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(More customer reviews)If you liked the original "Rocky", you will really like this movie, as it is more about the character Rocky, his feelings, his life, and his future. Rocky 3, 4, and 5 are missing the vital heart and soul we loved in Rocky 1 and 2 so much - we fell in love with the Rocky character, his humanness, his gentleness (despite his hulking size and profession), his love of Adrian, Mick, and Paulie. In "Rocky Balboa", Sylvester Stallone has captured the essence of Rocky once again. The film will move you as it did me. I laughed out loud, I was inspired, I cheered, and I cried.
Rocky V was supposed to the last Rocky film, but the film was disappointing in that it had no real conclusion of the character of Rocky. Stallone was disappointed with it, and for years pestered the studios to allow him one more installment. With "Rocky Balboa, Stallone once again causes us to fall in love with Rocky, and he ends the film with a just and satisfying conclusion. I guarantee you will like this film if you liked the original "Rocky."
This final installment of the Rocky series, "Rocky Balboa", has much of the flavor of the original Rocky (1976) release. The emphasis is not on the fight, rather, it is on the character of Rocky, and how he is struggling to maintain himself after the unexpected and premature death of his beloved Adrian. Adrian has died and Rocky's life stopped when she died. He is stuck in the past, with no clear vision of his future without her at his side. Each morning, Rocky begins his day by sitting beside Adrian's grave in a wooden chair he stores in the crook of a nearby tree. He brings her fresh flowers and contemplates their past love together. He has a restaurant, called "Adrian's", where Rocky entertains his guests with stories of his past boxing glories. It so happens it is the 5-year anniversary of Adrian's death, and Rocky, as he has done each of the previous 5 years, goes back to the old neighborhood to relive his fond loving memories of Adrian, like the pet store, the skating rink, their apartment, and Mick's boxing gym. Rocky misses Adrian so much he cannot get over her. She is like a ghost who dominates his every waking moment.
Like the original "Rocky", this film devotes enjoyable time in developing the character of Rocky and his interactions with old and new characters. Th "old" characters are Paulie (Adrian's brother), Rocky's son (now a fledgling businessman, struggling to carve out a life outside his famous father's shadow), Spider Rico (a former opponent, and now Rocky's friend and confidant), and "Little Marie", (now a grown woman who works at the neighborhood bar) who Rocky walked home from a street corner in the original film (Marie was perhaps 12 years old then - she is pushing 40 years old in this film).
The new characters are Step, Marie's son, whom Rocky befriends like a father figure, and Mason "The Line" Dixon, the current heavyweight champion, who is stuck in his own life rut. Like art imitating real life, the heavyweight division is in the dumps with no real contenders for Dixon to fight. Dixon is booed by fans despite him easily winning his matches against all the pretender "contenders". The fans are in a state of unrest, because there is no boxer on the scene with the credentials to give Mason Dixon a real fight. And so, Dixon has doubts about himself. Is he really a champion when he has no viable competition? Does he have a fighter's heart? Can he go the distance with a real challenger? Can he get up and fight if he gets knocked down? It appears that Dixon will never find the answers to his questions until a computer fight with Rocky Balboa is generated. Much like the real-life computer fight between Rocky Marchiano and Muhummad Ali, the Dixon-Balboa fight ends with Rocky KO'ing the current champion. Dixon's manger and handlers use the computer fight to generate interest in a real fight with Rocky Balboa. Dixon needs the positive publicity the fight will bring him, and he needs to settle the issue of how he would do against a real champion like Balboa. At first, Dixon is incredulous that someone as old as Rocky could even step in the ring with him, as Rocky is in has mid to late fifties. The match is set as an exhibition, and Dixon tells Rocky he will carry him and not embarass him. Little does Dixon know, Rocky still feels he has something to prove, and he takes the fight seriously, giving Dixon the war he needs to prove his mettle.
Rocky accepts the challenge to fight despite the disapproval of his son and Paulie. They fear for the very life of Rocky. But Rocky eventually convinces them that he has to fight because he cannot go into eternity with a whisper. The Rock believes a man is always a man, and has the soul of a fighting man even when he ages. The fight for Rocky is a metaphor for the value of one's life at any age, and is also his personal battle to move forward in his own life. He was knocked down when Adrian died, and now this fight shows that he can pick himself off the mat and move forward once again.
