Rocky Balboa recap (SPOILERS) (1 Viewer)

[DavidPla]

Right. Rocky is the ultimate underdog. What I loved about the ending that they chose is that he left before the winner was announced. It didn't matter at all to him wether he won or not officially. Even the crowd knew who the real winner was. They weren't cheering at the end for Dixon, but for Rocky.

 

[Tim Glover]

Excellent point David. Excellent. It just wasn't important to Rocky...he just got that "stuff in the basement" out.

Kind of want to see this again!

 

[Qui-Gon John]

Just saw this and I liked it pretty well. But I was wondering if anyone know the true answer to why no Adrian/Talia Shire? Was it one of the below?

1. TPTB didn't want to use Talia, so they wrote her out of the script?

2. Talia made it known she didn't want to be involved, so they wrote her out of the script?

3. Or was it from an artist's/writer's decision to have Rocky deal with losing Adrian, so that is the only reason they had her die?

 

[DavidPla]

I think it's more toward #3. Stallone mentioned that he did write a script with Adrian in it but he realized that Adrian basically kept telling Rocky NOT to fight the entire time, as Adrian would. So he thought it would be more dramatic and work better for the film to have her die. He then called Talia to let her know who was disappointed but understood his reasons.

 

[Tim Glover]

That would be my guess too plus the main reason for him fighting was to get the "stuff out of the basement"

 

[Ricardo C]

Stallone's referred to his call to Shire as "the most difficult phone call I've ever made". But his reasons are sound, artistically speaking: He felt that by having Adrian there, "Rocky Balboa" would be just another sequel, with Rocky essentially down on himself until Adrian has a change of heart and encourages him to fight. Been there, done that... Four times. Her death provided a plausible reason for Rocky's internal struggle, and made his return to the ring be about so much more than just fighting.

 

[Tim Glover]

Good stuff Ricardo...Agreed!

 

[Patrick Sun]

I figure the call to Sage Stallone would be the tougher call (for Sly not to cast his own son again to reprise his role as Rocky's son). I'm kidding.

 

[DavidPla]

Thought this was a great story to share. My sister teaches this classroom of children and today they discussed who their heroes are; fictional or real. This little 8 year old girl said that her hero was Rocky. Having never seen a Rocky film before she had just watched "Rocky Balboa" and was completely blown away by it and now has asked her parents if she can have the rest of the films in the series to watch.

 

[Adam Lenhardt]

Plus, the debate was effectively settled. If Rocky in his condition and age could go the distance with the current champ, he would have clearly wiped the floor with him in his prime.
How great is it that Bill Conti got to finish the series he started. What an underused composer who does great, great work.

 

[UngersPride]

This was a movie I was really looking forward to seeing.

I like Stallone and I liked the other Rocky films I through IV. I especially loved Rocky One, and find it highly watchable.

When I see a movie, and to enjoy it, the film-maker needs to establish the film on a believable premise, or at least to establish why things are the way they are in his film's universe.

I find that Stallone failed to establish several basic premises in his movie. Without these premises, everything else in the movie does not ring true.

What are the failed premises?

These:

1) Over the course of all the Rocky films, we see growth in the Rocky character. He becomes leaner, smarter, richer, sports a tan, and lives in a BIG mansion. In short, he becomes more sophisticated. Yet, in Balboa we see the Rocky character revert to being what he was 30 years ago! Why? Why does Rocky revert to wearing almost the same type of clothes he wore in 1976? Has he fallen on hard times? The movie doesn't tell us. This bugged me throughout the film.

2) Paulie also reverted back to what he was in 1976 (from the first Rocky film). Why? The film provides NO answers.

3) A good part of the movie has Rocky visiting old locations, seeing previously known people, and giving us Rocky-philosophy. At one point Paulie yells at Rocky, "Enough!" I felt the same way.... It became old... real fast....

4) Even Rocky's decision to step back into the ring didn't ring true. There was no fire or commitment in his decision to do it.

