Rocky Balboa (2006)

A Welcomed Return

Rocky Balboa is the Amazing follow up to Rocky V in which Sly returns to play the aging boxer who is now mourning the death of his beloved wife Adrian and trying to keep his relationship with his son strong.He also has Paulie around alot as Paulie is now the closest person.Alot of characters from the Original Rocky are around including Spider Rico and Lil Marie.Also returning to help him train for an Exhibition fight to prove he can still do it is Duke (Apollo's old trainer).The Acting and Story is Strong and it's a defintite crowd pleaser.Stallone is better than ever! November 30, 2008

a better end to the series

Rocky Balboa is pretty much what you'd expect. Rocky's retired from boxing and running a little Italian restaurant where he gives fellow former boxers free meals and entertains the customers with stories from his days as the champ. But Adrian's dead, and Rocky's living in the past, and their son is tired of living in his famous father's shadow.

The current champ, Mason Dixon, is suffering from a bad reputation. He's had nothing but knockouts, so boxing fans are complaining that he's only taking easy fights and that he's not a "real" champ.

A computer simulation fight between Rocky and Mason Dixon that shows Rocky winning brings everything to a head. Rocky wants one last fight, and Mason Dixon's promoters want an exhibition match between the two to shore up Mason Dixon's reputation.

There are a lot of flashbacks, of course, and the training scenes are similar to Rocky IV, contrasting Rocky's working-man methods with Mason Dixon's high-tech. And we get the raw eggs and beef carcasses, too, just because.

And there's a new girlfriend for Rocky, to add a little hope for the future for him, since this really has got to be his last fight.

It's not nearly as good as the first movie, of course, but it's a much better end to the series than Rocky V. November 22, 2008

Not Rocky Enough For Me

Everything that made the best "Rocky" movies ("Rocky," "Rocky III," and "Rocky IV") blissfully entertaining appears conspicuously absent in Sylvester Stallone's new movie "Rocky Balboa" (** out of ****), reputedly the last Harri for the "Rocky" character. Chiefly, "Rocky Balboa" lacks spontaneity and surprises. Indeed, actor/athletic Sylvester Stallone looks--for a man in his sixties--like he could go the distance in the ring, but writer/director Sylvester Stallone virtually recycles the original without anything that made it Academy Awarding material. In "Rocky," Stallone created a charming Brando-esquire misfit, surrounded by other larger-than-life misfits, who slugged his way to the top of the American dream. Each sequel eroded the title character's charisma, and you knew that "Rocky" could never go down for the count. Worse, Stallone's trademark aphoristic dialogue yields few quotable lines. Another element woefully amiss is a solid villain. A third of what made "Rocky," "Rocky III," and "Rocky IV" engaging on a visceral level were the opponents. Carl Weathers established the baseline for Rocky's rivals in the first two "Rocky" movies, while a pugnacious Mr. T raised the bar in "Rocky III" and Goliath-like Dolph Lundgren took it one punch further in "Rocky IV." Not surprisingly, "Rocky Balboa" should take the bad taste of "Rocky V" out of the mouth of "Rocky" fans. "Rocky V" featured the least intimidating contender of the series. Unfortunately, as much as "Rocky Balboa" surpasses "Rocky V," Rocky's latest adversary is bland to his boxers. Mason Dixon emerges as more vulnerable than vicious. You won't care if Rocky beats him to a pulp, gets beaten to a pulp himself, or they fight to a draw in "Rocky Balboa." This painfully predictable punching bag of clichés never generates the blood, sweat, and cheers of the original.

Anybody who remembers the forgettable "Rocky V" knows that the doctors warned Rocky that if he ever climbed back into the ring that he could possibly die from one blow to the brain. In "Rocky Balboa," Rocky's physical ailments never impair his potential. Aside from a brief bout with the Pennsylvania boxing commission, Rocky obtains a license to box again. During the first hour of the action, our world-weary hero revisits his past on a sight-seeing trip to his old stomping grounds where he grew up and met his wife Adrian. Adrian has followed in the footsteps of more memorable "Rocky" characters, such as Apollo Creed and actor Burgess Meredith's Mickey Goldmill. We learn in "Rocky Balboa" that Adrian died from cancer back in the 1990s, and Rocky supports himself with a Philadelphia restaurant named after her. He recounts his pugilistic exploits for the entertainment of his customers. Meanwhile, in the ring, the latest heavyweight boxing champ Mason "the Line" Dixon (ex-light heavyweight champ Antonio Tarver) finds himself tangled up in the ropes of his own troubles. After 30 knock-out fights, the undefeated Dixon cannot find anybody to go toe-to-toe with who can match his merciless barrage of blows. Worse, just about everybody in the fight game hates him. Sure, Dixon sounds like a terrific adversary, but Stallone gives Tarver nothing to do or say that makes his character remotely dangerous. He never attains the flamboyance of the egotistical Apollo Creed in the first three "Rocky" epics. He doesn't present a challenge like the sadistic Clubber Lang in "Rocky III." Physically, he is no match for towering Ivan Drago in "Rocky IV." Instead, Mason Dixie emerges more as misunderstood than merciless.

