Rocky / Creed Franchises (Avildsen/Stallone/Coogler/Caple Jr./Jordan, 1976-2023)

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Joe Buck
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Re: Rocky Balboa (Sylvester Stallone, 2006)

#2 Post by Joe Buck » Thu Dec 21, 2006 10:21 am

I saw it last night. I did not have my hopes up originally because each sequel has gotten more and more pathetic. The first film still stands as one of my all-time favorites, and it's the film I've probably seen more than any other.

The film started getting some positive feedback, so I was getting the idea it wouldn't be as bad as the others.

I enjoyed the picture very much. Stallone is playing Rocky correctly for the first time since II, I think. In the previous sequels he seemed to lose the essence of the character. Heck, if Rocky put shades on in IV he would basically be "Cobra". In V Stallone played Rocky like a brain damaged fool, which was pretty dispicable. I like to try and pretend III-V don't exist.

Anyway, this time round there is a decent story to work with, a good cast of supporting characters (good to see old Spider Rico again!), and Stallone hits all the right notes with the character. I was touched, tickled, and entertained.

I did not enjoy the fight scene as much as others. It seemed to lack an emotional knock out like the others did, I think it might be because of all the fancy photography and effects that were used. They took me out of the fight, as did an unecessary cameo from another famous fighter who appears at ringside just before the fight. But even though there are a few misteps, overall thie film is a sucess and the first sequel in the series not to be an embarrassment.

Rocky sent the movie theater goers home cheering again. =D>

Napoleon
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#3 Post by Napoleon » Thu Dec 21, 2006 11:30 am

Haven't seen this and probably won't bother with it at the cinema and save it for rental (so that nobody sees me welling up in public. maybe).

The semi-positive early reviews do not come as a surprise. As he showed in Copland, few can do the underdog as well as Stallone. Plus he's invested a lot of himself in this (director/producer/writer) and although he's made some pretty stupid decisions, he isn't a stupid person.

I hope that its a big success. If only to spite all the snobs.
Last edited by Napoleon on Fri Dec 22, 2006 5:37 am, edited 1 time in total.

flyonthewall2983
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#4 Post by flyonthewall2983 » Thu Dec 21, 2006 11:32 am

Napoleon wrote:I hope that its a big success. If only to spite all the snobs.
I'm with you 100% on that.

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Highway 61
Joined: Mon Nov 08, 2004 4:40 pm

#5 Post by Highway 61 » Thu Dec 21, 2006 4:41 pm

I'll be seeing this with my sister-in-law who has been nuts about Sly for years. We're both pretty excited. When I saw the trailer, I was shocked at how good it looked. I hope Stallone has some nice momentum from this and will do a few more interesting films like Cop Land before he retires.

Incidentally, the fan Q & A's he's been doing on AICN are the only worthwhile writing that has ever appeared on that otherwise shit site. He reveals himself to be a surprsingly self-depricating and funny guy. He claims to be writing and directing a biopic of Edgar Allan Poe after Rambo IV, hoping to cast Robert Downey Jr. in the lead role. I really hope he gets to make it.

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exte
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#6 Post by exte » Sat Dec 23, 2006 7:44 pm

I love the series. I've seen Rocky V once, and have kept away from it for a long time. I think every fan has hoped that if he were to do another one, a final Rocky movie, that he would end it right. I've been following his posts at AICN, too. They're tremendous. I'm shocked more stars/filmmakers haven't done it before. Anyway, I saw it in NYC yesterday, and the fans clapped at the opening credits, cheered at the start of the training montage, through the fight, and at the credits. I think we all love Rocky just as much as any Star Wars fan loves a new Star Wars film. It's a fantastic story, but nothing touches the first. Adrian, Mic, Apollo, Paulie, and of course Rocky. It's a classic, for sure.

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John Cope
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#7 Post by John Cope » Sat Dec 23, 2006 8:28 pm

It's interesting that you bring up Rocky V as I have noticed over the years that people seem to make a concentrated effort to ignore this one. In fact, I have even noticed that there are many who seem to be totally ignorant of its existence. I suppose this could be explained by the fact that it did so poorly in its brief theatrical release but I suspect the desire to blot it out is driven more by its unorthodox narrative (for a Rocky anyway). It really is the Alien 3 of the series, isn't it? This movie, which confronts us immediately with Rocky's brain damage and then proceeds to depict its main character in impoverishment and resolves itself in a scaled back street fight, is remarkable in and of itself but is especially perverse coming directly after the histrionic grand standing of Rocky IV.

