Movie Review: ROCKY BALBOA
I just needed to put down some words about this film. And when I say ‘need’, I really mean that. I’ve read all the reviews for Stallone’s sixth underdog sports movie. Nearly every single one of them had to refer to it as “embarrassingly good” or “better than it had any right to be”. There seemed to be a sense of shame amongst critics in actually just coming out and saying how good this film is!
To be fair, I’m the world’s biggest fan of this franchise and I have to admit… even I went in expecting the year’s best ‘guilty pleasure’. I was even willing to avoid judging it as a ‘movie’ and simply cast an opinion on it within the confines of the other movies in the franchise. Instead I was blown away!
Prior to viewing the film’s trailers, I was completely opposed to this film. I thought it would be a joke. To give you a very brief bit of context regarding my adoration of the Rocky franchise, I absolutely love the first two chapters. I think they are genuine American masterpieces of their particular genre. I think Rocky III is a complete comic book of a movie but a great popcorn film all the same. Rocky IV is a favourite guilty pleasure of mine despite the fact that it is essentially one long montage sequence set to a great soft rock compilation (actually, maybe it’s because of that and not in spite of it huh?). Rocky V is a failed attempt to do something unexpected with the character – i.e. return him to his roots – and it’s blighted by some atrocious 2nd rate casting choices (real life boxer Tommy Morrison as Balboa’s latest adversay and Stallone’s son Sage are total car crashes to watch!). It’s a poor movie but it’s not particularly awful or offensive (then again it has been a long time since I last saw it). I don’t, like a lot of fans, disown the last film. Hence the reason I don’t and won’t see this latest (and definitely last) Rocky entry as Rocky Balboa. It is, was and forever will be Rocky VI. Rocky 6. Rocky Part 6. Whatever.
And it was a film that, as I said earlier, I was completely opposed to. When we left Rocky he was nigh on destitute. He had brain damage. He’d been taken on a ride from rags to riches and back again, and if that was the trajectory Stallone wanted the character to take than fine. It’s his creation. He can do what he likes and I’ll support that. Then all these rumours started circulating – Stallone starts talking up the sixth film: Rocky fights to save his local church, Rocky fights to save the orphans, Rocky trains his son to follow in his footsteps. Awful, just awful ideas. And these weren’t just ‘internet rumours’, these were Stallone’s actual ideas. He was publicly talking these up. They were coming from his own mouth. As a fan I didn’t want anything more to do with it. I thought “I’ll exercise my right to control the franchise within my own mind like I’ve done with Halloween, Halloween II and Halloween H20 (a nice little trilogy), Jaws and Jaws 2 (the others just ‘don’t exist’) and, of course, Highlander (there are no sequels!!!)!” There just wouldn’t be a Rocky 6 in my mind.
Pictures started getting leaked on the net, regulars started returning to the cast, it didn’t matter. I wasn’t buying. I thought it was a stupid, stupid idea. Then someone sat me down and forced me to watch the first trailer. It all changed instantly for me. I loved seeing Paulie older and still cantakerous, I loved seeing Philly as shot through the eye of Stallone again and I loved the fact that even in the trailer you could see that he was harking back to what I like to call the pre-MTV/pre-plastic-surgery Rocky. Seeing the MGM lion roar and Bill Conti’s score kick in on just the trailer alone had me flipping my opinion instantly. The trailer alone pulled out all the old feelgood, adrenaline kicking rushes that the Rocky movies give me and I was sold… the countdown, in they eyes of me and my best mate, had begun!
In the years since we last saw Rocky Balboa (writer/director/producer/star Sylvester Stallone) his beloved wife Adrian (Talia Shire, seen only in flashbacks) has died of “woman cancer” and he and his son, Rocky Jr. (Milo Ventimiglia), have been growing apart as the son struggles to escape what he sees as the shadow of his famous father. Rocky owns his own restaurant named after his deceased wife and finds that his customers come to hear his old ‘war’ stories as much as they do for the food.
The chiselled Rocky we know from parts 3, 4 and 5 is long gone. Stallone presents us a Rocky haggard, greying and out of shape. As he should be when the years have broken him down. He cannot escape the inconsolable grief that burns away within himself at the loss of his wife and Paulie, his best friend and brother in law, cannot help him as Rocky’s grief only serves to remind Paulie as to how awful he treat his only sister. You didn’t expect a movie this deep did you? I don’t think any Rocky fan really did. Stallone addresses the fact that over five films we have seen one of cinema’s great love stories evolve between his Rocky and his Adrian. His performance as one coping without the other, epitomised in the scene where Rocky struggles not to break down as Paulie begs him not to, is brilliantly done. Stallone is funny, moving and realistic throughout. Gone is the charicatures of 3, 4 and 5. He’s pulling back to the Rocky we first fell in love with and as a result, he reminds us what a hugely under-rated actor he is when he puts his heart and soul into it. This is the Stallone of Rocky, First Blood and Copland right here!
