Rocky Balboa (3/20/2007)

Rated PG for boxing violence and some language.

Directed by Sylvester Stallone (Rocky II, III, IV)

Starring Sylvester Stallone, Burt Young, Geraldine Hughes and Milo Ventimiglia

As the movie opens we find this once larger-than-life boxing champion broken. His wife Adrian has died of cancer, he and his son, Rocky Jr. (Milo Ventimiglia), have been growing apart and Paulie (Burt Young) is still “Paulie.”

Although Rocky owns and operates a restaurant, fittingly enough called Adrian’s, where he spends most nights smiling and reliving his greatest fights for the customers, his scars tell the real story. He has accepted the fact he will never fight again. But thanks to a new ESPN virtual boxing program which is pairing up fighters from different eras, this is all about to change.

In the virtual bout, a young Rocky Balboa is matched up against the over-confident, current champion, Mason ‘The Line’ Dixon, and of course Rocky wins. As both men watch themselves fight in this computer generated match, they are given a gut check. For Rocky it is a reminder of his younger self, of how great a fighter he once was and it is enough to motivate him to get back into the ring. For Mason, it is a blow to his inflated ego and it is enough to motivate him to accept the challenge. It truly is a battle of the ages… a battle of will vs. skill.

TODD’S WORD:
I had mixed emotions when I first heard there would be a final Rocky film… especially when Rocky is now 60. But I knew I would have to see it, I mean come on, Rocky brought us some of the best one-liners ever, lines like: “Cut me Mick!”, “Adrian, catch me!”, “I’m gonna bust you up.” “Go for it.” and “If he dies, he dies.” Not to mention this franchise has set the standard in “training sequences.”

JONATHAN’S WORD:
I agree… I also had mixed emotions. I liked the first few Rocky films… but I also thought, “Another one? You gotta be kidding me!”

TODD’S WORD:
Yeah. So maybe it was my high expectations, maybe it was the slow story, maybe it had something to do with seeing a 60-year old Sly Stallone with his shirt off…but I was kinda disappointed. It’s almost an hour into the movie before any kind of real action takes place and that hour is filled with a sappy and very awkward romance, flashbacks, and lame Rocky Balboa humor.

JONATHAN’S WORD:
And even though we gave this the same score: A RENTAL… which means “decent entertainment—worth renting at home” …I’ll disagree with you here. I think the dialogue carried the film even in the first hour.

At first I thought I was a “biased” Rocky fan. But my kids (who have not seen any of the Rocky films) watched it with me and all agreed it was a good film. They weren’t jumping up and down, “Let’s watch it again!” But they were laughing and enjoying it with me. That’s a pretty good test: “the 9, 11 and 13 year old test.”

TODD’S WORD:
Well, I wanted more action. The training and fighting scenes are admittedly scaled down (see the behind the scenes special features on the DVD). Call me crazy…but seriously, when you take that away, what’s left of a Rocky movie?

Here’s the bottom line: If you are a fan of this amazing franchise of films then you gotta see it. If, however, you somehow missed Rocky I-V or dare I say, just don’t like Rocky, then skip it, you aren’t missing anything.

JONATHAN’S WORD:
I agree that Rocky fans will definitely want to see it. But I also think that any one who likes dialogue driven films will like it. If you don’t like those types of films, go back and rent Rambo II. Sly has like three lines in the whole film and blows away over 200 people.

SHOULD KIDS SEE IT?
TODD’S WORD: My wife and I watched it with our 5 and 9 year olds. The boxing violence was a little too much for my 5 year old, who didn’t especially care to see Rocky bleeding profusely from the cut on his eye. And both of them were pretty bored for that first hour, other than that it’s a clean movie with a lot of redeeming life-lessons.

JONATHAN’S WORD: And I watched it with the whole family with no hesitation. The theme was positive and uplifting. And I think my son was inspired by a couple of Rocky’s simple but uplifting speeches. It’s nice to see a film with a person of integrity and character in the leading role.

Conversation Starter
Three Simple Questions (with Answers You May Be Looking for):

1. What are some of the messages or themes you observed in this movie?
2. How do you suppose we—as serious Christ-followers—should react to this movie?
3. How can we move from healthy, Bible-based opinions about this movie to actually living out those opinions?