--- title: "Rocky V" year: 1990 kind: "film" canonical: "https://film.one/film/rocky-v" fi1m_score: 54 critics_score: 56 critics_reviews: 7 published: "2026-09-19T15:48:06.154738+00:00" updated: "2026-09-19T15:48:06.442234+00:00" region: "US" licence: "© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL." --- # Rocky V (1990) Directed by John G. Avildsen · 1h 44m · MPA PG-13 · Drama, Action **Fi1m score: 54** · Critics 56 from 7 reviews *In a sentence:* Back to the old neighbourhood, where the accents are thicker, the money is gone and the mullets are magnificent > Sylvester Stallone and John G. Avildsen, who directed the first film, send Rocky home to South Philadelphia, broke and hurt, and for half an hour the series remembers what it was for. Then a protégé with a mullet arrives, and the film turns into a cartoon. ## Synopsis Rocky Balboa (Sylvester Stallone) comes home from Moscow with his hands shaking and a headache he cannot explain. A doctor tells him the fight with Drago has done lasting damage and he must never box again. Then his brother-in-law Paulie (Burt Young) admits he signed the family’s money over to an accountant, and the accountant has lost it. The mansion goes, the cars go, and Rocky, Adrian (Talia Shire) and their son Robert (Sage Stallone) move back to Paulie’s old house in South Philadelphia. Adrian returns to the pet shop. Rocky reopens Mickey’s gym. The promoter George Washington Duke (Richard Gant) wants him back in the ring against Union Cane (Michael Williams) whatever the doctors say, and a young fighter from Oklahoma, Tommy Gunn (Tommy Morrison), turns up asking Rocky to train him. ## Review Fourteen years after [*Rocky*](https://film.one/film/rocky), John G. Avildsen, who directed that first film, is back, and Sylvester Stallone’s script sends the champion home. Rocky returns from Moscow with tremors in his hands; a doctor tells him he cannot fight again; Paulie has signed the money over to an accountant who has lost it. The house and the cars go, and the Balboas move back to Paulie’s old house in South Philadelphia. After two sequels of stadiums and montages, the idea is to make the series small again. For about half an hour it works. The rest of *Rocky V* is a different, sillier film. The opening is the best thing here. Rocky sits in a Moscow changing room and cannot make his hands stop, and Stallone plays it without a word of self-pity, a big man puzzled by his own body. Back home he is the shambling, mumbling Rocky of 1976 again. Talia Shire gets more to do, and an argument between husband and wife in an alley is the one scene where the film sounds like people talking rather than a script being read. Burt Young turns Paulie’s guilt into comedy first and then into something sadder. Sage Stallone plays their son Robert as a boy dropped into a school where nobody cares who his father is and everybody wants his jacket. He is not a polished actor and it does not matter. The scenes of him waiting outside the gym while his father coaches somebody else’s son are plainly written and plainly played. We were moved more than we expected by a child standing on a step while his father walks past him talking to another man, and the film, for once, lets the moment sit. Steven Poster shoots the neighbourhood in flat winter light, brown brick under a grey sky, and he shoots the mansion bright and empty so that we feel the drop. William J. Cassidy’s rebuilt gym has Mickey’s name still on the glass, and Burgess Meredith turns up in a memory to bark at Rocky, the one piece of nostalgia the film earns without asking. Bill Conti’s fanfare comes back whenever the film wants us to think of 1976, and it works every time; the film leans on it. Four editors are credited, Avildsen among them, and it shows in the training montages, which are cut to period songs and look like adverts for trainers. The trouble is Tommy Gunn. Tommy Morrison was a real heavyweight and he hits like one; he delivers dialogue like a man who has been handed it in the car park. The film wants us to see Rocky’s younger self in him and gives us a mullet and a scowl. Richard Gant plays the promoter George Washington Duke in loud suits, and Gant is enjoyable, but the script treats him as the villain of a children’s serial. Michael Williams’s Union Cane, the new champion, gets perhaps three lines. The mentor plot is the first film turned round, the old fighter now the trainer, and Stallone cannot find anything in it that he and Meredith did not do better the first time. The last reel takes a turn we will not describe. What we can say is that the film stages it as a triumph, with Conti at full volume, and that it belongs in a louder, dumber film than the one we had been watching. We groaned, out loud. A story that began with a man told his brain could not take another punch ought to have had something to say about that, and it does not. *Rocky* was about a man who wanted to go the distance. The sequels were about winning. This one is about a man with nothing left to want, which is the most interesting place the character has ever been, and the film flinches from it after half an hour. It is more honest than [*Rocky IV*](https://film.one/film/rocky-iv) and less fun. Stallone has said since that he wishes he had not made it. We would keep the first half hour and the scenes with the boy, and let him have the rest. It runs 104 minutes and carries a PG. *Fi1m score 54, published 19 September 2026.