Rocky Balboa

Some films are so memorable, they become more than mere films. They become part of the fabric of American culture and, in a way, help shape the identity of popular culture. The 1976 cinema masterpiece ROCKY remains one of the greatest achievements in film history when the unknown writer and bit part actor, Sylvester Stallone became a worldwide star after the film connected with the American public and struck a nerve with moviegoers.

After the success of ROCKY, Stallone starred in several excellent films that did disappointing box office: FIST, NIGHTHAWKS, and VICTORY. They were excellent films, they just did not do well. So, it was a desperation choice to film ROCKY II and that was a mega hit. 1981 saw a hit with FIRST BLOOD and then the success of ROCKY III and RAMBO: FIRST BLOOD PART TWO catapulted Stallone back to the A list, until a series of duds derailed his career.

There was a great deal of scoffing when Sylvester Stallone announced he wanted to make a new ROCKY film. Stallone had bounced the idea around Hollywood for a while and even wrote a very low budget script. Unfortunately, no one in Hollywood was interested as Stallone's last five or so movies bombed miserably and his career was long over. Stallone was a mega star from 1976 to about 1990 and beyond that, his career has been painful to watch with the only hit being CLIFFHANGER. JUDGE DREDD, DAYLIGHT, the remake of GET CARTER were all duds.

Stallone ended up heading to the small screen where it was thought his fame would help jump start the reality TV series THE CONTENDER. Unfortunately, THE CONTENDER was a dud in the ratings. However, it did put enough heat on Stallone so that someone decided to launch the one two punch of a new ROCKY film and a new RAMBO film. (The latter is currently in production)

Now, just because they can make a sequel and make it cheap does not mean that it is going to be any good. What makes a film good is writing, acting and directing. ROCKY BALBOA is great in all regards and is a surprise sleeper that is an excellent film and a great ending to the ROCKY legacy.

The first film was a classic. The fifth film was quite good. The second film was a retread. The third film was an entertaining comic book. The fourth film was a decidedly UNENTERTAINING comic book. With the sixth film, Stallone delivers an excellent drama that shows a lonely Rocky trying to have one last day in the spotlight. He wants to box, but not for money or even to win. He does it to close some of the emptiness he feels over his wife's death and his son's estrangement. While this may sound melodramatic, it is. But it is also fine melodrama that is inspiring and has a heart that is sorely missing from many movies today.

What makes the film so special is the effective use of the city of Philadelphia and how its history and ethnic make up is properly represented. Far too often, Hollywood films will shoot in a city such as Philadelphia (or San Francisco or Detroit, etc) and the true city is not visible. What one gets is the backdrop of the city that is apparently disconnected from the characters who are up there on the screen.

In ROCKY BALBOA, the true culture of Philadelphia and how the Italian American experience creates a great deal of the back drop of Philadelphia culture and this creates a very real feeling of drama that would not have been duplicated had the film not had such a interesting connection between its environment and the cultural roots of the characters who appear in the film.

ROCKY BALBOA is not the masterpiece that the original ROCKY was, but it is an excellent achievement. While it was nice to see Stallone play the lead villain role in the huge hit SPY KIDS 3D (which did $70 Million dollars at the box office), but Sly could do a lot better than that and ROCKY BALBOA is a film that is worthy of his talents. Let us all start the count down to RAMBO IV now, shall we?