10 Most Bitterly Disappointing Movie Showdowns

3. Rocky Balboa vs Tommy Gunn (Rocky V)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9mSY2_aC8WQ As movie street fights go, the confrontation between Rocky and his former protégé Tommy at the end of Rocky V isn't terrible per se, but it's a whimper of an end to a film that has already been struggling to avoid the label of most disappointing Rocky sequel, and pales in comparison to the epic (albeit highly ridiculous in true Rocky spirit) clash with Ivan Drago at the end of Rocky IV five years previously. Sequels are tricky things to get right. To an extent they need to adhere to the same formula that made the movie(s) popular in the first place so as to succeed in bringing fans back into cinemas. Yet you can also understand why filmmakers on occasion seek a break from tradition and attempt to do something new with the characters. But an integral part of justifying sequels, and certainly as advertising would make us believe, has always lain in increasing the scope and scale of the film beyond that of its predecessor(s), and the Rocky films proved highly successful in this. Rocky IV turned the match with Drago into a microcosm of the American struggle against Russian communism for goodness sake. Each of the first three Rocky sequels proved more commercially successful than its predecessor, with IV most notably becoming the second highest-grossing film worldwide of 1985. No film sequel would buck this trend more emphatically than Rocky V however, which grossed almost $200 million less than IV. Let's imagine for an instant that a boxer such as Rocky Balboa did exist in real life. It's perfectly plausible that after his victory over Drago he'd be keen to retire on account of the number of injuries he'd sustained and the sense that he had nothing left to achieve. It's entirely possible that his accountant would be found out to have squandered all of his money on bad business deals, and it's highly likely that Rocky would consequently have to start training boxers at his old gym to make ends meet. Whether you'd actually want to see all this in a film however is another matter entirely. You wouldn't be alone in arguing that Stallone made it out of greed, cashing in on the popularity of the character as much as was feasibly possible. Whichever way you look at it, Rocky V is an underwhelming film, a fact underlined by its final showdown. I wouldn't go so far as some critics in claiming that a Rocky film that doesn't feature Rocky in an actual in-ring boxing match can't be counted as an official entry into franchise, but the bare-knuckle street fight is a strange encounter nonetheless. There's something about it that just doesn't feel right, a sense that it doesn't belong in a Rocky movie. It doesn't help either that it's given virtually no build-up (though how could it?) and happens quite out-of-the blue, thus denying the audience the opportunity to anticipate it over the course of the film and, naturally, to experience yet another of Rocky's famous training montages. As said, there's nothing obviously wrong with the actual fighting, but the lack of the big-fight arena atmosphere that we'd become accustomed to is detrimental. The moment when Rocky, beaten down and seemingly out for the count, suddenly hears the voice of Mickey urging him to get up, get back in the fight, and to go just "one more round€, is also one cliché too many. Stallone himself over time made no secret of his dissatisfaction with the film and sixteen years later made a final sequel in the form of Rocky Balboa. It more or less succeeded in finishing the series on the high and emotional note that he had always desired and, most crucially, put Rocky back in the ring where he belonged.