Rocky Balboa (2006): Rocky Balboa comes out of retirement to step into the ring for the last time and face the heavyweight champ Mason ‘The Line’ Dixon.
The Rocky franchise is an important one in the history of cinema, however Rocky V put a bad taste in the mouth of many of Rocky’s fans. So Stallone is back one last time to try to give this story (and maybe his career) a nice ending.
In my opinion he managed to do so. I was a huge Rocky fan as a kid, but I haven’t watched these films for a long time. But even I felt that this was a really nostalgic and ultimately effective goodbye to this character.
We will see many short flashback montages throughout the course of the movie, and they all work. This is mainly because Rocky is reliving those moments while still coping with Adrian’s death. We are first taken to a tour of some of the places where Rocky and Adrian spent their time together. Paulie doesn’t like the tour, he feels bad for treating Adrian bad so he doesn’t want to remember.
Then we see the relationship Rocky has with his son Robert. I felt that Robert doesn’t really hate him, and he’s not even embarrassed by him or wants to avoid him completely. They are still friendly with each other and there is still a connection between them, but Robert is just not willing to take it further. They’ll later solve their problems with the customary big speech that makes Rocky ready to fight.
The introduction of Marie and Steps is almost a nod back at the beginning of Rocky, when he first met Adrian. Not that Marie is taking Adrian’s place, Rocky even says so in the movie. But it’s the same feeling that Rocky is a nurturer, and he seems to have the ability to help people that need him in their life. At times though I had problems really understanding what Rocky wanted from this relationships. Was it really just to help someone, or was it a little bit romantic?
Rocky’s opponent in this film is not a villain. The previous ones were all depicted as evil (Drago, Mr. T, even Apollo was a villain at the beginning). But Dixon is just someone who is frustrated at how people treat him, even though he is the undefeated champion. He has an arc to complete, and he will do that by the end of this story.
Two thirds of the film is all about the drama, the characters and their relationships. And frankly I really liked this part of the movie more than the fight at the end. But this a Rocky movie, and it wouldn’t be one without the big fight. The training montage is a simple one, again a throwaway at the original one.
The fight delivered all the emotions that it was supposed to, but it wasn’t as visceral or gripping as the original 3. Also the fact that they cut to Marie as if she were Adrian bothered me a little bit, but I guess they needed it to convey the emotions. This fight was not bad by any means, but it certainly wasn’t memorable, and I think the point was already made by the first 2/3 of the movie.
If you are a fan of Rocky or at least fondly remember the first movies, you will enjoy this last chapter. This is a nice conclusion to a great franchise.
Rating: 3.5 Stars