Frankly, Alien 3 works better because that entire series is more tuned to the specifics of its own traumatic underpinnings and the inherent distress of mortality. It seems somehow more legit, in other words, rather than being just a divergent exercise. So maybe people are right to dismiss the fifth one despite its desire to shake things up. Maybe in this case shaking things up was inappropriate. Still, I don't know that the series necessarily had to arrive at the apex (nadir?) of Rocky IV.

flyonthewall2983
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#8 Post by flyonthewall2983 » Sat Dec 23, 2006 9:59 pm

I recently caught Alien 3 on one of the Cinemax channels, and I must say that for a huge Hollywood blockbuster, it sure is a downer.

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exte
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#9 Post by exte » Sat Dec 23, 2006 10:16 pm

flyonthewall2983 wrote:I recently caught Alien 3 on one of the Cinemax channels, and I must say that for a huge Hollywood blockbuster, it sure is a downer.
Exactly. And all they do is curse, from what I remember, in that film. Rocky V was total bullshit to me, as a child, because he gave such a great speech at the end of his fight with Drago, but then all of a sudden he has brain damage and the shakes? I can't remember the whole Tommy Gunn story, but I remember thinking who is this guy? Who gives a shit about him? Supposedly he was a fighter in real life, but I never heard of him. Mike Tyson, yes. Tommy Morrison? No. And then the Don King type character was totally overboard. I hated him so much. And then Rocky is all of a sudden dirt poor again? What the hell? How can you go from having a robot to the same neighborhood again? I guess I should see it again, but I just don't care to any time soon.

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souvenir
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#10 Post by souvenir » Sat Dec 23, 2006 11:51 pm

exte wrote:I can't remember the whole Tommy Gunn story, but I remember thinking who is this guy? Who gives a shit about him? Supposedly he was a fighter in real life, but I never heard of him. Mike Tyson, yes. Tommy Morrison? No.
Tommy Morrison was actually pretty famous in his heyday, largely for being John Wayne's grandnephew. He's also noteworthy for beating George Foreman to win the heavyweight title and being forced into retirement after testing positive for HIV.

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davebert
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#11 Post by davebert » Sun Dec 24, 2006 2:31 am

I just got back from Balboa and am in agreement with the general consensus (from what it seems): solid movie, too flashy a final fight, but a good sendoff to the franchise. But man, could that downbeat piano kick in more times than it did?

I also feel like the character of Steps was thrown in just to make it not so clear that its Rocky/Sinatra versus the "new age of sporting", symbolized by Mason Dixon/Three Six Mafia, which has uncomfortable culture war connotations.

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exte
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#12 Post by exte » Sun Dec 24, 2006 3:05 pm

I did a recent search of my computer for Rocky files, and a Rocky blog video popped up. I never watched it until now, I guess fearing it would ruid the movie experience. Anyway, I tried to find more of these videos, but no luck. I think I found the official Rocky Balboa blog, but they don't seem to have any of these. Maybe like King Kong, they pulled them for a not too distant dvd release, I don't know... Did anyone follow these blog videos? Thanks...

flyonthewall2983
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#13 Post by flyonthewall2983 » Tue Dec 26, 2006 10:30 pm

Saw it today and was rather impressed, and I agree with the one poster who said it's the first time Sly has played him right since II. It was definitely the end to the series that it deserved.

On a technical note, I'm somewhat surprised at the use of Hi-Def. I think it was most effective in the fight scene because in a way, it had a more realistic quality to it than anything in the previous films. I felt like I was watching an actual fight on HBO during some moments.

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Andre Jurieu
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#14 Post by Andre Jurieu » Wed Dec 27, 2006 1:01 pm

souvenir wrote:
exte wrote:I can't remember the whole Tommy Gunn story, but I remember thinking who is this guy? Who gives a shit about him? Supposedly he was a fighter in real life, but I never heard of him. Mike Tyson, yes. Tommy Morrison? No.
Tommy Morrison was actually pretty famous in his heyday, largely for being John Wayne's grandnephew. He's also noteworthy for beating George Foreman to win the heavyweight title and being forced into retirement after testing positive for HIV.
When it was first reported that Morrison had HIV, I remember reading an SI article about how Morrison's answering machine reportedly had noises of women moaning uncontrollably while Morrison boasts something along the lines of "As you can tell, I'm tied up at the moment..." Morrison was about as classy as Don King.

flyonthewall2983
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#15 Post by flyonthewall2983 » Wed Dec 27, 2006 2:11 pm

Must run in the family lol.

