Happy holidays, you reprobates! To ring in the Christmas season, we invited Sean Price from the Life is Like a Movie Podcast to talk about yet another unconventional holiday classic – so unconventional even the characters don’t know why it takes place on Christmas: Rocky IV!
With Creed getting praise left and right, it’s weird to think that so much of the plot of that Oscar-caliber drama is dependent on this splendiferous piece of ’80s cheese, in which the Italian Stallion (Sly Stallone, also writing and directing) travels to Mother Russia on Christmas Day to fight roided-up Russian cyborg Ivan Drago (Dolph “You Gave That Guy Lines?” Lundgren) to avenge the death of his friend Apollo Creed (Carl Weathers). Full of freeze frames, training montages, and ostentatious displays of American spirit, Rocky IV isn’t quite the inspirational classic of its first and latest films in the series.
Still, at least it’s got Stallone giving Paulie a….robot?….for his birthday, Rocky climbing mountains and hauling logs to train for a boxing match, and James Brown in a leotard. Sit by the Christmas tree and take a listen, along with our custom cocktail and drinking rules!
(Thanks to our sponsor Basecamp as a proud member of the Chicago Podcast Coop!)
Related Links:
30 for 30 Documentary Parody on the Events of Rocky IV – Funny or Die
LISTEN HERE OR DOWNLOAD:
THIS EPISODE’S DRINK: The Siberian Express
So named after Ivan Drago’s moniker, we crafted a cocktail combining the holiday flavors of roasted chestnuts with the hard-core, treadmill-breaking sting of Russian vodka to usher in the holiday season! With the addition of tangerine, amaretto, cinnamon and apple into the flavor profile, just think of it as drinking a fruitcake you actually like.
2 parts apple brandy
1 part Russian vodka
2 parts tangerine juice
1 part roasted chestnut milk*
1 part amaretto
dash, Boker’s Bitters
dash, cinnamon
- *TO MAKE THE CHESTNUT MILK: Grab about a pound of chestnuts, and preheat your oven to 425 degrees F. Cut a small X at the top of each chestnut to let the steam come out, and roast them in the oven for about 20-30 minutes. Let them cool for a minute, then peel them and chop them finely. Put them in a tall jar and fill with water. Keep in the fridge for about 8 hours to overnight, then run the water through a strainer. You’ve got chestnut milk! (The same principle applies to any nut milk you wanna make. No, not that nut milk, you perverts!)
- Add brandy, vodka, juice, amaretto, the chestnut milk and bitters into a shaker with ice and mix thoroughly. strain into a cocktail class, garnish with tangerine wheel and cinnamon on top.
RULES:
- Whenever someone discourages Rocky or Creed
- Whenever someone encourages Rocky or Creed
- Any time you see freeze frames
FINISH YOUR DRINK WHEN:
Rocky Balboa ends the Cold War by grunting, “If I can change… and you can change… EVERYBODY CAN CHANGE!”
Join us on the other side of 2016 as we ring in the New Year with Sixteen Candles!
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