Rocky Balboa (2006)

27.12.06 – By Geoffrey Ciani: Having been a big fan of the Rocky franchise since first seeing Rocky III some twenty plus years ago, I was most enthusiastic when I heard news of the pending release of its sixth installment, Rocky Balboa. Surely, I thought, this one would erase the stench left by the only sub-par film in the franchise, Rocky V. On Christmas weekend, a bunch of friends and I headed to the theater to go see this film. In the end, I’m left with bittersweet reflections..

rocky balboaOverall, I was entertained, but I can’t help wondering what might have been had Stallone chosen to do a few things a bit differently. My biggest complaint is that, in sharp contrast to its predecessors, this movie lacked drama and excitement. It was as if they were just going through the motions without capturing the essence of what made the original four films so magical. Without a compelling storyline to help produce the required drama needed for any Rocky film, it felt like something was totally missing.

The story is simple: An aging Rocky Balboa decides he wants to give it a last go in the ring. Apparently, Rocky just wanted to go for some small-time club fights, but inevitably, he wound up landing a title shot against reigning champion, Mason Dixon (Antonio Tarver). Actually, it was an exhibition match, but that mattered very little, for it was being hyped like the real thing. Unfortunately, this didn’t come about until the movie was nearly two-thirds of the way done, and nothing of note happened in the scenes leading up to this.

The beginning of the movie, whilst occasionally entertaining, just didn’t seem to serve any purpose. Sure, there were some great one-liners from Paulie (Burt Young), and it was great listening to Rocky giving all types of useless advice to various characters he interacted with, but there wasn’t any story here. On one hand, Rocky was reflecting on the past, and in particular, he was focused on his departed wife, Adrian (Talia Shire). On the other hand, he appeared to have a new love interest, Lil’ Marie (Geraldine Hughes). These two subplots didn’t mesh well together. If Rocky was going to be reflecting over the loss of his wife, then that should have been the focal point. Introducing Marie did absolutely nothing for the story. In fact, it’s not even clear whether or not she even was a love interest; she simply took up screen time and served no purpose in furthering the story.

Things picked up once the press conference came about announcing the fight. It was here, that we finally got to see Duke (Tony Burton) as he declared that the fight would be “competitive”, despite laughter from those in attendance. This, of course, was followed by the training sequence, and ultimately, the main event. The training sequence and the actual boxing match always constituted the heart & soul of the Rocky franchise, and that they recaptured these key ingredients of the formula was a good thing, especially considering that these two key elements were missing from the prior installment.

But something was still missing. Once again, they were stuck going through the motions without the prior passion. Rocky trained, in what was the least memorable training session of any in the franchise, and he fought. That was that. There was no connection between him and any of the characters (besides Paulie), and the driving force which was present in all previous Rocky films just wasn’t there, which leads me to my next point.

The lack of drama in this movie can be attributed to one main factor: There was no impetus for Rocky to fight again. Without a proper reason for Rocky to fight again, we’re left with what we got—going through the motions. For this film to have succeeded, it was absolutely mandatory for Rocky to be properly motivated to re-enter the ring. No such motivation existed. Instead, we were given a glimpse into Rocky’s life after the passing of his beloved wife, Adrian, and then the sudden decision to fight again.

The movie would have been much better off if Stallone gave more thought behind why Rocky wants one last fight. Sadly, the potential was there for such a scene, but Stallone didn’t capitalize on it. Early in the film, Rocky was confronted by a crew of hooligans who were heckling him. Rocky went to the lead hooligan, frightened him, and an opportunity was lost. Had Rocky been “punked out” by the hooligan, he may have started wondering to himself, “Do I still have what it takes to be a fighter?” In my mind, something as simple as this could have provided the much needed motivation for Rocky to make the decision to fight again. In fact, to take this a step further, he could have turned this into a series of two scenes, not unlike that in Superman II where a powerless Clark Kent got his ass kicked by a low-life ruffian, only to return the favor at the movie’s end, when he again had his powers. This type of sequence would have worked perfectly in Rocky Balboa.

Another problem the movie had was there simply wasn’t enough fighting. This worked well enough for the original Rocky, which was a fine movie in and of itself. The sequels, however, became a life of their own, and this life force was always dependent upon high quality, mindless entertainment value. The movie may have worked better had Rocky decided he wanted to fight again at the onset. This would have helped put things in better perspective and opened the door for some would-be drama. Ideally, I think Rocky should have had a few low-key matches before being approached for a championship bout, but regardless, there just wasn’t enough fighting in this film.

In the end, it’s clear that Stallone was trying to remake the original Rocky film; he’d have better served his own interests had he tried remaking Rocky III instead.

Anyway, in accordance with the Ciani Scoring System, I’m giving this film three caps.

NOTE: The Ciani Scoring System is based on a scale wherein the maximum score allotted to any given film is five caps, in which five stems are equal to one cap.

To contact this author: geoff@eatthemushroom.com

Please check out the third teaser clip for Seeking Madam Mushroom, featuring Secretary Babe, and have yourself a good laugh.

http://www.eatthemushroom.com/mag/smm_teaser_03.asp