Post by Johnny Danger (Godz) on Dec 24, 2006 11:03:06 GMT -5
I didn't wanna post this in the regular thread because its going to be filled with spoilers, and that one seemed to be spoiler free. If a mod disagrees with that decision, feel free to move my post there and delete this thread....but watch your back. ;D
So, I've always been a lifelong Rocky fan. I LOVE the series (Except for V but that goes without sayin) I cried when Apollo and Mickey died
I've got a Rocky poster nailed up on my wall above a cardboard standee of Rocky. I played both the lackluster X-Box Rocky games quite a bit. So I know a little somethin' bout the series.
Anybody who says this movie sucks is psychotic. It's FAR more emotion/dialog driven than any Rocky film before it, which is fine be me, as we already had 4 movies that were "all about the fight", the last one needed to be all about Rocky. And it was.
Rocky's back in his run down old dwelling. The first 20 minutes or so are TERRIBLY depressing and emotional (But in a good way) as Rocky is struggling with the ghosts of Adrian's death. He sees her everywhere he goes, he visits her grave often, and even tortures himself (And Paulie, who is his own roller coaster of emotions in this film, going from hilariously mean to horribly depressing) by going on a "tour" of all the places he and Adrian went when they were first dating. Rocky's even opened a restaraunt, named "Adrian's", where we get one of the movie's surprises; a down and out Spider Rico, Rocky's opponent from the opening scene in the first film, is a regular, as Rocky has taken him in and takes care of him there.
Rocky's depression persists until he wanders into the old bar he used to hang out in, and runs into another character from his past, Marie, the girl he told nearly 30 years ago to get off the streets, stop smoking and stop talking like a whore. Now she's all grown up and has a son (Who's half black, leading to the hilarious dialog after Marie tells Rocky his father was Jamaican "Jamaican, huh, Europeon.....you meet on a crusie ship?" "Not exactly".) But they're basically penniless, living in a crappy run down shanty. So Rocky pities them, and perhaps because his family is either dead or seemingly perpetually pissed off at him and too busy for him (His son, who was rather unlikeable to me, all he's concerned about is trying to get out of his father's shadow and being embarassed by him), he offers them free food at his restaraunt, and eventually employs Marie as the hostess.
Meanwhile, the boxing world has turned on world champ Mason Dixon due to him fighting nothing but bums and KOing them all far too fast, the crowds feel cheated, PPV buys are down, etc. An ESPN fantasy fight simulated by a computer has Rocky beating Dixon if the fight actually happened.
Rocky, meanwhile, having a "beast" inside him that he needs to get out, due to his pent up rage and sadness, gets himself re-liscensed as a fighter (After a GREAT monologue directed at the liscensing panel after they turn him down at first) hoping to fight in some small time local bouts once in a while. Dixon's camp gets word of this, and against Mason's wishes, sets up a fight against Balboa. Their logic is that Dixon will have him TOTALLY outmatched and can carry Rocky to an entertaining fight before putting them away. Mason eventually relents, and at the weigh in he tells Rocky he'll take care of him, but if Rocky fights back he'll put him out.
Meanwhile Rocky has been somewhat of a surrogate father to Marie's son, "Steps" (Short for Stephenson) even though the kid seems to resent him. This changes when Rocky brings him along to pick out a new dog for himself, and asks Steps to name it. He says "Punchy", as a knock on Rocky's slowness and brain damage, but Rocky just laughs it off and says thats a good name, and earns the kid's respect.
Meanwhile, Paulie loses his job at the meat factory after god knows how many years and goes on an alcohol fueled tirade before agreeing to join Rocky in his training one last time, along with Rocky's son, and Apollo's former trainer Duke.
The fight is to take place in Las Vegas, and Rocky brings the entire crew with him. In a slightly confusing scene, Marie presents him with a picture of Adrian, figuring it might bring him luck, and then kisses him. This was a bit odd to me, as Rocky had previously told her he was not over Adrian and she told him she wasn't interested in him like that anyway. Just seems a bit odd to give a guy a picture of his dead wife, then kiss him on the lips while he's holding it. Oh well. Minor gripe.
The fight itself is nothing short of EPIC. (And we get a cameo appearence from Mike Tyson, jawing at Mason from ringside. My thoughts on this later) The first round is ALL Mason, with Rocky stumbling around like an old fool, lunging with huge, telegraphed haymakers that have no chance of landing, and being a human punching bag. But then he's able to shed the "ring rust" and we've got a barnburner on our hands. You can't help but be on the edge of your seat for the entire fight, and towards the end, you're praying not for Rocky to win, but to just LIVE.