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Lemmy Caution
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#16 Post by Lemmy Caution » Wed Jan 03, 2007 12:57 pm

souvenir wrote:
exte wrote:I can't remember the whole Tommy Gunn story, but I remember thinking who is this guy? Who gives a shit about him? Supposedly he was a fighter in real life, but I never heard of him. Mike Tyson, yes. Tommy Morrison? No.
Tommy Morrison was actually pretty famous in his heyday, largely for being John Wayne's grandnephew. He's also noteworthy for beating George Foreman to win the heavyweight title and being forced into retirement after testing positive for HIV.
Good summation.
Morrison was also hyped up as the next Great White Hope (sort of a sucessor to Gerry Clooney, I guess).

flyonthewall2983
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Re:

#17 Post by flyonthewall2983 » Mon May 06, 2013 12:53 am

exte wrote:Rocky V was total bullshit to me, as a child, because he gave such a great speech at the end of his fight with Drago, but then all of a sudden he has brain damage and the shakes?
Best part of V was the Drago fight re-scored to the Conti music as opposed to Vince DiCola's keyboard-rockafire mess that was probably seen as outdated even in 1990.

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Professor Wagstaff
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Re: Rocky Balboa (Stallone, 2006)

#18 Post by Professor Wagstaff » Tue Jun 30, 2015 8:55 pm

Creed trailer, the spin-off film from the Rocky series. Directed by Fruitvale Station's Ryan Coogler. Starring Michael B. Jordan and Sylvester Stallone.

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Trees
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Re: The Films of 2015

#19 Post by Trees » Sat Feb 13, 2016 10:35 am

I saw Creed and really liked it a lot. I would have given it 7/10 stars, but because of Stallone, it gets 8/10! I really thought the whole boxing/Rocky genre was burned out, but this brought new life to the series and was actually kind of inspiring and emotionally rewarding.

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mfunk9786
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Re: The Films of 2015

#20 Post by mfunk9786 » Mon Feb 22, 2016 2:42 pm

Wow, I went to move Trees' post over to the Creed thread and saw that we don't have one - his is the first post reviewing that film on this forum. Genuinely surprised by that.

Zot!
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Re: The Films of 2015

#21 Post by Zot! » Mon Feb 22, 2016 2:59 pm

Criterion forum really needs to address their lack of diversity.

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knives
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Re: The Films of 2015

#22 Post by knives » Mon Feb 22, 2016 3:01 pm

Zot! wrote:Criterion forum really needs to address their lack of diversity.
https://youtu.be/DdCYMvaUcrA?t=26" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

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mfunk9786
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Re: The Films of 2015

#23 Post by mfunk9786 » Mon Feb 22, 2016 3:04 pm

In fact, there doesn't appear to be any Rocky franchise thread at all, or I'm just not finding it. Probably has more to do with a lack of interest in those films than anything to do with diversity, though I guess that's its own kind of diversity in and of itself...

EDIT: Oh, there it is!

Orlac
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Re: The Rocky/Creed Franchise (Avildsen/Stallone/Coogler)

#24 Post by Orlac » Thu Feb 25, 2016 7:57 pm

It's interesting that CREED does not show Apollo's death at all, and there is no reference to Drago. Just shows how totally wacked out (and yet awesome) part 4 was!

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jbeall
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Re: The Rocky/Creed Franchise (Avildsen/Stallone/Coogler)

#25 Post by jbeall » Fri Apr 01, 2016 11:53 pm

An underdog thread for an underdog movie?

I still haven't seen V or Balboa, but I had recently rewatched the original Rocky, and perhaps for that reason, this film moved me. While Michael B. Jordan is easily the better actor, Stallone has to carry the burden of Rocky's history in his performance, and does admirable work. Helped along by the mournful interpretation of the original film's score, he gives an incredibly poignant performance, his best in years. Although not as subtle as A Boy's Life in its evocation of time's passage, in its own way Creed manages to be as moving.

Is the film blatantly manipulative? Sure. Did I love it for that very reason? Hell yes. Creed's emotional highs pretty much guarantee that if I'm channel-surfing and I come across it, I'll watch.

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