As we move into the second act of a movie paced deliberately to match the franchise’s first movie (a move in the first Rocky movie that made the actual boxing event seem irrelevant!) ESPN shows a virtual boxing match pairing up fighters from different eras. “Young” Rocky versus the current champion Mason “The Line” Dixon (Antonio Tarver). The results suggest Rocky would win.
Seeing this virtual fight starts shaking emotions out of a variety of different people – it makes Dixon, a fighter regarded as a joke who lacks heart simply because the business has got so corrupt they cannot find a worthy opponent to go toe to toe with him, realise he can try and change people’s perception of him and earn a big paycheque in the process. It makes Dixon’s management and Vegas fight promoters realise they could be onto a cash windfall and it makes Rocky remember how much he misses being in the ring, garnering respect and he comes to believe that fighting again could be the only way to settle the fury that burns away inside of him.
So Rocky reregisters for his license in a noteworthy scene that makes many a snobbish critic cringe but makes a diehard Rocky fan nod along, misty eyed as Stallone unleashes one of his word-heavy, fluffy-bunny, emotional monologues that his movies have become famous for.
Rocky Balboa: Yo, don’t I got some rights?
Boxing Commissioner: What rights do you think you’re referring to?
Rocky Balboa: Rights, like in that official piece of paper they wrote down the street there?
Boxing Commissioner: That’s the Bill of Rights.
Rocky Balboa: Yeah, yeah. Bill of Rights. Don’t it say something about going after what makes you happy?
Boxing Commissioner: No, that’s the pursuit of happiness. But what’s your point
Rocky Balboa: My point is I’m pursuing something and nobody looks too happy about it.
Boxing Commissioner: But… we’re just looking out for your interests.
Rocky Balboa: I appreciate that, but maybe you’re looking out for your interests just a little bit more. I mean you shouldn’t be asking people to come down here and pay the freight on something they paid, it still ain’t good enough, I mean you think that’s right? I mean maybe you’re doing your job but why you gotta stop me from doing mine? Cause if you’re willing to go through all the battling you got to go through to get where you want to get, who’s got the right to stop you? I mean maybe some of you guys got something you never finished, something you really want to do, something you never said to someone, something… and you’re told no, even after you paid your dues? Who’s got the right to tell you that, who? Nobody! It’s your right to listen to your gut, it ain’t nobody’s right to say no after you earned the right to be where you want to be and do what you want to do!… You know, the older I get the more things I gotta leave behind, that’s life. The only thing I’m asking you guys to leave on the table… is what’s right.
The media catch wind and create firestorm. Soon everybody wants the computer simulation to become a reality – on HBO! Live! In Vegas! With part of the purse going to charity! The opportunity is brought to Rocky, who at first is a little cautious, but soon agrees following a heart to heart with Marie (Geraldine Hughes), the single mother he is beginning a tentative friendship with. Climbing back into the fold of his old friend Tony (Tony Burton), Apollo Creed’s ex-cornerman and Mickey’s replacement, Rocky starts training again. Suddenly the opening bars of Bill Conti’s ‘Gonna Fly Now’ burst through the speakers and we’ve got ourselves a motherfucking Rocky montage here people!
Duke: To beat this guy, you need speed. You don’t have any. Your knees are weak so no hard running. You’ve got neck arthritis and calcium deposits in most of your joints, so sparring is out.
Paulie: [to Rocky] I had that problem.
Duke: So what we’ll be callin’ on, is good old-fashioned blunt force trauma. Horse power. Heavy duty cast iron pile drivin’ punches that will have to hurt so much it’ll rattle his ancestors. Everytime you hit him with a shot, it’s got to feel like he tried kissing the express train.Yeah! Let’s start building some hurtin’ bombs.
And what follows a Rocky montage? A Rocky fight sequence!
YEAH!!!
The execution of the final fight jars your head a little to start with as you see it portrayed with actual ‘fight night score graphics’ (a first for a Rocky film) and seeing the colour drain and flash back into bursts of blood red or golden yellow (a la Sin City in some respects) rattles you slightly but it’s something to embrace. It’s Stallone’s attempt to inject a fresh perspective on what is the SIXTH part of a franchise. It’s admiral. The fight itself is hugely impressive (even keeping the moment when Antonio Tarver actually broke his hand in reality on screen for us all to see!) and done as real as the flurry of real-life boxing will allow. Gone are the Clubber Lang and Ivan Drago hysterics. This time when the fighters go toe-to-toe, it’s missed body blows, clattering limbs and tangled fists.
