So I rented Rocky 4: recut with my buddies. All spoilers here after:
- They edited out the explosive boxing gloves!!! Minus 5 stars.
- Opening is now a long Rocky 3 montage. Apollo is the main character of the first Rocky 4 act (Can't recall if he was originally) and Drago is intro'd on TV before we ever see Rocky.
- It feels like they cut some meat out of the first arch, as the Creed/Drago fight feels like it comes much faster than I recall.
- I thought they edited out James Brown for a moment as it seems like they linger on Drago in a shadowy ring for a long time as a WCW-like edit of James Brown's song beat plays softly. Again, might be how the original was, but it felt off.
- We get an extra scene of Adrian and Rocky in the kitchen as Adrian is dead set against Apollo fighting the big ape.
- I read they gave Apollo more of a fighting chance in this edit, but he still pretty much get mauled.
- The "Drago gets more backstory to flesh out his character" thing I read about was litterally one sentence at a presser, and then he sips water.
- They definitely redid the montages. I'm pretty sure both Rocky driving around town and Rocky/Drago training comparisons had added stuff and it threw me off as I've watched those on youtube a thousand times. (And did a Brody/Derek training video to parody it)
- We get an extra 3 min scene where Rocky has to argue with boxing suits who ban him from fighting a rookie. This was covered in the original by simply throwing a newspaper headline at us.
- Rocky is knocked down and has new inter dialogue added telling himself to get up.
- A crooked Russian official tries to call the fight off after round 14 in a new scene.
- Rocky adds a line in his final speech about how his friend Apollo died which was suppose to tie into Stallone making this version more about Rocky and Apollo's bromance and not "Merica vs USSR.
As a frequent Rocky 4 viewer, this felt off. The first segment felt like it was missing....something.... and Stallone cut out light hearted moments that I didn't catch off hand (other than no robot). It really didn't seem like 42 mins of new stuff to me.
So on the Meltz scale Rocky 4: 15 out of 10 stars.
Recut: 10/10 Stallone *heart emoji*
