Rocky Balboa (2006)

dir. Sylvester Stallone
Viewed on 2007-03-24
Rating: 6

Predictable? Yes. Formulaic? Yes. Unnecessary? Yes. But enough about Godfather III (wah wah). Okay, yes, Rocky Balboa is all those things, too, except I was actually surprised at not hating it. In fact, much of the movie is downbeat, which caught me a little off guard, and gave the film a little more of an edge than you'd expect from a Sly Stone movie, albeit at the cost of a rather slow pace.

Basically, Rocky and his family and friends are all continually sliding down into an urban malaise. Adrian is three years dead and Rocky is still in mourning, living in the past. Meanwhile his son is a corporate tool, estranged from Rocky, yet unable to escape his shadow. Then a televised computer simulation predicts that Rocky in his prime could have defeated the current heavyweight champ, Mason "The Line" Dixon. This does not please Dixon, who isn't a bad guy, but he's tired of getting booed for winning his fights too easily. Somehow Dixon and his handlers contrive to set up an exhibition fight between Dixon and Rocky. That would seem implausible, but a cynical sports fan (i.e. me) is rarely surprised at the lengths people will go to make money in sports. The rest of the story plays out as you'd expect: all the conflicts get resolved; there's a fight, it ends satisfactorily; everyone is uplifted. So... not essential viewing, but give me a mediocre movie any day over about 80% of what's on TV (not counting movies, mediocre and otherwise).