I agree with that.

A huge suprise, easily one of the best films this year. the script was phenomenal, I hope this gets some oscars noms

Even Rocky Haters will Like this one

A

You all know this will never get an oscar nod, no matter how good it is. The academy isn't that brave of smart. They'd rather go with something safer like Babel.

Oh for anyone looking at my post and thinking "Scared" I meant Scarred. I mean, Rocky 5 was just kinda like, Rocky has achieved so much that would motivate everyone, but lets make a movie that shows that no matter how much they did, his life ended horribly. Its a real buzz kill.

Right off the bat, let me say that, cinematograpically speaking, this is one of the ugliest films I've ever seen. Some of the "what the fuck" framing had me squirming in my seat. And you'd think Stallone was a first time director, making such rookie mistakes as the poorly implemented flashbacks and the out-of-place black and white (I thought I was watching Sin City) at various intervals during the fight.

Still, it's a hard film to out-and-out dislike, despite the strange structure and the unconvincing and curiously flat finale. Stallone made a rather serious film about old age, and I respect it. Everyone expected a cheese-ball flick like the others, and this is certainly not that. Now I know why my meat-head cousin didn't like it. Stallone's performance really hit the right notes.

But the biggest problem is simply that I don't think Stallone understands his own movie. It's not about 'taking punches and moving forward' or whatever bullshit underdog life metaphor the movie seemed to be throwing our way. Rather, it's an odd, sad little film about an old man who, overcome with grief and malaise, stupidly runs back to the only thing he understands and does well: boxing. He's a man who can't give up his glorious past. Like Stallone himself. And at the end of the movie, save an improved relationship with his son, nothing has changed. He feels good for the moment, but soon he'll be back telling those same stories in that all-telling, life-draining red blazer. I really don't think Stallone grasped the true nature of this story.

I think you're the one t hat doesn't understand the story. The story was beautiful and is the best part of the film.

He says he's got something 'down in the cellar,' or whatever. But all that is is grief and lonliness and uncertainty and sadness and boredom. How does the final fight resolve any of Rocky's problems? It doesn't. Why did he fight? It's just a final gasp in the limelight. A way for him to feel like he's holding off the inevitable for a bit. He's right back where he started.

There's a great film in there about obsolescence and aging and coming to terms with it all. But it's dressed up in triumphant, inspirational clothing, when it's quite the opposite. Never have I seen a movie with such a disconnect between what I'm seeing and what the film in telling me to see.

And what happened to the 'if you fight again, you'll probably have irreversable brain damage' song and dance from Rocky V? Nicely swept under the rug.

You do sort of have a point on the whole irreversible brain damage issue that was swept under the rug.. At the beginning of ROCKY V when he was in the shower, ROCKY was shaking uncontrollably, but it's a non issue in this it would seem.. Since this is The Gun's favorite movie, perhaps he could answer this better..

What's Rocky V? I don't recall there being a Rocky V. Does anyone else remember a Rocky V?

Its not my favorite movie right off the bat, I'd say its number 3 of the series for me, and might crack my top ten of the year, but believe me, theres much worst films that are in peoples tops this year.

As far as the whole brain damage thing, I think it was the right move, I mean, Rocky also got over his blindspot that was never talked about again after the 2nd film. The series have taken many liberties with Rocky's health, but they are minor complaints that anyone should be able to get over.Boxing technology has changed greatly over the last 20 years. All professional athletes have traces of brain damage now that take shots to the head, and boxers have come out of retirement after such new tests had been created to go back into the ring. And the type of brain damage Rocky had was reversable, and it was supposedly 20 years later. The man was talking about fighting during that next year during that "Song and Dance" The new technology and added years is an acceptable way for him to pass the current license board.

Now is it a stretch after Rocky 5, yes, but this film tries to make it seem that Rocky V never existed and that works for me.

From watching film the film. Rocky lost Adrien and was a reck for the most part. He wanted to prove to himself that he still had life in him, and his life isn't over. Rocky had something to prove, and his demons were attacking him, he proved it at the end of the film and the demons were gone. He now has no problems getting older, has new friends, his son loves him again, and most likely made lat least 5 million dollars in the fight. So in addition to his restaurant, and proving to the sporting world that its not about age, its about heart, Rocky has no reason to fight again.

