When I heard that Sylvester Stallone was attempting to get a sixth film about the boxer character that made him a star made, I thought Stallone was out of his mind. In a way, it makes sense. Rambo aside, no other character Stallone has portrayed has really brought him the money, even when the respect was waning. Indeed, by the fourth film, Rocky had become such a farce that it obviously put a lot of financiers off the idea of paying for more. The fifth Rocky film was a transparent attempt to close the book on the character, and while it had a good story at its heart, the screenplay was desperately in need of a good polish. In some ways, however, Rocky reflects the man who created him, so a sixth film was almost inevitable. While it would have been all too tempting to go the path of Casino Royale and ignore all the embarrassing sequels, Rocky Balboa instead embraces its checkered past. While the references to previous sequels are subtle, the film does tie itself nicely together with the original, and is all the better for it.
Rocky Balboa, like Rocky, is a very different beast from Rocky part two through five. In the original Rocky, the boxing match was a punctuation mark on a lengthy story about a man who is slowly warming up to the idea that he is more than his actual situation lets him think. The difference is in the details. However, Rocky Balboa takes a pretty preposterous idea and only does half a job of suspending the viewer's disbelief. Set in the modern world, Rocky finds himself stuck in the trap of looking back on his glory days and wishing his life could be like that again. Talia Shire's appearance in the film is literally reduced to flashbacks that depict her the way she was when Adrian and Rocky first met. The surprising thing, like all surprising things in Rocky Balboa, is that it works. The old neighborhood has become an even darker and dirtier place, with poverty rising to such an extent that buildings in minor disrepair at the time of the original Rocky have fallen apart to the extent of looking like a bomb literally hit them.
I have to tip my hat to Milo Ventimiglia. The character he portrays is both very deep and yet thoroughly unlikeable for the first half of the film. He captures the sense of a young man who has lost his place in the world very thoroughly. For where Rocky might have captured the spirit of people living in the mid to late 1970s, Robert Balboa junior is a walking portrait of how the spirit has been sucked out of twenty-somethings after the year 2000. His story arc is a very subtle one, steered along by a very unsubtle man, but it is when Robert learns to fight his being stuck in a rut that the story picks up a few paces. Another great surprise in the film is Geraldine Hughes as Marie, the girl who had called Rocky "creepo" in the original. I must admit, it was jarring at first to see how the contrast between young Marie and middle-aged Marie was toned down, but it works beautifully. It seems the biggest lesson Sylvester learned in the twenty-seven years since Rocky II was that subtlety works.
The device to get the titular former-champion back into the ring might be about as subtle as a nuclear strike on an outhouse, but it does work in its own way. Antonio Tarver's performance as Mason Dixon is as important to the film as Stallone's as Rocky. When we see him fighting a string of fights that fail to satisfy his audience, and wondering what he has to do to get respect, it evokes the situation boxing has been in since the 1990s. However, unlike the real-world boxers of these recent times, Mason is a sympathetic character. He simply wants to be able to look at himself in the mirror. The question is, however quickly, asked in the film's press conference of what he could possibly gain by fighting a man who is at least thirty years his senior. And I have to hand it to Stallone, the match at the end of the film answers the question in a way I never would have thought of. Rocky is there because he wants to have one last fight before he goes off into the good night, but Mason is there because he wants to prove that he can overcome a challenge.
Helping matters is that Antonio is in fact a real boxer, and only the second real boxer to appear in the Rocky series. For where the fights in the other five Rocky films were transparently choreographed, Stallone chose to make what he promises is his final appearance as Rocky as authentic as possible. It works. So help me, I actually felt like getting up and throwing punches whilst watching the climactic match. But the real unsung hero of the series is Burt Young as Rocky's brother-in-law, Paulie. As Stallone points out in the audio commentary, Paulie's life situation reflects his way of living through it. Every insult and harsh word he says to others is reflected right back at him, and he just keeps going through it. Films that decide to rely upon a comedic sidekick could really learn a lot from watching Burt Young's performances throughout the Rocky series. Stallone might be the rock and the brain of the Rocky series, but Young was its heart most of the time. Both Young and Stallone could retire after this film and be proud of themselves.
