Stallone in his final (hopefully) Rocky movie. Ah geez. Would you really want to see a 60 year old Stallone belting it out in the hopes of recovering his former glory? Methinks he should retire and get some decent film acting under his belt. Take a note from Clint Eastwood.
[H2]Stallone seeks to regain glory[/H2] [H4]Screen slugger isn't the only one with something to prove in the latest Rocky[/H4]
[DIV class=para12 id=article] ROCKY BALBOA
Starring: Sylvester Stallone, Burt Young, Antonio Tarver
Directed and written by:
Sylvester Stallone
Running time: 102 minutes
G (violence)
Rating 3
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Thirty years ago, a little boxing movie called Rocky told the story of a Philadelphia club fighter who gets a match with the heavyweight champion and scores an unlikely draw. It starred (and was written by) a young actor named Sylvester Stallone, who himself was an unlikely story: an unknown who was part of the year's most unexpected knockout, an Oscar for best movie.
Now, five sequels later, comes Rocky Balboa, aka Rocky VI, a movie that comes after a roller-coaster ride of ups and downs -- including fights with Mr. T, Hulk Hogan, a giant Russian boxer played by Dolph Lundgren and many more -- but feels, finally, like a valedictory. This is the story of Rocky in his 50s, looking for his last chance to recapture something. It's much like Stallone, who at 60 is still an unlikely story and still climbing back into the ring for one more shot at glory.
"The world of boxing is open for a warrior who thrills us with his passion," says an announcer at the beginning of Rocky Balboa, bemoaning the sad state of the fight game -- and, in the movie's tale-within-a-tale, the chief excuse for another reprise of what has become known as the Rocky story. The current champion is one Mason (The Line) Dixon (Stallone always had a genius for names, starting with Apollo Creed, with its air of elevated self-congratulation), played by professional boxer Antonio Tarver, a man with no discernible personality except a vague arrogance.
Rocky, meanwhile, has retired to run a restaurant where he gladhands customers and tells old war stories. His wife, Adrian, has died and life feels empty. He's estranged from his son Rocky Jr. (Milo Ventimiglia), who labours under the giant shadow of his dad. In many outward ways, Rocky is much the same guy, with the same porkpie hat, the same shuffling manner, the same sly sense of himself. "His father was from Jamaica," someone says of a neighbourhood boy. "Jamaica," Rocky replies. "Europe." But over the years and sequels, Stallone has become a cannier screen presence, and this Rocky feels more artificial in his innocence: he somehow seems less punch-drunk than he was in 1976.
Rocky Balboa, which was written and directed by Stallone, revisits many of the old haunts of the first movie -- Adrian's pet shop, the meat plant where Paulie (Burt Young) still works -- as if to say goodbye before the character's latest bizarre bout. Because one of those modern, computer-generated boxing matches has predicted that Rocky would have defeated Mason Dixon if they had met in their primes, the champ's managers offer Rocky the chance to have one last fight: an exhibition 10-rounder with the heavyweight champion of the world.
"Don't you think you're too, like, old?" asks Rocky Jr., echoing the thoughts of millions, and Rocky Balboa does have that problem. Even in its evocation of George Foreman, it seems like a ridiculous premise, and the film never persuades us of Rocky's motivations: that he still has a fire burning within him. It has something to do with losing his wife, something to do with his distant son, something to do with his painfully articulated philosophy that "it's not about how hard you're hit. It's about how hard you can get hit and keep movin' forward."
[DIV class=titleimage][img id=storyphoto height=210 alt="Sylvester Stallone is making a statement just as much as the character he created." src="http://a123.g.akamai.net/f/123/12465/1d/media.canada.com/idl/vasn/20061220/171040-59430.jpg?size=l" width=210 border=0]
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