I remember it quite well and it receives far too much heat for the silliest of reasons.. The street fight in ROCKY V was far more exciting and Sniveling whiner Tommy Gunn had more personality and reasons to hate him than Mason Dixon dreamed of having and in the end, seeing ROCKY knock Gunn out in the alley with people cheering him on was more reward than the fight in this latest ROCKY.... This latest ROCKY movie is all about sentimental dialogue and tugging at the heartstrings and nostalgia mixed in more than it is with an actual action packed fight with the HBO look tacked on..

B


I have never been a big fan of the Rocky series, ever. I think the first Rocky film is one of the most overrated Best Picture winners ever. It is okay, but nothing more.

Rocky Balboa, however, is a solid film by itself. I am glad there's only one main fight in the whole film, but the overall pace is pretty weird. For the first four fifths of the movie it drags from time to time. Then it jumps to the training (very good!) and the fight (great!) very fast and suddenly and then it's all over. Stallone delivers a great performance, one of his very best ever and the scenes with his son are his best. The movie proves once again that the whole "Stallone can't act" stuff is crap.

It is still not great. Mason Dixon gets a lot of own scenes, but always remains a very one-dimensional and bland character. Some scenes drag. The re-introduction of Duke is not too well-done either (and pretty much his disappearance later on). It is still a good ending to the series, in my eyes. I am more looking forward to the next Rambo flick.

I haven't heard this much applaus as I did during Rocky Balboa probably ever since I saw ROTK. (except for the films I saw at the Fantasy Film Festival)

B-

I thought it was decent, nothing extraordinary. Stallone and some of the speeches were definitley good, and I liked the real-look of the final fight.

However for much of the movie there is dragging, and I agree with the sentiment that a lot of the characters in this film weren't treated well at all. Steps is introduced and they get a dog, then he completley disappears. Dixon isn't given anything to do but act like an unappreciative dick. Even Rocky's son is mostly fodder for the inspirational speeches, I felt they could've gone into more depth on him.

Good time-passer, but I didn't love it.

Great film with a lot of heart and a superb performance by Stallone, to me it was his best performance out of every Rocky film. The only thing I felt was of lesser quality then all other Rocky films (except 5) was the fight scene. It started out interesting, the whole idea like you're watching an HBO fight, but that soon turned to shite and I started missing the old school Rocky fight scenes. Anyways I still dug the hell out of it, very inspirational.

B+

I was always a fan of the Rocky movies growing up... I particularly loved Rocky III and IV back in the day. Sure, they didn't hold up as well with the passing of time (and now that I'm a little older, and a little wiser), but still... it was a great series in my book... until Rocky 5 came along and took a gigantic messy dump on all the other Rocky movies.

Thankfully Sly didn't leave it at that and has come back with 6... a movie that reminded me a lot of Rocky I. It was an entertaining movie with a lot of heart, and a fitting end (hopefully that's it!).

If I'm going to nitpick, there were a couple things that I didn't care for... the girl and the kid he befriended seemed kind of pointless and I didn't know where the movie wanted to go with that. And there was one too many inspirational speeches for the movies own good. But, these were only minor quibbles. Overall it was very enjoyable and surprisingly very touching. A-

Rocky 6 is certainly a lot better than III, IV and V. It's not a horrible movie in itself it's just... underbaked. It relies a little too heavily on nostalgia and could have probably moved along at a better clip. All of the "ghosty" flashback scenes with Adrian were less powerful than just simply seeing her grave and I think there would have been a little more value in exploring Balboa's home life.

While the central core of the film is essentially Rocky, everyone else is of little interest and suffers, there isn't any closure with Steps, Marie or even Paulie really. The son's story and the Paulie story serve only Rocky (ex: Paulie randomly gets fired at the right time to become Rocky's trainer?). Add some rather underdeveloped antagonists (slimy promoters and a troubled boxing star with maybe 5 minutes worth of development before the fight).

Just not a lot of well developed conflict in this movie, and I have seen better films which deal with the plight of aging.

Yeah that covers a lot of the disappointing feelings I had towards the film, more clearly than how I said it.

It's a classy film and the screenplay is decent. But I can't find anything more remarkable in it from the themes, characters, pacing, entertainment, etc. I won't remember it much in a few years.

It is classy and yes, Stallone does act well in it. I found it a tad too smaltzy though and laughed during the speeches. I also found the fight at the end to be rather flat and poorly edited. The whole film builds up to the fight (which there is none in the previous hour of the film) and the training session is a montage and the fight only really shows one full round.

