Starring - Sylvester Stallone, Burt Young, Tony Burton & Antonio Tarver.
Running Time - 102 minutes
Rated - 12A
I’ll be honest with you; I only saw the first Rocky s late as recently as a couple of months ago. This following on from me only seeing Rocky IV at Christmas, so my passion for the Rocky isn’t as intense as others.
The passing of Rocky’s wife Adrian has left him a widower who lives more in the past than the now which strains the few relationships that he has, namely his son Robert Jr and his nutty brother-in-law Paulie (Young). However when a computer simulation on a sports show pits an in-his-prime Rocky vs. the current undefeated champion Mason Dixon (Tarver), Rocky becomes focused on a return to the ring to let loose the 'beast' one final time.
Looking at the main part of the film which was the battle sequence, this is probably the most disappointing part. What made the first four movies so great were Rocky's battles with Apollo Creed, Clubber Lang and Ivan Drago. Here the "villain" Mason Dixon is not developed enough as a character to really like or dislike; instead, I really didn’t care. This however was a slight blip in what all round was an error free movie. The non-cliché ending was a nice touch though, something which was also unexpected.
Stallone also still looks in great shape for a guy who’s nearing his 96th birthday. Even during the training scenes you just had to sit back and admire this dinosaur of a man pushing himself.
The film is of a pleasant length and the script and the direction of the movie are carried out with real class. What is hard is that you have to remind yourself you’re watching a Stallone movie as it really is very well done. The storyline is plausible and not laughable which I was concerned it would be.
This had the potential to be a disaster and confine Stallone to a cave where he could live with his ogre-like mother. Instead he had pulled out a real cracker and managed to give the Rocky Balboa the send off he so rightly deserves.
Best Bit: When Rocky starts his training and the music starts up as he begins “building some hurting bombs”!
Rating: 4 out of 5, a true surprise and Stallone truly excels in the role he was born to play.