During his tour of his old neighborhood, Rocky runs into a local girl from his past. Marie (as played by the original "Marie" Geraldine Hughes) told him to bug off in the original when he offered her advice about her friends. Marie and Rocky get friendly this time around and the ex-champ shows an interest in her fatherless son. Unfortunately, the romance between Marie and Rocky ignites no sparks because the chemistry between them is wrong. At the same time, Rocky's own son Rocky, Jr. (Milo Ventimiglia who plays Peter Petrelli on the NBC/SCI-FI Channel TV show "Heroes") has his own selfish issues. Rocky overshadows him. At one point, Rocky confides in his boorish brother-in-law Paulie (Burt Young of "The Killer Elite") that he still has his own unresolved issues. Paulie thinks Rocky has lost his mind when he proposes to put the gloves back on for one more bout. The inevitable fight between Rocky and Mason Dixon occurs as a result of an ESPN computer generated boxing match that prompts Mason's managers to approach Rocky about a match. Mason Dixie derides it as a publicity stunt, but Rocky sees it as a place in the sun. "Rocky Balboa" boasts too much soul and not enough heart. Cue "Rocky" composer Bill Conti to bring on the music from the original as Rocky jogs around Philadelphia in his sweats training.

Sylvester Stallone looks more muscle-bound than ever, but he does not have the underdog charisma of the best "Rocky" movies. Clearly, Stallone has gone into the ring one time too often. The Rocky character has never looked so out of place and his actions do little to endear him. Stallone's worst mistake in "Rocky Balboa" was sacrificing Adrian from his screenplay than his obnoxious, cigar-chomping brother-in-law Paulie. The first hour of the new "Rocky" drags and the last forty minutes doesn't make up for it. Stallone stages the boxing match without flair. Amazingly, the hand-held photography doesn't add energy to the fight. Despite some moments that remain too far and few between, "Rocky Balboa" has no clout to flout.

November 5, 2008

A Good Movie

This movie wasn't bad. Sly is getting old; he had some fat on him in this film. It was said in the commentary that Sly wanted the boxing match to be realistic and not cinematic. That's why Mike Tyson was in the film. A couple of famous HBO Boxing Ring Announcers, such as Jim Lampley and Max Kellerman, hosted the fight.
It's too bad that Adrian was dead. Rocky and Paulie got in an arguement over Rocky's memories of love with Adrian. Rocky manages a restaurant call Adrian's. There's a sports cast comparing Rocky to the current champ Mason "The Line" Dixon. The movie basically gives a reason why the two should fight and the movie ends with a happy ending. Rocky tells the champ " It's not over until it's over." It's fun watching Rocky train and this time he lifts weights heavier than I've ever seen him lift before. At the end of the fight, Rocky was bloody and beat up and everyone was yelling "Rocky! Rocky! Rocky!" Fortunately Rocky didn't become champ again because he's too old but Rocky went the distance. September 27, 2008

A positively uplifting and heartfelt winner!

What exactly is age, aside from a number?

For far too long, I have read so many endless attacks against Harrison Ford and Sylvester Stallone simply because they both dared to revisit characters they immortalized in the 1980s. I will never again lend a second's credence to such shameless nitpicking. Sylvester Stallone may very well be a sixty year old man, but he pulled off "Rocky Balboa" in a profoundly moving and realistic manner and subsequently transformed this prior skeptic into a BIG-TIME believer. This, far and beyond any reasonable contention, is the true and respectful swan song the "Rocky" saga has long deserved.

Wisely ignoring the unsightly plot points that were introduced in "Rocky V," this more recent story unfolds with a highly publicized "virtual boxing" match that pits the long-retired Rocky against current heavyweight titleholder Mason Dixon. When Rocky scores the duke in this particular fantasy bout, Dixon retaliates by challenging Balboa to a one-on-one publicly televised 10-round exhibition. Everybody, including Rocky's own son, steadfastly dismisses the idea. But Rocky, who has always ever worked best when the odds were stacked against him, agrees to face Dixon. What ensues, amidst the rudimentary training regimen we've all seen Rocky endure throughout the five previous films, is a staggeringly heartfelt and engaging character study that very nearly rivals that which was introduced in John Avildsen's groundbreaking 1976 original.

Among the most notable are some admittedly touching moments with Rocky and Paulie as they revisit the Italian Stallion's love for Adrian who, as many prior reviewers here have already noted, is no longer part of the narrative fold. These scenes, along with a certain pep-talk Rocky gives his defiantly selfish son at the film's halfway mark, really helped sell the story's realism. Stallone made me genuinely feel for these people, a feat that I and many others had previously doubted he was capable of achieving. His screenplay very literally came out of left field and opened my eyes to the plain and simple fact that he still has what it takes. There was not a single point throughout the entire film where I was deliberately thinking about his age. A person's age, as I've already alluded to, should never be a consideration. You're as young as you feel and, if you happen to be in the phenomenal shape Stallone is in for a man of his years, I say more power to ya'!

There really isn't anything more to be said. "Rocky Balboa" is a more than worthy addition to this extraordinary series of motion pictures. You would be hard pressed to find another film more deserving of a purchase. Make no mistake when I say, it delivers a definitive knockout! September 23, 2008

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