Rocky Balboa
(2006)

Because my formative years were the early to mid-80s, my opinions of Rocky Balboa (the character, not the film) will forever be tainted by the third and fourth installments of the series. Is that good or bad? It's hard to say. I mean, at the time I loved those movies. The third one features Rocky facing off with Mr. T AND Hulk Hogan (Richard Belzer being the only other person to accomplish this) and in the fourth one he single-handedly ends the Cold War. What more could pre-pubescent boy ask for? If I were to re-watch these movies today, I'm sure that I'd be more than a little disappointed. They're pretty hokey. Dolph Lundgren's Ivan Drago character is about one mutant gene away from being ripped directly from the pages of Marvel, but by the fourth movie where else could have they gone with the Rocky story. The only worthy opponent would have been God himself. That's why Rocky V bit the big one. I mean, Tommy Gunn... please.

The awesome part about Rocky Balboa is not that his opponent is an unstoppable punching machine. Sure, Mason "The Line" Dixon (Antonio Tarver) is an undefeated heavyweight champ, but questions abound as whether that is due to skill or a dearth of worthy contenders. No, what makes the movie interesting is the fact that time has stripped Rocky of everything that made him a great fighter to begin with. Strength? Gone. Speed? Gone. His loving and supportive wife, Adrian? Yes, she's gone too. The only thing he has left is a faint burning in his gut that tells him that he still has things to prove in the ring.

When ESPN stages a fight between CGI versions of Rocky in his prime and current champ Mason Dixon, the nation is thrilled to see Balboa win. The results fuel the disdain for Dixon and help to renew interest in the Italian Stallion. In an astoundingly believable turn of events, an exhibition match is set up between Rocky and Dixon. Yes, I said "believable." I don't care how old he is. You know those Golden Palace folk could pull that off (c'mon... Uwe Boll, anyone?).

Now don't get me wrong. The movie has its flaws. The relationship between Rocky and his son is hardly fleshed out at all. We get a hint of Rocky Jr.'s frustration early in the film, but he essentially goes from having complete contempt for his father to serving as cornerman over the course of a single scene. Also, the "love interest" seemed a little forced and, in the end, unclear. In fact, I'm not entirely sure that the character Little Marie (Geraldine Hughes) is supposed to be a "love interest" at all. She certainly fills the void left by Adrian, but the relationship seems to be a creepy mix husband/wife and brother/sister dynamics. Weird stuff.

When all is said and done, however, this film is probably a more deserving sequel to the original film than any of the other four films in the series. In Rocky Balboa, thirty years after the fact, we have gotten the perfect post-script to the Rocky saga. We didn't need superhuman Russians or be-mohawked baddies. All we needed was the same underdog and the same spirit of determination that we were introduced to in 1976.

Check out the trailer here.

Labels: theater