Movie Title: Rocky Balboa
Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ (6/10)
Year: 2006
Rocky Balboa official site: http://www.rocky.com/
Now talk about being nostalgic. Talk about a new Rocky movie after 16 years. Not to mention the first rocky was produced years before I was born.
After disappearing from the screen from some time, Sylvester Stallone is back… looking way older than the last time I see him in Driven. When he still have smooth face. Somewhat, somehow… I wonder if it’s the make up in this movie or is he really getting that old. I mean yes, he is aging but it’s like only 4 years. I guess the changes are sorta drastic for me.
After 30 years from the original Rocky, Rocky (Sylvester Stallone) is back. At his 60’s age, Rocky now owns a small restaurant at Philadelphia. His life was kind of like a routine. What’s worst is when his wife Adrian (Talia Shire) passed away a few years back. His life seems so empty and boring.
Intimidated and constantly felt over-shadowed by his father’s popularity, Rocky Jr. (Milo Ventimiglia) tries his very best to avoid / not to be seen with his father. Rocky starts to wonder if he did anything wrong to make things seems so awkward.
On Adrian’s anniversary, Rocky pull along Paulie (Burt Young) to go walk around and goes back to places where he first met Adrian, their dating place, her old house. Lots of past clips and memories arise. As he walks around, he ends up at a bar where Marie (Geraldine Hughes) is working. Rocky used to walk Marie home when she was young.
While catching up with Marie, a young girl walks up to Rocky and asked him to buy them some beer. When refused, she started insulting Rocky. The insult never stops even when Rocky tries to send Marie home. At one point, Rocky just couldn’t take it anymore and walked up to the group of youngsters.
Marie then introduce her son, Steps (James Francis Kelly III) to Rocky. Rocky was somehow surprised that Steps is actually mixed. Rocky then invited Marie and Steps to dine at his restaurant which they actually did turn up.
Being an ever famous boxer, Rocky would always tells his boxing stories to his customers. Somethings which they like to listen to while dining at his restaurant. When one of his staff is due to deliver a baby, Rocky quickly persuade Marie to work for him. Wondering why Rocky treat her so good, she refused Rocky’s request at first. She later on agreed when Rocky manage to convince her that he is just being him and just trying to help as a friend and nothing else.
Opposite of Rocky, Mason Dixon (Antonio Traver) is the current famous and top boxer. His undefeated record put him from a love to hate position. Everyone thinks he wins to easily. Easy knock-outs, no competitor and everyone is just angry as boxing seems to lost it’s spark.
Everything turns exciting when a computer generated match between Rocky and Mason is being aired. Everyone got curious who would actually be better. When the results sided on Rocky, Mason was furious. His managers on the other hand look at this as an opportunity to grab more money out of it. While Rocky was just plain curious about his own capabilities and got him thinking to be a boxer again.
Now… you can hear the Rocky tune.. you can see him run the stairs.. sounds familiar? Well.. yeah it happens on all Rocky movies. A trademark sorta thing. Rocky accepted the challenge against Mason. Rocky Jr. was angry when he heard that Rocky accepted the challenge. He went up to Rocky and demanded him to stop it. However, after listening to Rocky’s words.. not only did he support his decision, he quit his job cause he thinks it doesn’t suit him but he also accompany Rocky through his difficult training times. With the upbeat music, the not overly done training and keep it realistic exercise finally gives the movie a little uplift.
The fight of the century finally arrive. With Spider Rico (Pedro Lovell) blessing Rocky and the funny part comes is when Paulie chose a Frank Sinatra song to play as a background song when Rocky is walking out. When the bell rings, Mason and Rocky starts fighting. A punch here and there… and there… and here. Ouch! Lots of blood… saliva flying everywhere.
Okay… I wouldn’t wanna spoil it all for everyone… but somehow the ending was rather… how do I put it in words. It sorts of put me in the “Duh… that’s it?” position. I thought the ending could be stronger and more emotional but it didn’t show.
It is an interesting movie but the paste was rather slow and it makes it really hard for me to concentrate. I could understand how they would wanna bring the clips, touch the heart, bring some emotions in but it was just a little too much. The peak of the movie was when the training starts to the competition… which I somehow feel it wasn’t enough to attract or bring audiences to another level.
I felt it could have been better despite it being a legendary movie. But well, at least it is way better than what it’s trailer portray.