It ends in unique fashion, as both men stand toe to toe just unloading on each other as fast as they can and showing no pain, as the bell finally rings in round 10, and the young punk who had no respect for the old lion, and the former champ who has been ridiculed by all embrace in the middle of the ring.
Rocky and company leave the ring, not even caring about the outcome, as Rocky proved everyone wrong by not just going the distance, but by doing it competitively. The judges have it scored 95-94 Mason, 95-94 Rocky, and 95-94 Dixon, giving Mason the decision (Bull****, IMO) and Rocky announces the "beast" has left him. He is finally at peace as he leaves some roses on Adrian's grave and we fade out.
Now, some critical remarks/rhetorical questions:
First, let me touch on the Tyson scene. It's very short and doesn't really factor into the movie at all, but, here's my thoughts. When I first saw it, I marked and thought it was funny. But now, I'm wondering perhaps why it wasn't Clubber Lang instead of Tyson. It would've fit a lot better, and you cant tell me Mr. T was asking too much money to appear. My problem with Tyson being in the movie is...if they exist in the same universe, Tyson would've been making his name while Balboa was still boxing, although his career would've been winding down....why were they never matched against each other? This would've been the ultimate dream match. Putting Tyson into this world brings that question to the table.
As I said earlier, I wasn't wild about the kiss from Marie, and you think Rocky would've known better than to try and 'father' someone else's kid after the Tommy Gunn fiasco (Although this time it did turn out good)
The musical score was great, but I was sad to see the only classic song to survive was the Rocky theme, no Eye of the Tiger, none of the cheesy inspirational lyric filled training songs....oh well.
It was neat to see guys like Spider and Duke again, I wish they could've worked Clubber or Drago in somehow. That's always been my main gripe with the Rocky films, you've had all these awesome, larger than life challengers (Mason being the least interesting and developed of all of them, my other complaint with the film) and except for Apollo, after Rocky has beaten them they dissapear forever.
NO THUNDERLIPS!? BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
To anyone who says Rocky shouldnt be able to convincingly box in his 60's...Stallone may be 60, the movie states Rocky is "In his 50's". That could range from 50-59, and he's a damn good looking 50 something. He's in better shape than most of us are at 25. I never had any problem believing what the movie showed us.
All in all, in this day and age where a movie must have nonsensical titles and stuffy actors to win awards, this wont be a contender for "Best Picture", but its amongst my favorite movies of 2006 and is a worthy end to the franchise. Totally redeems Rocky V.
So, I've always been a lifelong Rocky fan. I LOVE the series (Except for V but that goes without sayin) I cried when Apollo and Mickey died
I've got a Rocky poster nailed up on my wall above a cardboard standee of Rocky. I played both the lackluster X-Box Rocky games quite a bit. So I know a little somethin' bout the series.Anybody who says this movie sucks is psychotic. It's FAR more emotion/dialog driven than any Rocky film before it, which is fine be me, as we already had 4 movies that were "all about the fight", the last one needed to be all about Rocky. And it was.
Rocky's back in his run down old dwelling. The first 20 minutes or so are TERRIBLY depressing and emotional (But in a good way) as Rocky is struggling with the ghosts of Adrian's death. He sees her everywhere he goes, he visits her grave often, and even tortures himself (And Paulie, who is his own roller coaster of emotions in this film, going from hilariously mean to horribly depressing) by going on a "tour" of all the places he and Adrian went when they were first dating. Rocky's even opened a restaraunt, named "Adrian's", where we get one of the movie's surprises; a down and out Spider Rico, Rocky's opponent from the opening scene in the first film, is a regular, as Rocky has taken him in and takes care of him there.
Rocky's depression persists until he wanders into the old bar he used to hang out in, and runs into another character from his past, Marie, the girl he told nearly 30 years ago to get off the streets, stop smoking and stop talking like a whore. Now she's all grown up and has a son (Who's half black, leading to the hilarious dialog after Marie tells Rocky his father was Jamaican "Jamaican, huh, Europeon.....you meet on a crusie ship?" "Not exactly".) But they're basically penniless, living in a crappy run down shanty. So Rocky pities them, and perhaps because his family is either dead or seemingly perpetually pissed off at him and too busy for him (His son, who was rather unlikeable to me, all he's concerned about is trying to get out of his father's shadow and being embarassed by him), he offers them free food at his restaraunt, and eventually employs Marie as the hostess.
Meanwhile, the boxing world has turned on world champ Mason Dixon due to him fighting nothing but bums and KOing them all far too fast, the crowds feel cheated, PPV buys are down, etc. An ESPN fantasy fight simulated by a computer has Rocky beating Dixon if the fight actually happened.
