I wasnt a huge rocky fan but I loved the movies, my brother is a big rocky fan so I went to the test screening of the new rocky movie in philly! One word I thought this movie would suck watching an over age man fight in the ring but hell no! Rocky Balboa is the best movie in the serise without a doubht I was blown away! And I went back and saw the other five and loved them evan more and more..
If you were born in the 80s or later, chances are you only know the "Rocky" franchise as clichéd, repetitive movies in which our hero has to face an ever-growing accumulation of muscles. A story was nowhere to be found, the only thing the screenplay cared about was throwing in as many obstacles as possible for Rocky Balboa (Sylvester Stallone) to win or defend his title against and to orchestrate a preferably bloody fight in which Rocky has to kiss the floor at least three times. One tends to forget that the franchise started out in 1976 with a movie that set the standard for all sports movies uptil today. The Oscar-winning "Rocky" was more a portrait of a tumb loser who surprisingly gets a chance at fame than a sports movie. One could even say it was more a romance than a movie about boxing.
Thirty years and to put it mildly, 5 unaspiring sequels later, Sylvester Stallone suddenly remembered what made the first "Rocky" movie so great. When the project was first announced, it was ridiculed. A return of Rocky Balboa? What will he fight for? The World Heavy-Age title? Luckily 60-year-old Stallone, who also wrote the screenplay and directs the movie, is well aware of the fact that his character is past his prime and incorporates it into the story. From the first shot on, when we see Rocky sitting at the grave of his wife Adrian who died of cancer a few years ago, Stallone portrays his Alter Ego as a broken man. Though his glory days of boxing are well behind him, he hasn’t managed to move on. He makes a living by retelling his fight stories to customers of his restaurant and still visits the places he used to enjoy with Adrian. On one of those visits he meets Marie (Geraldine Hughes) and her son Steps (James Francis Kelly III) who slowly manage to pull Rocky from the past into the present where he tries to repair the dysfunctional relationship with Rocky jr. (Milo Ventimiglia). Much to the chagrin of his son, who hates living in the shadow of his father, Rocky is thrown back into the spotlight when an ESPN computer simulation sees Rocky take on the current heavyweight champion Mason Dixon (real-life boxer Antonio Tarver). When the program declares that Rocky in his prime would have easily knocked-out the equally undefeated and unpopular Dixon, the whole boxing community holds its breath for a real-life match between the two superstars of boxing.
While the main ingredients for the "Rocky"-saga are there - we get the usual training montage (including everyone’s favorite beef halves) and the stylized boxing match (with Sly throwing in some "Sin City"-like black and white footage with color accents) - the movie is a fresh start. The cocksure hero is gone, back is the insecure loser - a role that fits Stallone like a boxing glove. In what is his best achievement since "Cop Land", Stallone delivers a restrained performance in which he ironically convinces more with his eyes than his muscular body. Obviously a fan of real-life boxing, his screenplay is an accurate portrayal of the George Formans and Mike Tysons (who has a cameo in the movie) of this world who either climb back into the ring for money or because they don’t have anything else in life they’re good at. Filled with smart dialogue that sounds intelligent but nevertheless keeps the dumb nature of Rocky intact, "Rocky Balboa" is a return to form which no one expected.
Obviously not everything is perfect; sometimes the movie feels to nostalgic and sentimental and an ill-advised use of a pop song turns stomachs, but Goingn the distance and gonna fly now are amazing tracks so the music still looks out of new tracks "its a fight" stands out the rap song does amazing and makes you tap your foot but like a real fighter the movie recovers before the count of ten, stands up again and delivers a knock-out.