Rocky Balboa ...

it'll certainly get my $8. Can't see a reason to pass it up. Plus, I take the approach that Rocky V never existed.

 

Outing alert: Riddick is Bill Simmons.

 

On that basis, half the board is Bill Simmons.

 

Time says YOU are Bill Simmons.

 

It's actually a pretty good script based on a very believable, simple premise:

Courage.

Namely, the courage to say your best years are behind you and to have the stones to walk away from your career once and for all. And in a vocation such as boxing, it's particularly resonant.

Borrowing from videogames and arguably from the old ABC Cosell-Ali reviews of the greatest boxers of all time, which concluded with Ali's take on how he would've fared against them, it's a premise that really hits home.

Will it sink in with the younger videogame crowd? Good question. Will it sink in with people whose professional relevance sinks more and more with each passing year? Mos def.

I'm not a big fan of the ROCKY franchise, but I'll be there to see this one.

 

King Hippo was always the toughest guy to fight. And Stallone looks unbelievably bad right now - way too much plastic surgery for that dude.

 

What about Bald BUll? If timing wasn't exactly right, you were done.

No one of course could match Kid Dynamite himself. Tyson was a nightmare.

Sadly, I never beat him.

 

Rocky was a great motion picture. It deserved the Academy Award.

I saw the second two in the theater. Rocky II was pretty hokey, how they knocked each other down and then Rocky got up before Apollo. Won the title. You couldn't see that coming ... (sarcasm dripping).

The third one had Mr. T, it was OK, I guess. Saw it in the theater too.

By the time Rocky IV came out, I was burned out on the character. Seen bits and pieces on TV. The most memorable line was Ivan Drago's, "I must break you."

(Or was it "will break you." Either way.)

Now ...

Was it the fifth installment, or sixth, that had Tommy Morrison?

The positive reviews have me kinda interested. Anyone who's seen "Cop Land" knows that Stallone, in the right circumstances, is a damn fine actor.

 

Among movie critics, Peter Travers of Rolling Stone is the guy I trust the most... I'm not going to rush out and see it, but I'm sure I'll eventually see it in the theaters...

 

I'll go see Rocky movies until they stop making them as long as Rocky is fighting in the ring and not Tommy "Machine" Gunn.

And I never beat Mr. Sandman.

 

If my 9-year-old son is any indication, then the "video game crowd" will have interest. He wanted to see this, and I suggested we see a few of the earlier Rockys before we hit the theater. Turns out he was sick with the flu all weekend, so he's taken advantage of Comcast On Demand(TM) to see Rocky I, II, III and half of IV. (Sheesh, eventually he had to go to bed.)

To me, what will make or break the new movie is if it has a memorable song. The first Rocky had "Gonna Fly Now," and the third had "Eye of the Tiger," and not coincidentally, they were the best two Rockys of the lot. (OK, I know both songs are kinda cheeseball, and "Eye of the Tiger" inspired every subsequent 80s movie, including Sorority Camp-Out Ripsaw Massacre IV, to have big-drummed we're-gonna-make-it-to-the-top inspirational songs, but nobody can resist POW-chigga chigga chigga-POW POW POW-chigga chigga chigga-POW POW POW-chigga chigga chigga-POW POW POWWWWWWWWW-POW.")

 

Rocky IV
Greatest Movie Soundtrack Ever .... E V E R!