Rocky Balboa (2006)

“Lotta people come to Vegas to lose… I didn’t ” – Rocky

Number of Times Seen – 2 (26 Dec 2006 and 12 Dec 2016)

Brief Synopsis – Rocky must learn to live with life in retirement as he manages a restaurant but still feels the urge to live his life as a boxer instead of just telling old stories of his “former” life.

My Take on it – This film is the one that made everyone forget how terrible the previous one was and after 16 years, it was nice to see Rocky back to where he needs to be.

We get to see how an aging fighter must deal with his life where he can no longer fight and must learn to keep things going in order to reignite the flame inside of him.

Really liked how he still remains a popular Philadelphia figure and gets to constantly tell ‘war” stories, but it’s easy to see that he wants more yet realizes that certain things cannot be attained once you pass a certain age.

This film has some great scenes in it that show us some of the magic that made the first film so great and popular among so many people.

I liked the way that this film doesn’t sugarciat aging and gives us a look at a character we have known for decades and show his human and emotional side as things keep changing around him.

Bottom Line – This film takes thing back in the right direction by trying to show us how much a fighter must do in order to keep the flame alive within themselves.  Things come full circle here and we can once again see parts of the magic that made the first film so popular. Recommended!

MovieRob’s Favorite Trivia – The very last scene to be shot was Rocky’s sprint up the steps at the Philadelphia Museum of Art. Sylvester Stallone purposely left this shot until the end because he knew it would be such an emotional experience due to the iconic nature of the scene, and he felt it was a good way for him to say goodbye to the character. As he puts it himself, “that run is the distillation of the entire Rocky experience. (From IMDB)

Rating – Globe Worthy

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