Rocky Balboa

30 years later, Sylvester Stallone is releasing a Rocky movie. I was a little apprehensive at first, considering what happened in the 5th installment. However, that was a long time ago, and I was willing to wipe the slate clean. After all, the Rocky movies before this were like a dentist survey.

I saw a trailer for it quite some time ago, and it actually looked pretty good! I was excited for a Rocky movie!

About a week before the release, I started seeing some reviews for the film. Mostly positive!? Now I was really jazzed. Could this be the movie that wraps up the story with some dignity?

I resisted the urge to have a Rocky marathon before heading to the theater. I only own 1 through 4. In the world I live in, Stallone was kidnapped by North Korea and forced to make Rocky 5. I did, however, watch The Office. Completely unrelated, sure, but the Christmas episode was a riot.

My duaghter and I headed out to the movie for the biggest dice-roll movie I have gone to in a long time. I generally have a gut feeling on whether or not a movie will suck completely, or be great, or just plain good. I had no real feel for this one. My daughter was very excited. She is a big Rocky fan.

The theater was pretty packed, considering it shows 793 different movies. We got a large popcorn with butter, a bottle of water for her, and a large Mr. Pibb for me. I smuggled in some plain M & M's, which is the usual M.O. I can't have popcorn without chocolate. It's really the only personality quirk I have, besides schizophrenia. And a third arm growing out of the middle of my back...don't get me started.

SPOILER ALERT! Do not read further if you do not want to hear about Rocky Balboa, the movie.

I am not going to do a scene by scene breakdown, but I will say that Stallone pulled it off in a big way. For someone who physically was not in the movie, Adrian was a huge part of the movie. She dies of cancer, and Rocky is left in Philly running an Italian joint called Adrian's. I like that it wasn't some big chain-like place, but a quaint little joint where you can get your arteries clogged with some good food.

Rocky's son works in the corporate world, and is trying to get out of his dad's shadow. Their relationship isn't strained really, but Rocky Jr. is sure making it that way.

Long story short, ESPN does a computer simulation that pits current champ Mason Dixon, believably played by Antonio Tarver (he probably didn't have to research the role much), against Rocky. Rocky wins by knockout. Dixon is seen as a guy who is the champ of crap, really, as the heavyweight division is a joke, and he is the champ of a joke division, with no real competition.

Rocky catches wind and decides he wants to fight again...nothing bug, just some small club fights. Dixon's camp hears Rocky was granted a lisence to fight, and go after Rocky in an effort to provide the champ with some validity. Rocky accepts. Rocky fights Dixon. I won't spoil the ending of the fight in case you have not seen it.

The champ and Rocky come out looking great, and Rocky quenches his thirst for fighting again. Next stop: Rambo.

That's just a high-level overview of the movie. The movie's character interaction was so much better than I anticipated. I've seen some critics slam Stallone for being self-indulgent here, or having Rocky's life mirror his own. So what? Rocky wanted another chance to comeback, and so does Stallone. The ones who think he should remain in the video rental bargain bin are the ones who are maybe a bit more self-obsessed here.

There are some other people who were slamming the use of previous footage in the form of flashbacks. After such a long time between movies, it may not hurt to use those to clue people in. I saw nothing wrong with it or thought it was overdone.

Rocky's relationship with his son and Marie, the young girl from the first movie, was all good stuff. In fact, it was, to me, the best part of the movie. Unless you are a heartless jerk, you can't help but root for Rocky again. I saw it twice.