I found Mason Dixon to be kind of young and naive but I didn't find him to be cruel or an awful human being. Did they ever say in the movie why he was so disrespected by the fans? I can't remember.

I also didn't like how the son didn't have individuality, and despite the encouragement of his father, kind of folded up his life when he hit a rough spot and returned to the shade of his father's shadow. Kind of did a diservice to the kid. The kid could have still been at ringside and retained some of his dignity and self-worth.

I believe the hatred toward Dixon was because fans kind of felt he was everything wrong with the sport, never really earned the title, and didn't fight any worthy opponents. In reality I can't imagine people would hate him that badly, but it did symbolize the state of the boxing world today. There really are no more classic boxers... the kind that Rocky would have been (like Ali, Frazer, Foreman, Marciano, Sugar Ray Leonard, etc...)

I could envision that if a champion appeared today that was all glitz and bling... one that maybe had the skill, but none of the grit - it would be debated how he would fare against a "true" classic boxer.

The thing that surprised me the most about RB was that going into it, I really thought it was going to be VERY unbelievable, but everything was handled very well and it actually wasn't that unbelievable. Boxers of that age have attempted comebacks before, and the current state of boxing is shit. The only thing I didn't believe was that a 50+ year old Rocky would have had a shot in hell against a new well conditioned champ. Most old boxers that try to comeback get hammered.

Im being very biased i guess but i didnt like it. I hate Stallone and im not much of a boxing kinda guy. Plues, i thought it was ultra cheesy.

C

No dice Chris. You can't post this and then afterwards extol praise of Speed Racer and the utterly vile insult to the memory of 50s Grand Prix racing and the Mille Miglia just because the morons that created Speed Racer in the first place thought it would be great to trivialize the deaths of people like Stuart Lewis Evan's or Alberto Ascari on the alter of their own perversion of motorsport.............................hmmmm i rambled.

Anyhoo this last rant was a support for this film in that just because a person wanted to relive their glory days even for one night does not mean it should be smugly cast aside. We all have one life and thats it on this earth and then you are gone, everyone deserves to relive the glory days because its inspiring to people and lift's hearts.

If you want an example I will give you Nigel Mansell at Donington BTCC in 1998, a man past his prime turning on the class one last time to the utter joy of the crowd and a testament that even old dogs can have one last day. Thats what this film is about and there is zero shame celebrating that.

Ignore the first paragraph mainly unless you are a massive GP fan you will not get it.

Rocky Balboa

Just watched this again. The wife was asleep, so I thought I'd pop on some Rocky. It's such heartwarming film, and one with some very relatable and poignant messages too. The inspirational speech given to Rocky Jr. is of course loved by many, but it still holds up after 6 years and many repeat viewings; it's emotional and hair-raising just like back in 2007.

The fight is also great, full of electricity and suspense, I was cheering along wanting him to win. It's as if Rocky Balboa is a relative of mine, my dad or someone, I just adore this guy and I'm always in his corner. An important shot is at the end when the decisions are being read out, Rocky is almost out of the arena completely, he doesn't care about that, he just cares about proving to himself that he can still go "toe to toe", and he sure as hell did, which was also reminiscent of Rocky (he lost the fight but still gained the respect after going the distance with Creed/Mason).

Well shot, and Stallone has a killer body, with some comic touches from Paulie and Rocky himself -- Rocky Balboa is simply a beautiful and pleasantly nostalgic film.

A

Great film, great sequel, whatever went wrong in Rocky V is course corrected here and it works really well as a closure to the series. It's a treat from start to finish, from where we find Rocky and everyone else more than a decade later. Sad that Adrian has past, but a great narrative to build this final chapter on. It's nice to see Paulie again, and Milo fits right in as the adult son. Unlike Rocky V, the development and presence of characters in this is spot on. And however weird Rocky V was, it's existence allowed the ground work for a superior sequel like this one to be created. The fight at the end is also well done, from the boxing itself and the result, fitting with the nature of Rocky and the franchise. Just some all around good dialogue in it and the film is a complete winner, and how it's able to do so with a 16 year gap between the last film and tie in to the series all together is remarkable.

A

Looking back, I do like this one more than the Creed series, which looking at the dynamics between the two films and the characters of Robert and Steps, it kind of borrows a lot from this film. Also Stallone is just so good hear and I still love the HBO style type of fight.