Now I can’t begin to say how impressed I was by this film. We’re not talking a classic here or a modern masterpiece. But it’s a surprise. A genuinely great surprise. Unlike what the mainstream reviews are telling you, this is not a film that is so bad it’s actually good, it’s not something you’ll be embarrassed to like. It’s Stallone acting his arse off on screen and embedding the character with the autobiographical highs and lows that he himself suffers – much like he did with the first two Rocky films – and striking a huge positive mark as a result. The way he walks as Rocky, the way he tips his hat, it’s pure faithfulness to an American cinematic icon. The most brilliant stroke in his performance is the night before the big fight when he finds his friend Marie giving him a kiss goodnight and he freezes. Stallone is so faithful to the character he reminds us that Rocky’s heart belongs to one woman and it is foreign to him to experience someone that isn’t Adrian! It’s the little moments like that.
And the film is made up of several little moments that just strike the heart of any Rocky fan trying to fight (pardon the pun!) the urge not to get involved – the reappearance of ‘Cuff & Link’, bringing Spider Rico back in to the story, hearing Mickey’s voice in Rocky’s conscience, standing under the bridge girders outside of ‘Mighty Mick’s Gym’ once more! They all pay off hugely! Burt Young is, once again, exceptionally entertaining as Paulie. This guy has been the real revelation throughout all of the Rocky movies. He’s our heart, our comedic relief, our shoulder to cry on. He never misses a beat. And there’s no change in Young’s performance this time around either!
Rocky Balboa: Let me tell you something you already know. The world ain’t all sunshine and rainbows. It is a very mean and nasty place and it will beat you to your knees and keep you there permanently if you let it. You, me, or nobody is gonna hit as hard as life. But it ain’t how hard you hit; it’s about how hard you can get hit, and keep moving forward. How much you can take, and keep moving forward. That’s how winning is done. Now, if you know what you’re worth, then go out and get what you’re worth. But you gotta be willing to take the hit, and not pointing fingers saying you ain’t where you are because of him, or her, or anybody. Cowards do that and that ain’t you. You’re better than that!
Of course there’s some things that work and some things that don’t – some sort of explanation as to where Rocky’s [Part 5] brain damage has gone to would be nice! Tony Burton’s role is vastly flat. His montage opening speech aside, he’s there for background shots only and his ringside speeches of encouragement from the previous Rocky films are sorely lacking this time round, handed over instead to Rocky’s son. And there lies one of the film’s real problems. As Rocky Jnr, Milo Ventimiglia is woefully miscast. I’m not sure whether that thing he’s doing with his mouth is an impersonation of Stallone or whether he was actually born with it but if it’s the former, and I was Stallone, I would have smacked him upside the head for that. He’s wooden in his delivery of every single line and, when other new additions to the cast (Pedro Lovell, Geraldine Hughes, James Francis Kelly III) are doing such commendably under-stated work, it’s hard not to have your attention drawn to just how woeful he actually is.
Then again, this is a Rocky movie. A surprisingly heartfelt and decent one at that. Bad performances are forgiveable in a movie where 90% of the audience are just looking down their list and going “MGM Lion? Check! Opening title rolling right to left? Check! Cheesy speeches? Check! Montage? Check! Fight Sequence? Check! Yo’ Adrian bit? Check!”
Forget the term ‘worthy’, this is an exceptional closing episode to one of my favourite franchises of all time. Judge it within the confines of the movies that preceeded it and it is up there with the best of them. Hell, judge it away from it’s own franchise, and you’ll still find it to be a moving, genuine, surprise and a strong contender for the ‘sleeper’ hit of the year! If there’s any rights in the world of the movie industry (and we know there isn’t) then it’d be nice to see Stallone get an Oscar nomination (flame me all you motherfuckers like!) for his work within this film (not win though! Jesus no! How hilarious would that be?) just on the grounds of his being able to “find” his talent again.
Let’s just hope he doesn’t blow the career rejuvination that this will inevitably and justifiably bring on a flacid Rambo IV or Cobra II production!
Rocky Jr.: Don’t take any more chances out there than you have to. There’s nothing more to prove, Pop! There’s nothing more to prove!
Rocky Balboa: I gotta go out the way I gotta go out.
This review was originally first published in Jan-07 on filmrot.com
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