Rocky Balboa Delivers Knockout Punch Posted by: Joe Tracy, Publisher

I must admit that my expectations weren’t high when lining up to see Rocky Balboa. After all, what excitement is there in watching a person of retirement age in a boxing ring with a youthful champion? No one likes to see elderly people get abused.

For me, this movie sounded like a way for the filmmakers to milk the franchise one more time in order to line studio pocketbooks as well as Stallone’s retirement fund. Then what would be next, I thought? The ghost of Rocky fighting the ghost of Apollo?

I went into the movie with these preconceptions and what the movie proceeded to do was deliver a knockout punch… to me.

Rocky Balboa ranks up there amongst the best Rocky movies ever created. This Rocky franchise endeavor, believe it or not, is a lot more “real” than other Rocky movies and has a down to Earth character-driven human quality that makes the movie shine from beginning to end.

In this Rocky, the film focuses on the “retirement” life of Rocky. Like a pro football player past his prime, Rocky (an aging Sylvester Stallone) spends most of his time reminiscing. He’s running a restaurant “Adrians”, named after his wife who died five years earlier of cancer. He tries to connect with his son (Milo Ventimiglia), but initially with little success. Yet even in his older age, he still remains a humble man of the people; someone always looking out for the little guy while giving bullies a taste of their own medicine.

What’s great about this Rocky is the ability to see a truly different character. This isn’t the same guy we saw plummeting opponent after opponent in Rocky 1 through 99. This is a guy who has changed with age; someone whose priorities have changed. In some ways he is more of a “people’s champion” outside of the ring than he is inside the ring.

There is one boxing match in Rocky Balboa that the former champ does fight. The fight is presented in the form of an HBO Pay Per View special. It works nicely. Balboa agrees to the fight after a bunch of hype on sports shows that show a computer simulation of Rocky beating the current champ. There are no expectations set for this fight (unlike other Rocky movies), which make it easier to accept both the fight and the outcome. Rocky isn’t in it to win it, but rather to finally rid himself of the “beast inside” so that he can forever close that chapter of his life.

Coming from a converted skeptic, I highly recommend a round with Rocky Balboa.