Netflix DVD Movie Review: Rocky Balboa

Stars: Sylvester Stallone (The previous 5 Rocky movies, Rambo), Antonio Tarver (real life boxer), Milo Ventimiglia (Heroes)

Directed by: Sylvester Stallone. He wrote it, too. He was well-paid in this movie.

What's it about? An aging, retired boxer has a need to fight one more time even though he's well past his prime. Somehow he ends up in an exhibition match with the current boxing champ. Will he give it his all?

Why you should watch it:This was better than expected. You would think with a 6^th Rocky movie, people would say "enough already!" especially since the 5^th one was so bad and pointless. But this has a good story to it, a believable plot and a great fight scene at the end. Tarver holds his end up pretty well and it was nice to see a Hero playing Rocky's son. I even liked Little Marie, an old childhood friend of Rocky that ends up helping him in his path to the ring...

What sucks about this movie: The inexplicable. I can see why they had to put a woman in the movie to see if Rocky can get over Adrian's death, which he hadn't. It was basically what sparked him to fight one more time. Why did Rocky invite this other woman's son to hang out with him? He served no purpose, really. And then Pauly. Pauly was barely in the movie. You couldn't understand him and he didn't get much of a chance to shine in moments where he could have. We could have seen more reaction from him getting laid off. More from him when he had to follow Rocky to all those places that he and Adrian hung out in. There were just a few too many pieces that I think another director could have fixed. And the rival fighter, although well-played, just didn't have enough juice for us to dislike him. We disliked Apollo Creed because he was all flash. We hated Clubber Lang because he was brash. Ivan Drago was the commie enemy. I'll skip the 5^th one, but Mason Dixon just wasn't bad enough for me.

DVD features: Plenty of outtakes and an alternate ending that I wouldn't have believed. The blooper reel is o.k. If you want you can listen to Stallone's commentary throughout the movie.

Nice Surprise: The cinematography. Lots of little lighting and coloring tricks here and there that annoyed me at first but I got used to it and ended up liking them in the end.

Overall: Not too shabby. It is definitely worth watching, like sending a few messages back to that ol' high school buddy on MySpace.