The fight itself is anti-climactic to the character development of Rocky and where he goes after the fight. Thus, the fight with Mason Dixon has less drama than the previous Rocky opponents (such as Appolo, Drago, Clubber Lang, etc). Rocky always fought villianous characters in the previous films, but not in this one. (In fact, Clubber Lang and Ivan Drago from Rocky 3 and 4 were more comic book characters than real people). In "Rocky Balboa", Mason Dixon is not a villan. He is a real human being with human issues of his own to settle. Without revealing the ending, suffice to say that both fighters give it their all in the ring, and both achieve what they set out to do.
It is noteworthy to mention that Rocky does not even wait in the ring for the final decision, for he has exorcised his personal issues and settled them. In the final scene of the movie, Rocky revists Adrian's grave. The perceptive movie watcher will note that the chair is gone from the crook of the tree, indicating that Rocky has moved on with his life. Adrian will still be his beloved, but he can move on and not be stuck in the past. The Little Marie character, now a grown woman with a nearly grown son, helps Rocky realize he has more to live for than past memories. Their budding relationship gives the viewer assurance that new love can again blossom for Rocky, and fill the void he felt for Adrian.
For me "Rocky Balboa" is a very pleasing and satsifying, and I give it 4 of 5 stars. I dock it a star because I think it could have been a bit longer. The film only runs 1 hour and 42 minutes, relatively short by today's film standards. I would like to see further development of Rocky's trainer and their relationship, (the younger viewers will not know who the trainer is, or where he comes from. He is Apollo Creed's former trainer, and the man who helped Rocky train for Ivan Drago). I fondly recall Rocky and Mick's relationship in the first three Rocky movies, and I wish there was more dialogue between these two men to reveal their feelings for each other. Afterall, would a trainer seriously accept the task of preparing a 50-something old Rocky to fight the heavyweight champion? This premise could have been developed more. I also would have liked to see more development on Rocky's training. The training period is too brief in this film, and was always an emotional inspiration in previous films. It is hard to imagine a man in his fifties stepping into the ring with the champ. Rocky is incredibly ripped in his musculature, but I would have liked to see the same sequence that was done in the first film, showing how out of shape Rocky was, and what he had to go through to get into shape. This in my estimation is the most serious flaw in the film.
If you can accept the preposition of a man in his mid to late 50's fighting the current heavyweight boxing champion (a la George Foreman winning the title at age 45 and fighting until he was nearly fifty years old), then you will love this film. This to me is the only stumbling block in the film. If one can accept the age issue, and finds it credible that Rocky can really put up a fight, then the film works. If you can't accept that preposition, the film can still be enjoyed for the development of the Rocky character, and the hope he has in his future with his son, and Marie as a potential future love interest.
"Rocky Balboa" provides a fitting ending to the Rocky saga. It is a must-see for all the Rocky fans who have lived the saga for the past 30 years. Personally, and perhaps like many others, I have been deeply affected by Rocky in my life, as I can empathize with his struggles in life, and his struggle to make his life count for something - not content to be "just another bum from the neighborhood". "Rocky Balboa" shows with grace and dignity that all of us have these same issues, and the movie fittingly ends with Rocky's issues satisfactorily resolved. It was a great ride. Thank you Sylvester Stallone for revealing to us the person of Rocky. I like the guy, in fact I love him. My life is richer for it.
Jim "Konedog" Koenig.
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When he loses a highly publicized virtual boxing match to ex-champ Rocky Balboa (Sylvester Stallone), reigning heavyweight titleholder Mason Dixon (Antonio Tarver) retaliates by challenging the Italian Stallion to a nationally televised, 10-round exhibition bout. To the surprise of his son (Milo Ventimiglia, TV's Heroes) and friends, Rocky agrees to come out of retirement and face an opponent who's faster, stronger and thirty years his junior. With the odds stacked firmly against him, Rocky takes on Dixon in what will become the greatest fight in boxing history, a hard-hitting, action-packed battle of the ages!
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