Rocky Balboa

December 21, 2006

Rated: PG Runtime: 102 min Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

It takes guts to dig a 16 year old character out of mothballs and parade him around for a new generation; especially if that character is wrapped in a 60 year old body and that body will be shown for all the world to see. But, that’s exactly what Sly does by giving us the 6th installment in the Rocky franchise… All I can say is I hope I’m in that kind of shape when I hit 60.

Rocky Balboa is the final chapter (I Hope) in a storied cinematic career that for all intents and purposes ended as well as it began. This go round Rocky is basically going through the motions of his old age. Adrian is dead, Rocky Jr (Ventimiglia) is working for a firm downtown which means he hardly sees him anymore, Paulie (Young) is constantly breaking his balls for living in the past, and all he has in the world is a little restaurant where people come to hear him ramble on about his past glories. All in all things are not going well for Rocky so he decides to improve his situation.

Rocky (Stallone) wanders into an old tavern where he runs into Marie (Hughes), a girl that Rocky used to know (See Rocky for more info) and Rocko starts to form a relationship with her and her son. Rocky gets the feeling that his depression is related to loneliness but even after building this new friendship he still feels hollow. Until one day when ESPN runs a segment on ‘What If’ that claims Rocky would defeat now champion Mason ‘The Line’ Dixon (Tarver) if they had fought each other in their prime. Rocky gets to thinkiing on a comeback and after a very strong chat with his son he decides the only thing he needs to get on with his life is to get back in the ring one last time and prove he can still go the distance. Sounds like a decent story and it is so you should go check it out.

Rocky Balboa is actually a really good movie and in my opinion the best work Stallone has done in years. Former light heavyweight champ Tarver is pretty good as Dixon but the best part of all about this movie is the passion of the story telling. Stallone had one last chapter to tell and for my 10 bucks I felt like it was well spent. Subtle, quiet calm resonates from the dialog and the simple yet deliberate way Stallone brings an icon like Rocky back to life is almost enough to forgive Rocky V… Almost.

Posted by J.C. Edwards | Filed Under 4 Stars, Antonio Tarver, Burt Young, Drama, Geraldine Hughes, Milo Ventimiglia, PG, Sylvester Stallone, Theatrical