Rocky Balboa: Movie, DVD, Blu-ray Review (2006)

8/19/2007 Posted by Admin

(Originally published Dec. 20, 2006)

Call it a comeback, but “Rocky Balboa” is the best Rocky film since the Academy Award-winning, 1976 original.

It would be easy--and dismissive--to believe this happened by chance, but it didn't. The truth is that writer, director and star Sylvester Stallone got it right.

In this, the franchise's sixth outing, the surprise is that Stallone not only has a compelling story to tell, but he also has come to terms with his age in ways that enrich his character. He embraces being 60, which allows him to mine new depths from a character who appeared washed up a few Roman numerals ago.

In an effort to get the franchise back on track and back to its roots, there shrewdly is no mention of the brain damage that sandbagged the last film, "Rocky V"--best to let that go, thanks--though much time is devoted to Rocky mourning his dead wife, Adrian (Talia Shire), who appears in flashback.

The first part of the movie deals with the loss Rocky feels in the wake of her death, with his sullen, estranged son Robert Jr. (Milo Ventimiglia) not exactly helping the situation since his glum mood tends to darken the dimmest corners.

The film focuses on how each must come to terms with Rocky's fame. For Rocky, the question is whether he can be satisfied living in the past by telling lame, half-hearted boxing stories to those who frequent his South Philadelphia restaurant, Adrian's. (Really, he'd prefer to still be in the ring, if only for his love of the sport.) For Robert, the question is whether he can live in the crushing blow of his father's formidable shadow.

Meanwhile, on the sidelines, the plot brews.

After ESPN declares that the brute force of a boxer like Rocky, even at his advanced age, could hypothetically take down a young boxing superstar like Mason Dixon (Antonio Tarver), the possibility of an exhibition fight between them naturally is swept to the forefront. For Rocky, his decision to go forward with the game and train for it (cue Bill Conti's "Rocky" theme music, cut to Rocky punching slabs of beef) comes down to the reason audiences fell for him in the first place--his belief in himself is transcendent. Only now, with the man's joints hurting from age and his body thickened with arthritis, he once again is a believable underdog, which is a key element to the film's success.

With Burt Young back as scrappy, squabbling Paulie (Burt Young) and Geraldine Hughes as Marie, a single mother whose budding friendship with Rocky is touching in its nostalgia and in its restraint, the film embraces its share of cliches, but it doesn't overdo them.

Stallone's script has the easy feel of improvisation, with his loose, appealing performance following suit. Here is an actor so comfortable in the iconic role he created that he's able to lose himself in it, deconstructing the myth while finding the man. That's no easy feat, but Stallone, whose talent as an actor understandably has been cheapened over the years given his questionable choices in movies, nevertheless delivers his best turn since playing Sheriff Freddy Heflin in James Mangold's excellent "Cop Land."

In the end, "Rocky Balboa" is a heartfelt, well-done conclusion to a story began 30 years ago.

Grade: B+

(Available on Blu-ray disc)