"Rocky! Rocky! Rocky!" For the final time, the cries of thousands of fans ring across the stadium, cheering in unison for their hero, their champion, the greatest of all time. Rocky Balboa stands proudly under the flashing lights, triumphantly raising his hand, almost crying with emotion. Whether or not he actually wins the final fight is totally irrelevant. He has won. As he did in the original 1976 Best Picture-winning film that made us cheer his name, Rocky may not have been the victor, but he has earned the right to be proud of himself, winning our admiration along the way.
One could be forgiven for being a bit wary of a fifth 'Rocky' sequel, released a solid 16 years after the previous installment, and pitting a 59-year-old Sylvester Stallone (at the time of shooting) against a world champion boxer in his prime. Is this just a vanity exercise for Stallone? Is it a final ditch-attempt at making money from an actor who has given us disappointingly little in the last decade? Thankfully, 'Rocky Balboa' is a lot more than this, and Stallone has given us one final reason to cheer for his hero, offering Rocky the perfect conclusion to his thirty-year saga.
Devastated since the death of his beloved Adrian (Talia Shire) four years before, Rocky Balboa (Sylvester Stallone) goes through the motions of his existence. He owns a modest Italian restaurant named "Adrian's," and spends many of his nights chatting with his customers, regaling them with inspirational stories from his boxing days. His son, Rocky Jr. (Milo Ventimiglia), is an intelligent young man in his twenties, though he feels as though he is constantly standing in his father's immense shadow. Rocky's grumpy brother-in-law Paulie (Burt Young) stills hangs around, offering the occasional unhelpful observation and labeling anybody he doesn't like a "bum."
The first chapter of the film is essentially a trip down memory lane, offering the audience a healthy and not unwelcome dose of nostalgia. On Adrian's anniversary, Rocky and Paulie take an annual tour of their old haunts from the original film, observing regrettably at how things change so quickly. In a quiet bar late at night, Rocky meets Marie (Geraldine Hughes), the little girl from the original 'Rocky' film, who notably told him, "Screw you, Creepo!" Now a grown, relatively poor woman with a son of her own, Mary appeals to Rocky's kindness, and he goes out of his way to help her whenever he can, offering her a job and his friendship. Whilst he may not be a smart man when Marie informs him that her son's father was Jamaican, Rocky invariably deduces that this must be somewhere in Europe he inarguably has a kind heart. Sylvester Stallone, who also wrote the script for the film, also proves once and for all that he is the king of writing lame jokes, but this all adds to the strange charm of Rocky's character. When offering Marie and her son, Steps, a card to his restaurant, Rocky declares, "I'll leave it on the steps... Steps." Yes, it's that bad. But we remember that Rocky never was too witty with the old jokes, anyway!
Searching desperately for a means to achieve some self-satisfaction, Rocky decides to take up boxing once again, limiting himself to some low-key, local bouts. However, the managers for the current World Heavyweight champion, Mason "The Line" Dixon (Antonio Tarver), sense a lucrative business opportunity, and entice Rocky to participate in a Las Vegas exhibition fight. Mason himself is looking for some self-satisfaction. Though he is the undisputed champion and remains undefeated throughout his entire career, the caliber of his opponents has always been sub-par, and he knows it. Until he defeats somebody great, he will never be remembered as a champion. For the record, Mason doesn't initially consider Rocky to be great, expecting to dismiss him easily in the early rounds. Mason Dixon has obviously never seen a Rocky movie!
The boxing match itself is quite a spectacle. The first two rounds are handled as though we are watching a real-life, live boxing match on the television (filmed in High Definition to accomplish this effect), complete with a time clock and expert commentary. For some of the later scenes, the action is handled more stylistically, using quick cuts and the occasional effective reversion to black-and-white, with the bright red blood streaming from Rocky's battered eye contrasted stunningly against his otherwise pale face. The fight result may disappoint those who are here simply to see Rocky win again, but, if anybody complains, they're quite obviously missing the point. Even if he didn't win the fight, Rocky can still count it as a victory. The underdog has, once more, won over a skeptical crowd, and proved himself to be worthy. This is also true for the man behind the character. Of Sylvester Stallone's film-making abilities, I am skeptical no more.
