This movie wins multiple cheese awards, the first and foremost being the most sappy melodramatic movie ever made. It literally guts you in order to try and make you feel some sympathy for these characters in bizarre situations. The second award is for movie most likely to have been endorsed by the U.S. Government. Another award includes "Sequel That Retreads the Original Movies Again and Again!"

At the beginning of the film, Rocky's former adviser Apollo Creed is in a fight against a tough Russian (Ivan). They enter the ring, fight, and eventually Rocky's buddy is killed by Ivan (who makes some of the worst lines possible) in the fight. Some of Ivan's memorable lines are, "You will lose!" Just like in the previous Rocky movies, a death of a significant other makes Rocky depressed, and he must have revenge In case you are confused, this is NOT the Rocky with Mr. T in it, although the exact same plot has been lifted.

Rocky decides he must go to Russia to fight Ivan. So we switch to tense family moments in the Rocky household where he relates his plans to his family. Adrian has doubts, but Rocky has a speech ready:

Adrian: "It's suicide! You've seen him -- you know how strong he is. You can't win!"

Rocky: "Nobody tells the truth, Adrian. No, maybe I can't win. Maybe the only thing I can do is take everything he's got. But to beat me, he's gonna have to kill me. And to kill me, he's gonna have to have the heart to stand in front of me. And to do that, he's gotta be willing to die himself. I don't know if he's ready to do that. I don't know.."

Can't you feel these characters trying to rip every shred of emotion from you? I laughed to tears during this speech.

Out of nowhere inside Rocky's home, guess who makes a cameo? R2D2! (At least something that looks like him.) For some reason there is this weird blue robot who hangs around in Rocky's home. We are given no explanation of what this robot is. It doesn't do anything of significance. Perhaps Stallone's star appeal was weakening, and R2D2 would help draw in the sci-fi buffs. Anyway, after sappy melodramatic speeches, Rocky is sent to Russia to fight Ivan.

Rocky is sent to a cold cabin in the Siberian north where his hatred for the Soviet Union grows. He begins to train for his fight. Since I do not have a huge recollection of this movie I shall skip past most of the hour of pumped up 80s music that invigorates Rocky to train harder (this movie might have been made solely for the soundtrack alone). Basically in that time we see Rocky training in a small hut and Ivan training in a scientific center. (Ivan is genetically superior after all -- I guess according to the writers, the Soviet Union decided for some reason to invest resources in developing genetically superior boxers.) These parallel scenes set the stage for the big motif -- get ready here, people -- human spirit can defeat science! Then there is, of course, the other theme: Democracy is better than Russian Commies.

Then comes the big match: Rocky enters ring, Rocky gets hurt, Rocky fights back, Rocky somehow wins. Someone should have taken some time to train these boxers. For some reason they believe blocking is unnecessary. All through the fight, their arms are straight down. I have absolutely no idea how Rocky ever even won one match let alone how he became World Champion.

Anyway, Rocky wins. The Russians who used to be on Ivan's side have now switched to Rocky's side. This soothes his hatred for the Soviet Union, and he makes a resounding speech...perhaps the most stupid I have ever heard. With his utterly horrible acting, he says to the entire crowd and parliament watching:

"I guess what I'm trying to say is, if I can change, and you can change, everybody can change."

Apparently in the eyes of the writers, he was right. All of the Russians agree, and Rocky is the hero of the world again. YOU DID IT, ROCK! YOU ENDED THE COLD WAR! I was laughing quite hard at this point.

I'll leave you with one last line:

"Yo, Adrian, I won!"