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After the huge success of his first feature film, "Rocky" in 1976, Sylvester Stallone could have taken it easy. Rocky, after all, won an Oscar for Best Picture and Stallone became a very, very rich man. But his story of Rocky Balboa, the underdog boxer, wasn't finished. In fact, Stallone would continue Balboa's saga in 5 more feature films over the next 30 years. I have seen all of them, except for the recently released "Rocky Balboa" (in theaters now), but I can firmly say that my favorite movie from the entire Rocky series is 1979's Rocky II. In fact, the release of "Rocky Balboa" prompted me to dust off my old DVD of "Rocky II" and my husband and I watched it last night.

"Rocky II" starts off with a recap of the first l Rocky movie. Rocky's big fight against champion Apollo Creed was deemed a draw-- and Apollo isn't one bit happy about it. But Rocky has retired from boxing after this match, as he was beaten up pretty badly.

Meanwhile Rocky asks girlfriend Adrian to marry him, and then they proceed to spend the 37 thousand dollars he cleared from his fight with Creed. They buy furs, a car (even though Rocky can't drive) and a house in Philly Before long the money is gone, Adrian is pregnant and Rocky is working manual labor jobs. He does try a stint at commercial acting but he's not good at it and ultimately would rather be a meat packer. After Rocky gets laid off from the meat packing job, he goes to the gym and lugs buckets and mops floors for his former trainer, Mickey. He loses most of hi self respect at this point, the sees Apollo Creed on TV demanding a rematch. Creed calls him things like "The Italian Chicken" and Rocky knows what he needs to do-- he needs to get back in the ring and prove that the last fight was not a fluke and that he is worthy of fighting the champ, that he can indeed defeat the champ. He agrees to the rematch, despite breaking his promise to Adrian that he would never fight again. She is devastated by the thought of a rematch and it causes a distance between the two of them.

After some half-hearted attempts at training for the rematch, you can tell that Rocky has lost his drive. He's not focused and he's not training hard. His wife Adrian goes back to her job at a local pet store and, at 8 months pregnant, strains herself from overwork. She goes into early labor and is rushed to the hospital. The baby is born healthy, but Adrian has slipped into a coma from losing so much blood. It's at that point that Rocky halts everything and sits by Adrian's hospital bedside. He doesn't even want to see his newborn son until Adrian wakes up. He sits by her side day and night until one day when she squeezes his hand and opens her eyes. After a celebration and an introduction to their new son, Rocky tells Adrian he'll do whatever she wants-- he'll withdraw from the upcoming fight with Creed is that's what she wants. Instead she only wants him to do one thing. "Win" she tells him.
That's the only motivator he needs. Suddenly the feel good music starts up and you see Rocky running around Philly, up the art museum steps, lifting weights, punching bags, etc.

The night of the fight, Rocky prays while Apollo Creed strokes his own ego. The fight scene is pretty long and I don't want to give away how it ends. Ultimately, this is a great movie that shows things form the underdog's perspective. I love the acting and imagery in this movie, as I'm a Philly native. This is one of those films that I never tire of, and even though I could do without the bloody boxing scenes, that's what the movie is about. It's another well done movie by Stallone, who could have rested on his laurels an ended the Rocky saga after the first film. Instead, he treated us to several sequels, all of them worthy, but "Rocky II" being the most touching and my personal favorite.