I’ll admit it: I’ve got a soft spot for Rocky. Maybe it’s because I was sitting in the audience with a girl I really wanted to date when the first one came out way back when in 1976; maybe it’s because Sylvester Stallone always seemed like such an unlikely movie star, what with the thick voice and droopy eyes. But I’ve almost always liked Rocky.
Almost. Rockies I-IV were fine, even full as they were of unlikely spectacle, Mohawks, jingoistic Cold War rhetoric and so on. Rocky V was another matter, a movie that was unwatchable on almost every level. It was what killed the series all those years ago.
But now Rocky is back, if only briefly, and I have to say that VI is a return to the Stallone’s very best form, equal to any of the previous movies, even maybe Rocky I.
I won’t ruin the plot, but I will say that Stallone, at 60 or so, is still physically very impressive, and that he seems to have learned a sort of mature restraint in his movie making. It seems odd to say about a movie that revolves around boxing, but this installment was, well, almost understated.
Let’s take a moment to reflect on the achievement here; Stallone has pulled off something almost impossible: a fifth sequel that stands on a level with the original. What other series can you say that about? It’s taken 40 years for the Bond franchise to come up with something as good as the best of the original Connery movies. Godfather II was as good as I, and Terminator 2 was better than the original. But something-or-other six? This has got to be some sort of a record.
Watch this movie. You won’t be disappointed. And finally, there is The Line:
“It ain’t about how hard you hit. It’s about how hard you can get hit and keep moving forward.” – Sylvester Stallone as Rocky Balboa
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