the family about, he shouldn’t be watching a film that came out three years in the future (oops…again).

The film also doesn’t have a particularly great antagonist, without saying who they are, as it’s kind of a spoiler, let’s just say they’re a big let down compared to the rivals beforehand.

With it being such a flawed and disappointing film it’s no real surprise that it is the only Rocky film to have actually lost money at the box office. 

“Rocky V” is not the ninth circle of hell like some fans think it is, but it is certainly a very flawed movie. One should only watch it if they’re binging through the Rocky franchise.