5) It felt like Stallone was sleep walking his way through this movie. It seemed like this movie was a tired retread of the superior first movie. Even some of the dialogue was lifted straight from the first film! I was getting bored, and his cracker-jack philosophy was tiring. I even tried to watch the deleted scenes, but stopped halfway through them. It was all just more Rocky-philosophy.

6) Note: the deleted scenes did show that Rocky was living with Paulie! This was creepy. Why? Why were they living in a rundown apartment? Especially since Rocky's restaurant always seemed to be full of people, and therefore, it should have been making him some decent money.

7) I should note however, that the scene between Rocky and his son was the highlight of the movie.

Overall, I was disappointed with the film. I was expecting so much more. This is another film I would not want to watch again.

I would recommend people rent/buy Rocky One instead. It is a superior film, and it won an Acadamy Award for best picture in 1976. One of the bonus features has Stallone telling us why he wrote Rocky, and it is thoroughly enjoyable.

6.5/10

 

[DavidPla]

Sorry you didn't enjoy the film, especially since you enjoyed the other four. For me, it was the perfect end to a great series.

 

[Pete-D]

I would agree the skating rink scene could have been cut (since they already visited the old house), but otherwise I thought the film was very well done.

I know some people were dissapointed that it wasn't more an action spectacle ala Rocky III/IV, but this one was a very good bookend to Rocky I. You're never going to duplicate the exact impact or freshness of the original, but this one with the angle of growing older and still having something to say, was well done.

 

[UngersPride]

So am I. Stallone has garnered a lot of good will with me over the years. I have been a big fan of the Rocky/Rambo films. I couldn't believe how disappointed I was.

However, if Stallone ever releases a director's cut, I hope he adds that five minute montage at the beginning of the film to tell us why Rocky reverts back to his humble surroundings....

 

[DavidPla]

But it was already explained... that was all in "Rocky V". He lost his money by a sleezy accountant. He had to move back into the slums of Philadelphia. Paulie moved in with him, Adrian and Robert.

 

[UngersPride]

That's a good starting point. What you stated above plus the additional montage footage I mentioned above would have helped a great deal.

The funny thing is that Stallone usually does provide a montage from the previous film to kick-start the beginning of newest movie.

Even so, the only way I even knew Paulie was living with Rocky was by watching the deleted scenes on the dvd. People who saw this movie in the theatre would never know that

 

[DavidPla]

That's true. But it wasn't necessary to the plot. In fact it probably helped the film more that it was deleted. That way Rocky was truly alone until get meets Little Marie.

But I don't think the film needed a recap of "Rocky V" at the beginning. Fans had already seen the previous films and non-fans would probably only remember the first "Rocky" so anything else was extraneous. He's broke... if you haven't seen "Rocky V" then he lost it. No need to explain it anymore. The point of the film wasn't about that, the previous film dealt with all of that. That's what bogged down "Rocky V". The point of this film was rising up from the ashes.

But I don't seen why it bothered you about how he lost all his money if you have already seen "Rocky V"?

 

[Carl Johnson]

I'm as big a fan of Rocky that there is but I haven't seen V. When I saw where he was living in Rocky Balboa I didn't assume that it was because he was broke. For lack of a better term Rocky is and always has been street people. When he was living on a multi million dollar estate it was because Adrian picked the location. Once she died Rocky didn't have any reason to stay in a fancy neighborhood so he moved back to his old stomping grounds.

 

[Tim Glover]

Totally agree. I also missed Rocky V....and LOVED Rocky Balboa.

I know there are few, if any perfect films. But for the Rocky series, the respect for Stallone AND Rocky hitting kind of low prior to this release...Rocky Balboa was THE perfect way to end this series. I really can't think of anything I would change about it.

 

[Greg_S_H]

People hated Rocky V, but it has now served its purpose. It got Rocky ready for Rocky Balboa. The movie wouldn't have been the same had it had to explain how Rocky got back to his roots. It had to have been pretty liberating for Stallone to have been able to start with that work already accomplished.