Ooooo, maybe I’ll learn about Siberia or something. Let’s go!
Pop Quiz Hot Shot!
1) Many shows have spoofed Rocky IV over the years. Even, surprisingly, this kids’ television show, made in Canada, and the origin of Nickelodeon’s green slime.
2) When Apollo fights Drago, James Brown appears as himself to perform Living in America. That song peaked at #4 on the Top 100. But that isn’t the highest single by Brown. What song is? Either the main title or subtitle accepted.
3) Rocky IV is a rare example of a BMT film with a writer-director-actor … right? I mean, it is rare right? Nope, actually, there are 57 films that qualify with that distinction, like 2.5% that is about the same as the number of twins. One of the others we’ve seen is a Star Trek film. Which one, and who directed, wrote, and starred in it?
4) Made specific by Sergei Eisenstein, what term, meaning “assembly” or “editing” in French was the major contribution of early 20th century Soviet film theorists to formal film analysis?
5) The film was actually the subject of a notable copyright case, in which a writer, Thomas Anderson, accused MGM and Stallone of stealing his Rocky IV script and using it without compensation. What was the result of this ruling?
Bonus NYTimes Listing Question: A little twistemup here. Airplane 2 was on television the day of Rocky IV’s release:
But what was the subtitle of this film?
Answers
1) You Can’t Do That on Television. You got water poured on you when you said the word “water” and you got slime poured on you when you said “I don’t know.” It is honestly a great concept, and it is a travesty the show is completely unavailable.
2) That would be “I Got You (I Feel Good)”. Naturally, most people would know this as “I Feel Good”. While technically Brown had no Top 100 Number Ones, he did have 17 R&B Number Ones which is, I assume, a crazy amount.
3) That would obviously be Star Trek V: The Final Frontier, which was directed by William Shatner after the success of Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home by Leonard Nemoy and he was like “I can do that too!” The movie is fine, although it is mostly boring and very ludicrous, so it is probably the worst of those six original cast films.
4) That would be the mother flipping montage, baby. And yeah, it was American and British filmmakers which utilized the method / term to evoke a feeling of the passage of time. Using dissolves and other transitions, plus dance and music, this became a staples of 80s films (and specifically Rocky IV).
5) There was a summary judgement against the plaintiff on the grounds that he, obviously, used characters (Rocky) that were themselves copyrighted by the defendants. And derivative works are also owned by the copyright holder (Stallone) and so he couldn’t (by definition) infringe upon himself. Makes sense to me.
Bonus NYTimes Listing Answer: That would be “Airplane II: The Sequel”. Honestly one of the better subtitles in film history, even though the film is kind of crap.
Welp, time to watch Rocky IV for the seventieth time.
Bad Movie Twins 