"Rocky Balboa" - Winner but No Knockout

The good news is Rocky Balboa is a very enjoyable film. It's not in the same league as neither the great original film nor its first follow up in 1979 but it is miles ahead of parts 3, 4, and 5. The series has been resurrected one last time and goes out a winner.

Writer/director/star Sylvester Stallone makes a sensible decision by taking Rocky back to his routes from the first two films. We again see Rocky as the lovable, charming lug we all fell in love with instead of the more cocky and unrecognizable character he would become in later films.

Rocky Balboa finds our hero working at a restaurant he owns named after his now deceased wife Adrian. Talia Shire is seen only in flashbacks here but her character resonates through the entire movie. Adrian died four years ago but Rocky still can't get passed it. Every year on the anniversary of her death, Rocky visits her grave and then goes on a nostalgic tour (along with all Rocky fans) of places familiar to them (and us) when they first met. He goes to the pet store where he first met her. He visits his small apartment building where he lived before fighting Apollo Creed. He visits the now vacant lot where the ice rink once stood where he took her on their first date.

Going along on the tour is Rocky's feisty brother in law Paulie (Burt Young), who finally admits that enough is enough and wants to get on with life and not be haunted by his sister's memory. Deep down he still feels guilty for having treated her poorly through her life. Paulie is still a miserable man who likes to drink, but he is ever faithful to Rocky and his long-standing job at the meat plant, which he admits is the only thing he has in his life.

Rocky, meanwhile, enjoys his life at the restaurant. He proudly visits table after table more then willing to take a picture or share some of his boxing stories from his glory days that are long passed. He even makes sure that Spider Rico, the man he fought in the very first scene of the original film, has a table every night with a complimentary meal. (In a nice touch, the same actor from the original appears here).

Rocky also has his son to contend with. Junior is working in the white-collar world and is not doing as successfully as he should. His boss keeps him around simply because of whom his father is in the hopes of one day meeting him. When that day comes Junior is relegated to staying out of the conversation and using a cell phone to take a picture of the two of them. Junior has issues with being Junior and makes sure to stay as far away from the family restaurant as possible. He is resentful of his father and wants little to do with him.

One night Rocky goes into a bar in the old neighborhood and runs into "Little" Marie, a young girl Rocky walked home once in the original film. Rocky lectured her on smoking and sex and culminated with her yelling, "Screw you, creepo!" as he dropped her off. She remembers him and the walk (but, interestingly, not the remark) and soon they strike up a friendship that may, or may not, lead to romance. Rocky gives both her and her son a job in the restaurant simply out of the kindness of his heart and for no other reason no matter how skeptical Marie is. Marie is a nice diversion in his life and the fact that we don't know where things may lead is one of its charms.

Current heavyweight champion Mason Dixon is having problems with his career. He has been reduced to fighting "cupcakes" that he easily dispatches of and promoters are less then willing to shell out big money unless he fights more formidable opponents. One night ESPN runs a computer simulated fight between Rocky and Dixon, in which Rocky wins. This incenses Dixon and peaks Rocky's curiosity to maybe get back in the ring for a few sparring sessions. As Paulie puts it, "What, you haven't peaked?"

Soon enough Dixon's manager visits Rocky's restaurant and lays down a game plan to put the two in the ring for an exhibition match in Las Vegas. Rocky talks to Junior, who rebuffs the idea as ridiculous and tells him not to do it but then it is Marie who convinces him to chase his dream all over again. Old friend Duke (Tony Burton), Apollo Creed's manager, comes back and has a wonderful, rousing speech about tailoring Rocky's new training regimen to account for arthritis and other ailments common in men in their late 50's. That speech will make audiences cheer and then leads into the classic training montage that makes the audience cheer even more.

The fight, itself, is not the pipedream it has been in every other movie. Even in the original film that classic fight would have been stopped long before Rocky begged Mickey to, "Cut me Mick, I can't see" or before Apollo Creed started spitting up blood. Here Stallone tries to make it as realistic as possible without having each man whip the other so badly they can barely move when it's over. Stallone is smart enough to realize that any man of his age fighting a champion twenty-five years younger is stretching it a bit and he plays it to the hilt. Says one of the ESPN announcers, "They call this an exhibition because they don't want to call it an execution."

Rocky Balboa is an utterly charming, thoroughly entertaining movie and what a surprise that is. Who didn't roll their eyes when they first heard it was being made? Stallone knows this character so well but, along the way, he forgot what made Rocky who he was and now he brings us back to that place. It's impossible not to watch the film and not spend a majority of the time smiling. Stallone wisely doesn't dwell on the fight to come until the training begins. Until then we have a good hour of watching characters we know and love just living life and trying to make it the best they can.

The film is not without its faults. Burt Young's Paulie is still too mean and crotchety to be as well liked, as he should be. You would think he would have lightened up some in his later years. Paulie unexpectedly loses his job in an awkward scene with no explanation as to why. The training sequence is fun but not as rousing as it should have been. There is another ode to the original with Rocky drinking a glass of raw eggs but it is so awkwardly edited into the montage that you miss it if you blink. There is no build up to it and that could have been a really funny scene. Rocky visits Adrian's grave once too often but injects enough into the scenes not to make it too maudlin.

In the end Rocky exits the ring on his own terms no matter what the outcome. It may be silly or corny but it works and the audience applause at the end is well deserved. It's been a long haul for Rocky Balboa and he's earned it.