Rocky V

Talk about a snoozer! Rocky, no longer able to box due to the brain damage he's sustained from years in the ring, takes up managing instead. Meanwhile, his financial stability is in shambles and his son struggles with bullies at school. One of the bullies, by the way, was played by a very young Kevin Connolly ("E" from Entourage), a fact that I was able to pick up on based solely on his red hair and familiar but unplaceable accent. And, yeah, that was the highlight of this movie. The lowlight could have been a number of things. Maybe it was when it was revealed that Rocky's protege, already named "Tommy Gunn," went by the ring name of "Tommy 'the Machine' Gunn." I mean, why make a groan-inducing pun out of another groan-inducing pun? The lowlight may have been the four or five new jack swing tracks that served as out-of-place background music as this 1990 sequel to a 1976 "Best Picture" winner stumbled further and further off course. The lowlight may have been the final scene - the only Rocky fight of the movie - as it happened to occur on a street instead of in the ring. Yeah, Rock-O needs to give up fighting with gloves and doctors standing by, but he's all about getting into some bare-knuckle street brawls. There was a lot to hate about this movie and next to nothing to love. I haven't seen Rocky Balboa yet, but I'm very glad they made it; no matter what it's like, it has to serve as better closure to the franchise than Rocky V did.