Rocky Balboa
I watched the Rocky Balboa DVD tonight. It was a 2006 release from Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, Columbia Pictures, and Revolution Studios. It was written and directed by Sylvester Stallone who also stars as the central character of Rocky Balboa. The film has a running time of 101 minutes.
I thought it started off quite slow and was wishing it'd pick up the pace any number of times. Stallone wrote and directed the movie and it was quite obvious he intended this movie to reach back and pay homage to the early and best Rocky movies. He might have done that just a wee bit too long but this was definitely the movie to do it in. I say this because Rocky Balboa works better than any movie in the Rocky series since the first. At the end of the movie I wanted it to keep on going--and that's the best compliment you can give a movie.
The fight scenes in Rocky Balboa are better than any of the other Rocky movies--including the first. It's amazing that Stallone can get in that kind of shape at 60 years of age. He looks like he could go 10 rounds in the ring, which--of course--is the point.
I found the extras on the disc interesting also. The ending of this movie really worked and when I saw the alternate ending I was shaken a bit. The movie would have been much weaker had they used the alternate--and the deleted scenes included...same story. The film as it stands was far better with those scenes stripped out. I did find that the segment on the making of the final fight in the movie rather puffy. But since it was made for pre-release publicity that sorta thing is to be expected.
All-in-all, this was a very good movie and one that is head and shoulders above the 3rd, 4th, and 5th installments in the Rocky franchise.
I thought it started off quite slow and was wishing it'd pick up the pace any number of times. Stallone wrote and directed the movie and it was quite obvious he intended this movie to reach back and pay homage to the early and best Rocky movies. He might have done that just a wee bit too long but this was definitely the movie to do it in. I say this because Rocky Balboa works better than any movie in the Rocky series since the first. At the end of the movie I wanted it to keep on going--and that's the best compliment you can give a movie.
The fight scenes in Rocky Balboa are better than any of the other Rocky movies--including the first. It's amazing that Stallone can get in that kind of shape at 60 years of age. He looks like he could go 10 rounds in the ring, which--of course--is the point.
I found the extras on the disc interesting also. The ending of this movie really worked and when I saw the alternate ending I was shaken a bit. The movie would have been much weaker had they used the alternate--and the deleted scenes included...same story. The film as it stands was far better with those scenes stripped out. I did find that the segment on the making of the final fight in the movie rather puffy. But since it was made for pre-release publicity that sorta thing is to be expected.
All-in-all, this was a very good movie and one that is head and shoulders above the 3rd, 4th, and 5th installments in the Rocky franchise.
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