Movie Review: Rocky Balboa (2006)
Critical Critic: General Disdain | Published on: December 31, 2006 |
Filed under: Sporting, Drama
Directed By: Sylvester Stallone
MPAA Rating: PG
Starring: Sylvester Stallone, Burt Young, Antonio Tarver, Geraldine Hughes
IMDB Link: Rocky Balboa
Movie Trailer:
I can hear it now, the all encompassing theme to Rocky - Gonna Fly Now. Whenever, I hear that music I get goose-pimples all over my ass. And after five installments of the Rocky franchise, that’s about all that gets me excited about the movies anymore. Needless to say, most of the sequels have been a bit of a letdown. Can Rocky Balboa break the streak of Stallone shit?
In a word - no. This time around our hero, now old and out of shape is trying to come to grasp with being old, out of shape and alone. That’s right, Rocky is old and showing it. And that cut physique he used to have during Stallone’s steriod phase is largely missing. But most troubling of all is the absence of Talia Shire, who as everyone knows, played Adrian. Apparently she’s been written off as dead as even she realized no good could come out of a sixth installment.
However, it’s not that Rocky Balboa doesn’t try to bring back the butterflys that its’ predecessors drew from our stomachs. Stallone brought back as many characters as he could - Spider Rico (he fought him inthe first Rocky), an older Marie (she was the kid in Rocky who called him a creep) and of course Paulie, played by Burt Young. Stallone also drops in photo montages of Adrian and Mickey and brings us to all the old haunts - his old apartment, the ice rink he and Adrian had thier first date, the pet shop, etc. And although I searched for ways to get sentimental, I couldn’t.
My biggest gripe though, is the obvious commercialism of the movie. There are at least 100 painfully obvious product placements throughout Rocky Balboa. HBO, Mandalay Bay, Golden Palace, ESPN, among a host of others are constantly paraded in our face. And for what? It doesn’t add any more realism to the movie. It just makes me realize how far the Rocky franchise has fallen.
Only the true, die hard fans of Rocky should care about seeing this movie. It pains me in the gut to say that Rocky Balboa should be skipped altogether by the rest of the movie going public. All the splendor that was Rocky is lost - and I hope to God - Stallone let’s Rocky rest in peace, here on out.
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About: General Disdain I love long walks on the beach, candlelit dinners and I'm a sucker for women named Helga. What can I say -- I live for the finer things in life! |
schwinn airdyne posted a response on: June 18, 2008 | Reply
Yes, I agree with you about Adrian. Yo, Adrian! Talia Shire missing from Rocky Balboa created a whole that this latest release of the Rocky series could not dig their way out of. Rocky Balboa was a little painful to watch.