I gave Rocky Balboa an eight out of ten. Some of its plot threads do not work due to the editing, but this is easily the best Rocky since the first. It is a wonderful way to spend a hundred minutes.
Rocky Balboa, like Rocky, is a very different beast from Rocky part two through five. In the original Rocky, the boxing match was a punctuation mark on a lengthy story about a man who is slowly warming up to the idea that he is more than his actual situation lets him think. The difference is in the details. However, Rocky Balboa takes a pretty preposterous idea and only does half a job of suspending the viewer's disbelief. Set in the modern world, Rocky finds himself stuck in the trap of looking back on his glory days and wishing his life could be like that again. Talia Shire's appearance in the film is literally reduced to flashbacks that depict her the way she was when Adrian and Rocky first met. The surprising thing, like all surprising things in Rocky Balboa, is that it works. The old neighborhood has become an even darker and dirtier place, with poverty rising to such an extent that buildings in minor disrepair at the time of the original Rocky have fallen apart to the extent of looking like a bomb literally hit them.
I have to tip my hat to Milo Ventimiglia. The character he portrays is both very deep and yet thoroughly unlikeable for the first half of the film. He captures the sense of a young man who has lost his place in the world very thoroughly. For where Rocky might have captured the spirit of people living in the mid to late 1970s, Robert Balboa junior is a walking portrait of how the spirit has been sucked out of twenty-somethings after the year 2000. His story arc is a very subtle one, steered along by a very unsubtle man, but it is when Robert learns to fight his being stuck in a rut that the story picks up a few paces. Another great surprise in the film is Geraldine Hughes as Marie, the girl who had called Rocky "creepo" in the original. I must admit, it was jarring at first to see how the contrast between young Marie and middle-aged Marie was toned down, but it works beautifully. It seems the biggest lesson Sylvester learned in the twenty-seven years since Rocky II was that subtlety works.
The device to get the titular former-champion back into the ring might be about as subtle as a nuclear strike on an outhouse, but it does work in its own way. Antonio Tarver's performance as Mason Dixon is as important to the film as Stallone's as Rocky. When we see him fighting a string of fights that fail to satisfy his audience, and wondering what he has to do to get respect, it evokes the situation boxing has been in since the 1990s. However, unlike the real-world boxers of these recent times, Mason is a sympathetic character. He simply wants to be able to look at himself in the mirror. The question is, however quickly, asked in the film's press conference of what he could possibly gain by fighting a man who is at least thirty years his senior. And I have to hand it to Stallone, the match at the end of the film answers the question in a way I never would have thought of. Rocky is there because he wants to have one last fight before he goes off into the good night, but Mason is there because he wants to prove that he can overcome a challenge.
Helping matters is that Antonio is in fact a real boxer, and only the second real boxer to appear in the Rocky series. For where the fights in the other five Rocky films were transparently choreographed, Stallone chose to make what he promises is his final appearance as Rocky as authentic as possible. It works. So help me, I actually felt like getting up and throwing punches whilst watching the climactic match. But the real unsung hero of the series is Burt Young as Rocky's brother-in-law, Paulie. As Stallone points out in the audio commentary, Paulie's life situation reflects his way of living through it. Every insult and harsh word he says to others is reflected right back at him, and he just keeps going through it. Films that decide to rely upon a comedic sidekick could really learn a lot from watching Burt Young's performances throughout the Rocky series. Stallone might be the rock and the brain of the Rocky series, but Young was its heart most of the time. Both Young and Stallone could retire after this film and be proud of themselves.
I gave Rocky Balboa an eight out of ten. Some of its plot threads do not work due to the editing, but this is easily the best Rocky since the first. It is a wonderful way to spend a hundred minutes.