Having seen all five of the previous 'Rocky' films, I awaited the release of 'Rocky Balboa' with eager anticipation, but also with a sense of trepidation: would this be another glorified music video, as some say 'Rocky IV' was? Would this be another movie that made me cringe, as 'Rocky V' did? Fortunately, the answer to these questions turned out to be a resounding "no." And I, as a fan of the series since childhood, am ever so grateful.'Rocky Balboa' starts not with a bang, but a whimper but in a good way ; a lot has happened since we last <more> saw Rocky knocking Tommy Gunn into a Philadelphia city bus in 1990: he and Adrian started a restaurant in 1995, son Robert Jr. matriculated and went into the business world apparently with little to mixed success , and most sadly to the audience, at the beginning of the film we learn that Adrian, the heart and soul of Rocky's conscience, died on January 11, 2002.Almost five years later, Rocky seems to be going through the motions of his life - he runs the restaurant, he tells stories to the patrons about the good old days - the kind of thing you'd expect from any sports celebrity that takes a crack at being a restaurateur. But its evident that Rocky has pain bottled up inside him - pain from Adrian's death mostly, but pain from within as well.On the anniversary of Adrian's death, we see Rocky and Paulie played by Burt Young, who gets second billing this time around visiting the old haunts that Rocky shared with Adrian: the pet shop, which appears closed; the ice rink, that's now been felled by a wrecking ball. Rocky's living in the past, and while Rocky's memories of it are somewhat comforting to him, they are a source of pain to Paulie.Enter the reigning heavyweight champion of the world, Mason "The Line" Dixon, who despite his cartoonish name seems like a decent enough guy. Played by former Light Heavyweight kingpin Antonio Tarver, Dixon isn't so much an unpopular champion as he is dominant - his fights aren't bringing in the dollars because, like Roy Jones Jr. for most of his career, you pretty much knew the outcome, and didn't really care about the opponents.ESPN moves the storyline along by staging a computerized series of bouts between heavyweight champions in an effort to determine who was the best of all time. The network pairs Dixon and Balboa and, of course, Rocky wins by knockout. The fight has Rocky thinking that the way to get his inner demons out of his system is to fight again - just local, small fights - just to get through his anger and pain.Rocky gets his boxing license despite allegedly having brain damage in 'Rocky V' a departure from the canon that isn't explained in nearly enough detail , but before he does much else Dixon's promoters played by A.J. Benza and real-life promoter Lou DiBella visit Rocky at the restaurant, named "Adrian's": would he be willing to take on the champ in a 10-round exhibition? Rocky's no dummy. He's an aged warhorse, Dixon's a stallion. Rocky worries about "getting mangled," but after the promoters assuage his fears, he's on board. Meanwhile, Robert's not happy with Dad's decision, pleading with him not to go through with the fight Robert's a lot like his mother, apparently . Rocky tells his son that he's scared, but that in essence life isn't about your successes, but how you overcome adversities: "It ain't about how hard you can hit, but how hard you can get hit, and keep moving forward." Robert doesn't get it initially, but eventually it sinks in that his old man is more wise than he gives credit for.I won't give away too many details about the fight itself, other than just one: you either think you know what's going to happen and are surprised, or you guess right and think to yourself, "interesting." Either way, this is no re-hash of 'Rocky III's' battles between Rocky Balboa and Clubber Lang.Also, credit to Sylvester Stallone for doing something in this film that he hadn't done in any of the previous five - aimed for realism. Now that sounds bizarre when you think that this is a movie about a guy in his 50's fighting the reigning heavyweight champion of the world, but the fight scene looks as if it were straight out of an HBO pay-per-view event. Another nice touch was to see Rocky's belts hanging on the wall at Adrian's - not "The Ring" belt worn by the Rock in 'Rocky III' or placed on Apollo Creed's coffin in 'Rocky IV,' but replicas of the current sanctioning body belts.As pessimistic as I was about the concept of 'Rocky Balboa,' I have to say this is the second best, if not the best, of the series. You don't leave the theater chanting 'Rocky! Rocky!', but if you were paying attention, you not only left with an uplifting feeling in your heart, but you might just have learned a thing or two to boot. <less> |