Rocky, meanwhile, having a "beast" inside him that he needs to get out, due to his pent up rage and sadness, gets himself re-liscensed as a fighter (After a GREAT monologue directed at the liscensing panel after they turn him down at first) hoping to fight in some small time local bouts once in a while. Dixon's camp gets word of this, and against Mason's wishes, sets up a fight against Balboa. Their logic is that Dixon will have him TOTALLY outmatched and can carry Rocky to an entertaining fight before putting them away. Mason eventually relents, and at the weigh in he tells Rocky he'll take care of him, but if Rocky fights back he'll put him out.
Meanwhile Rocky has been somewhat of a surrogate father to Marie's son, "Steps" (Short for Stephenson) even though the kid seems to resent him. This changes when Rocky brings him along to pick out a new dog for himself, and asks Steps to name it. He says "Punchy", as a knock on Rocky's slowness and brain damage, but Rocky just laughs it off and says thats a good name, and earns the kid's respect.
Meanwhile, Paulie loses his job at the meat factory after god knows how many years and goes on an alcohol fueled tirade before agreeing to join Rocky in his training one last time, along with Rocky's son, and Apollo's former trainer Duke.
The fight is to take place in Las Vegas, and Rocky brings the entire crew with him. In a slightly confusing scene, Marie presents him with a picture of Adrian, figuring it might bring him luck, and then kisses him. This was a bit odd to me, as Rocky had previously told her he was not over Adrian and she told him she wasn't interested in him like that anyway. Just seems a bit odd to give a guy a picture of his dead wife, then kiss him on the lips while he's holding it. Oh well. Minor gripe.
The fight itself is nothing short of EPIC. (And we get a cameo appearence from Mike Tyson, jawing at Mason from ringside. My thoughts on this later) The first round is ALL Mason, with Rocky stumbling around like an old fool, lunging with huge, telegraphed haymakers that have no chance of landing, and being a human punching bag. But then he's able to shed the "ring rust" and we've got a barnburner on our hands. You can't help but be on the edge of your seat for the entire fight, and towards the end, you're praying not for Rocky to win, but to just LIVE.
It ends in unique fashion, as both men stand toe to toe just unloading on each other as fast as they can and showing no pain, as the bell finally rings in round 10, and the young punk who had no respect for the old lion, and the former champ who has been ridiculed by all embrace in the middle of the ring.
Rocky and company leave the ring, not even caring about the outcome, as Rocky proved everyone wrong by not just going the distance, but by doing it competitively. The judges have it scored 95-94 Mason, 95-94 Rocky, and 95-94 Dixon, giving Mason the decision (Bull****, IMO) and Rocky announces the "beast" has left him. He is finally at peace as he leaves some roses on Adrian's grave and we fade out.
Now, some critical remarks/rhetorical questions:
First, let me touch on the Tyson scene. It's very short and doesn't really factor into the movie at all, but, here's my thoughts. When I first saw it, I marked and thought it was funny. But now, I'm wondering perhaps why it wasn't Clubber Lang instead of Tyson. It would've fit a lot better, and you cant tell me Mr. T was asking too much money to appear. My problem with Tyson being in the movie is...if they exist in the same universe, Tyson would've been making his name while Balboa was still boxing, although his career would've been winding down....why were they never matched against each other? This would've been the ultimate dream match. Putting Tyson into this world brings that question to the table.
As I said earlier, I wasn't wild about the kiss from Marie, and you think Rocky would've known better than to try and 'father' someone else's kid after the Tommy Gunn fiasco (Although this time it did turn out good)
The musical score was great, but I was sad to see the only classic song to survive was the Rocky theme, no Eye of the Tiger, none of the cheesy inspirational lyric filled training songs....oh well.
It was neat to see guys like Spider and Duke again, I wish they could've worked Clubber or Drago in somehow. That's always been my main gripe with the Rocky films, you've had all these awesome, larger than life challengers (Mason being the least interesting and developed of all of them, my other complaint with the film) and except for Apollo, after Rocky has beaten them they dissapear forever.
NO THUNDERLIPS!? BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
To anyone who says Rocky shouldnt be able to convincingly box in his 60's...Stallone may be 60, the movie states Rocky is "In his 50's". That could range from 50-59, and he's a damn good looking 50 something. He's in better shape than most of us are at 25. I never had any problem believing what the movie showed us.
All in all, in this day and age where a movie must have nonsensical titles and stuffy actors to win awards, this wont be a contender for "Best Picture", but its amongst my favorite movies of 2006 and is a worthy end to the franchise. Totally redeems Rocky V.
helped $lim jinx NXT. Woops