One could be forgiven for being a bit wary of a fifth 'Rocky' sequel, released a solid 16 years after the previous installment, and pitting a 59-year-old Sylvester Stallone (at the time of shooting) against a world champion boxer in his prime. Is this just a vanity exercise for Stallone? Is it a final ditch-attempt at making money from an actor who has given us disappointingly little in the last decade? Thankfully, 'Rocky Balboa' is a lot more than this, and Stallone has given us one final reason to cheer for his hero, offering Rocky the perfect conclusion to his thirty-year saga.
Devastated since the death of his beloved Adrian (Talia Shire) four years before, Rocky Balboa (Sylvester Stallone) goes through the motions of his existence. He owns a modest Italian restaurant named "Adrian's," and spends many of his nights chatting with his customers, regaling them with inspirational stories from his boxing days. His son, Rocky Jr. (Milo Ventimiglia), is an intelligent young man in his twenties, though he feels as though he is constantly standing in his father's immense shadow. Rocky's grumpy brother-in-law Paulie (Burt Young) stills hangs around, offering the occasional unhelpful observation and labeling anybody he doesn't like a "bum."
The first chapter of the film is essentially a trip down memory lane, offering the audience a healthy and not unwelcome dose of nostalgia. On Adrian's anniversary, Rocky and Paulie take an annual tour of their old haunts from the original film, observing regrettably at how things change so quickly. In a quiet bar late at night, Rocky meets Marie (Geraldine Hughes), the little girl from the original 'Rocky' film, who notably told him, "Screw you, Creepo!" Now a grown, relatively poor woman with a son of her own, Mary appeals to Rocky's kindness, and he goes out of his way to help her whenever he can, offering her a job and his friendship. Whilst he may not be a smart man when Marie informs him that her son's father was Jamaican, Rocky invariably deduces that this must be somewhere in Europe he inarguably has a kind heart. Sylvester Stallone, who also wrote the script for the film, also proves once and for all that he is the king of writing lame jokes, but this all adds to the strange charm of Rocky's character. When offering Marie and her son, Steps, a card to his restaurant, Rocky declares, "I'll leave it on the steps... Steps." Yes, it's that bad. But we remember that Rocky never was too witty with the old jokes, anyway!
Searching desperately for a means to achieve some self-satisfaction, Rocky decides to take up boxing once again, limiting himself to some low-key, local bouts. However, the managers for the current World Heavyweight champion, Mason "The Line" Dixon (Antonio Tarver), sense a lucrative business opportunity, and entice Rocky to participate in a Las Vegas exhibition fight. Mason himself is looking for some self-satisfaction. Though he is the undisputed champion and remains undefeated throughout his entire career, the caliber of his opponents has always been sub-par, and he knows it. Until he defeats somebody great, he will never be remembered as a champion. For the record, Mason doesn't initially consider Rocky to be great, expecting to dismiss him easily in the early rounds. Mason Dixon has obviously never seen a Rocky movie!
The boxing match itself is quite a spectacle. The first two rounds are handled as though we are watching a real-life, live boxing match on the television (filmed in High Definition to accomplish this effect), complete with a time clock and expert commentary. For some of the later scenes, the action is handled more stylistically, using quick cuts and the occasional effective reversion to black-and-white, with the bright red blood streaming from Rocky's battered eye contrasted stunningly against his otherwise pale face. The fight result may disappoint those who are here simply to see Rocky win again, but, if anybody complains, they're quite obviously missing the point. Even if he didn't win the fight, Rocky can still count it as a victory. The underdog has, once more, won over a skeptical crowd, and proved himself to be worthy. This is also true for the man behind the character. Of Sylvester Stallone's film-making abilities, I am skeptical no more.