Every single long-running franchise in history has suffered from its fair share of ups and downs, which comes with the territory when telling a sprawling story that ends up spanning decades. In most cases, debate rages as to which installment can definitively be named as the worst, but a consensus appeared to be reached a long time ago that Rocky V was the Italian Stallion’s weakest effort by far.
Next year’s Creed III marks the ninth entry in the boxing saga, and the first that won’t feature Sylvester Stallone in any capacity, with leading man Michael B. Jordan’s directorial debut already drumming up a ton of buzz. For a while, though, it looked as though the fifth outing for Mr. Balboa could have ended the iconic pugilist’s big screen adventures for good.
Not only does Rocky V rank as the lowest-grossing of the eight films to have been released since 1976, but it’s also got the lowest Rotten Tomatoes score, too. The rapid rise of Tommy Gunn holds a 29 percent rating on the aggregation site, with the wondrous cheese-fest that is Rocky IV the only other entry that comes close with a 37 percent average – shocking when you consider how popular it is.
Outside of those two, the chronological RT scores sit at 91, 72, 67, 77, 95, and 83 from Rocky to Creed II, so there’s clearly a huge gulf in quality. However, Rocky V fanatics do exist, and they’ve even stating their case on Reddit that the widely-panned and thoroughly unremarkable effort is actually a great deal better than its reputation would suggest.
The overall sentiment is leaning in the direction of admitting that Rocky V is at the bottom of the pack while still claiming the long-running hate is a touch unfair, which entirely depends on your personal preference at the end of the day.
Published: Nov 3, 2022 04:27 am