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This is the 1st time in a while I've titled a review without a joke....why? Because despite the fact that Rocky......SIX (6).... sounds like a bullseye for mockery, there's no joke to found in this solid film.
For 30 years, Rocky has inspired people of all kinds, in all sports, and in all walks of life. Forget the 1 liners, the action, the fights, and all that... Rocky is about love, family, desire, and will. Giving not only your dreams, but your life, everything you've got, "no matter what".
For years, I've personally been inspired by these movies, wanting to go and kill some weights everytime I see one, workign out as a kid with my walkman cranking out Rocky tunes, and anyone who doubts the reach of these films, the characters, the story...... need only to have shown up on opening day to witness the theature long mob-line of people waiting by the theature door to see Rocky Balboa.
I've never felt so much energy in a theature.... people laughed out loud, clapped, cheared, and straight up acted as if the story in front of us, were real.... The feeling was clear, people wanted to see time treat Rocky well. The character who has shown us all "you can do it", for 30 years, was back in front of us, and the crowd wanted to see him rise up out of the ashes, and once again make us beleive....not in Rocky, but in ourselves...
Rocky Balboa, as expected, started off with the traditional scrolling title, but for the 1st time, there was no send of from the previous film, nor Rocky history what-so-ever, so... basically, you better know who Rocky is when you sit your ass down. And let's face it... you do, and they know it.....In choosing to forgo the backtracking, the story injects you directly into present day, wasting no time introducing this rounds Opponent, Mason "The Line" Dixon, and then swiftly re-attaching us to Rocky, who somehow, still feels, acts, talks, and looks, like Rocky...... At the same time, we're re-introduced to Paulie, who hasn't lost a step in all these years. The character is immediatly funny, while somehow making you take him seriously. An ingenious character, ingeniously portrayed...again.
Moving along, the story unfolds, showing us all about what Rocky's been up too, letting us get to know his new friends, family, and re-become familiar with him and Paulie at there new age, and place in life. The story moves along slowly, carefully, yet smoothly and enjoyably, much like Rocky 1 and 2, the whole while, you watch it, and feel the storm comming....let's face it.. you KNOW there's huge payoff comming when the story's over.... this is ROCKY.... I don't care how nice it is now, we're heading full steam into killer music, training, and a huge battle in the ring. In other "action" movies, you may find yourself un-interested in story....character development, and the like, but this is Rocky, and knowing this, makes the story easy to watch and enjoy. Not only that, but it's told with a charm that is unique to these films.
Having said that... the story unfolds nicely.....constantly and effectivly churning out classic Rocky music in nearly every scene.....moving along at a comfortable pace, while not getting to much into detail as to bog it down. The story leaves ALOT of room for further details and story, but clearly passes on it in order to keep the film moving, and it does it effectivly, making you often want more, but not neccesarily feel like you NEED more. In otherwords, I found myself happy with the pace and time spent on everthing, despite sometimes saying, THERE COULDA BEEN MORE ON X...
Adrienne is missing from this film, and I honestly don't know why, I wish I did, but she's missing... yet the "Love Story" that Rocky truly is..... remains in tact as her character is honored throughout the film, from start to finish... literally... with her absence, a new female takes center, amazingly, it's the trash talking little girl from Rocky 1!!! In today's movie-land, they'd hook up in 20 min and put on horrible sex scenes...at least 1, by the end of the 1st hour.... to my surprise, this doesn't happen, Adrienne is never tarnished, and for this, the movie is that much better for it. The new girl is interesting, respectable and does a perfectly fine job filling in as the female lead, but.......Adrienne is missed... though not as badly as was the potential, had the new girl stunk it up....
The story's been told, and the fight has been put together, now it's time to train, then bash eachothers brains in.......this starts with a fantastic gym scene featuring Rocky's trainer, former trainer of Appollo, who turns in a fabulous scene that sends the crowd into a cheers and applause to kick off the surprisingly....REALLY surprisingly....short training scene, which is set to Gonna fly now. I expetced a lot more story to the training, a lot more THIS IS HOW WE DEAL WITH HIM AT YOUR AGE/CONDITION..... as well as alot more of how Dixon would prepare, or slack off..... for Rocky. There was potential for TONS of story here, and it was mysterioulsy passed up.......Rocky 2,3,4 all had TWO training montages, with story inbetween, and throughout, that touched on the fighters emotions, the people around them, and specifically how they were working with Rocky, to come up with a plan to win.....instead, we got a very short, rather generic Rocky training montage, (though still a great one) that to its credit, did show training methods meant to develope there goals for Rocky (Strength/Power). It was fun, sounded good, looked good, and passed quickly, I wish there were more... a lot more.....but what was there, was solid, and slam dunked us directly into the fight, a fight put together so mediculously, so authentically, it felt like we were watching an HBO PPV.
Watching the fight unfold was odd, everything was there... from the obnoxios HBO commentators to Michael Buffer.. I was wondering where to press the PURCHASE THIS PPV NOW button.... there were no over the top sound effects etc.... when they punched eachother, it sounded like....this is weird....boxers punching eachother.....Kudos to the more real sound effects, but, I was more than willing to here WHAM!!! when they got hit... either way.... The fight unfolds for a round or 2, then, in traditional rocky fashion, smoothly turnings into a musical montage of rounds melting away, again, classic Rocky music is chosen, a brilliant decision that had the crowd cheering yet again....
as the rounds tick away, the presentation takes a bizzare and drastic turn from the very-real presentation, to a blitz of special effects that come damn close to ruining the fight completely.... Some of it's cool, but most of it is unexplainable overkill... the camera work is way to tight to follow the action, and the effects are very distracting to a point that you find yourself thinking about the effects rather than the action unfolding infront of you..... All in all, the fight is perhaps the worst in the Rocky series, while being strong enough to hold up without sinking the film, and let's face it, it's a Rocky movie.... a bad fight scene, means a bad movie, I don't care how good the rest of the film was. This has yet to happen in a Rocky movie, and it doesn't happen here, but....they damn near risked sinking the film with there overkill on the edit button.......however, much like the training, the fight comes and goes quickly, has a few very powerfull moments, and wraps up a very enjoyable film, with a rather predicable, but enjoyable ending.
Despite massive success, Stalone, much like his onscreen character.....and ironically....his on-screen character (meaning.... in the movies, people give Rocky a hard time, and in real life, the character is often given a hard time) is someone who often seams to end up the butt of jokes.......After watching Rocky 6 unfold, feeling the emotion in the crowd.... (from today's emotionless YOUNG people!), I can tell you, Thos movie is no joke, the characters are no joke, and it's writer, creator, and of course, actor... is no joke. Very early on it was apparent that this movie was not gonna pull over our eyes, milk the franchise, take our money, and laugh to the bank......The characters were back, the story was back, the music was back, and we were all in for a treat.....a long needed, proper send-off, to a great series....1 more theature experience, with The Italian Stalion, "Rocky Balboa".
Thanks for reading,
-Gregg Cerenzio
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