* ### Reviews we read (7) - **Los Angeles Times** (70/100, inferred): Of the sequels, this one comes closest to the endearing qualities of the first Rocky by resurrecting the lovable, shambling underdog with more human connections and dialogue. It has charm despite frequent absurdities and made the critic smile. [Read](https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1990-11-16-ca-4530-story.html) - **The New York Times**, Janet Maslin (70/100, inferred): The film returns Rocky to his South Philadelphia roots and original director for a sloppy but good-natured reminder of what made the character work. It cannily asks audiences to forget the rich blowhard and resume acquaintance with the ordinary Joe. [Read](https://www.nytimes.com/1990/11/16/movies/review-film-rocky-buffeted-by-fists-and-life-returns-to-his-roots.html) - **Empire**, Rob Beattie (65/100, inferred): The critic sees Rocky V as a fitting if somewhat grim close to the series, returning to the character's roots after financial ruin and brain damage from prior fights. The opening scene of Rocky in distress stands out as promising more depth than the rest delivers. [Read](https://www.empireonline.com/movies/reviews/rocky-v-review/) - **Radio Times**, John Marriott (2/5): The critic finds it sadly devoid of emotional clout with a going-through-the-motions feel, but notes the only real spark comes from Sage Stallone as Rocky's son. [Read](https://www.radiotimes.com/movie-guide/b-r5p66x/rocky-v/) - **Variety**, Variety Staff (30/100, inferred): Stallone sinks to a new low with clichés and a thudding lack of storytelling subtlety, including a championship-wrestling-inspired ending. The central problem of Rocky’s brain damage is undercut by the predictable plot turns and strained family/mentoring dynamics. [Read](https://variety.com/1989/film/reviews/rocky-v-1200428259/) - **/Film**, William Bibbiani (70/100, inferred): The critic defends the film against its poor reputation and Stallone's own criticism, arguing it is a satisfying and important chapter that returns Rocky to his roots and emphasizes family and personal connections over fame and glory. It singles out the thematic focus on character strength and how the story sets up later franchise entries for stronger emotional resonance. [Read](https://www.slashfilm.com/1213974/why-sylvester-stallone-is-wrong-and-rocky-v-is-good/) - **Eye for Film**, Stephen Carty (50/100, inferred): The critic finds it a welcome change of pace from the previous two entries with its focus on human drama and return to roots, but notes contrived plot devices and an unsatisfying sense overall that prevent it from living up to its potential. It earns praise for nods to the first film, Stallone's dialogue and performance, and Talia Shire's work, while concluding it betters recent sequels by emphasizing heart over muscles yet fails to deliver a satisfying farewell. [Read](https://www.eyeforfilm.co.uk/review/rocky-v-film-review-by-stephen-carty) ## Details - **Director:** John G. Avildsen - **Director:** John G. Avildsen - **Writer:** Sylvester Stallone - **Cinematography:** Steven Poster - **Editor:** John G. Avildsen, Michael N. Knue, Robert A. Ferretti, Trevor Jolly - **Music:** Bill Conti - **Production design:** William J. Cassidy - **Producer:** Robert Chartoff, Irwin Winkler - **Cast:** Sylvester Stallone as Robert 'Rocky' Balboa; Talia Shire as Adrianna 'Adrian' Balboa; Burt Young as Paulie Pennino; Richard Gant as George Washington Duke; Tommy Morrison as Tommy 'Machine' Gunn; Sage Stallone as Robert 'Rocky' Balboa Jr.; Burgess Meredith as Mickey Goldmill; Tony Burton as Tony 'Duke' Evers - **Runtime:** 1h 44m - **Certificate (MPA):** PG-13 - **Release (the US):** 16 November 1990 - **Genres:** Drama, Action - **Budget:** $42 million - **Box office:** $120 million ## Where to watch in the US - AMC+: streaming - Pluto TV: free - Apple TV: add-on, hd - The Roku Channel: add-on, hd, leaving 2026-10-01 - Apple TV: rent $3.99, hd - Apple TV: buy $14.99, hd *Checked 2026-09-19.* Also available in: AE, AR, AT, AU, BE, BG, BR, CA, CH, CL, CO, CZ, DE, DK, EE, ES, FI, FR, GB, GR, HK, HU, ID, IE, IL, IN, IT, JP, LT, MX, MY, NL, NO, NZ, PA, PH, PL, PT, SE, SG, TH, TR, UA, US, VN, ZA. Add `?region=XX` to this URL for another country. ## Awards - Golden Raspberry Award for Worst Actor 1991: Golden Raspberry Award for Worst Actor (nominated) - Golden Raspberry Award for Worst Actress 1991: Golden Raspberry Award for Worst Actress (nominated) - Golden Raspberry Award for Worst Director 1991: Golden Raspberry Award for Worst Director (nominated) - Golden Raspberry Award for Worst Original Song 1991: Golden Raspberry Award for Worst Original Song (nominated) - Golden Raspberry Award for Worst Picture 1991: Golden Raspberry Award for Worst Picture (nominated) - Golden Raspberry Award for Worst Screenplay 1991: Golden Raspberry Award for Worst Screenplay (nominated) - Golden Raspberry Award for Worst Supporting Actor - Razzie Award 1991: Golden Raspberry Award for Worst Supporting Actor - Razzie Award (nominated) ## If you liked this - *Rocky* (1976), Fi1m 85: The one this film keeps pointing at; go back and see what it is pointing at. — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/rocky.md) - *Fat City* (1972): John Huston on boxers going nowhere in Stockton, California; the sadness this film reaches for. - *The Set-Up* (1949): One night, one washed-up fighter, real time; everything this film wants to say about ageing. - *The Wrestler* (2008), Fi1m 85: Mickey Rourke as a broken showman who cannot stop; the honest version of Rocky’s problem. — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/the-wrestler.md) - *Creed* (2015), Fi1m 85: Rocky as trainer again, twenty-five years on, and this time the film knows what it has. — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/creed.md) --- © Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL. Canonical: https://film.one/film/rocky-v