Movie Stats:
Released 1976 (USA)
American, in English
Director – John G. Avildsen
Stars – Sylvester Stallone, Talia Shire, Burgess Meredith,
Carl Weathers
Plot Summary:
When washed-up, low-level fighter Rocky Balboa (Stallone) is
offered a chance to fight against heavyweight champ Apollo Creed (Weathers), he
accepts despite his misgivings. Shire co-stars as Rocky’s love interest Adrian
Pennino and Meredith as his manager, Mickey Goldmill.
Warnings:
Very minor blue language; the kind of violence you’d expect
from a boxing movie.
Bad Stuff:
I know that people tend to love this movie, but I thought it was
slow & boring.
There’s a lot of repetitive language in the film, i.e.
people being called “bums,” or whenever someone’s being a jerk they backpedal
by saying they’re in a “bad mood.” On the one hand, I think that’s fairly true
to life. People do often use the same phrases over and over. However, on film
I found it very distracting. It felt like lazy writing.
Good Stuff:
I like that Rocky is basically a lovable dumb oaf. He’s very
good-hearted and sweet. He’s also aware of his shortcomings. I thought that was
nice.
To me, it seemed like a fairly accurate representation of
life in a low-income neighborhood. A lot of these people are smart enough to
know that what they’ve got isn’t quite what they want and yet not savvy enough
to figure a way how to make things better. Take, for example, the character of
Adrian’s brother Paulie (played by Burt Young), who is desperate to get away
from his meatpacking job but unable to achieve it. Those kinds of details helped to set the tone of the film.
Sweaters. I’m totally serious. I loved all the sweaters in
this movie. Especially the snug one with reindeers on it that Rocky wore for
Christmas.
The Verdict:
First, let me nerd out and say that I never knew before that
Talia Shire (who appeared in both Godfather I and II as Connie Corleone) is the
sister of Francis Ford Coppola. That means she’s the aunt of Nicolas Cage and,
much to my utter shock, the mom of Jason Schwartzman. I had no idea that
Schwartzman was a Coppola!
As for this movie, let’s be honest here. Everyone pretends
that this is a boxing movie. It’s really not. This movie is about the love
story between Rocky & Adrian. While it’s very sweet, it’s not exactly
groundbreaking. Stallone & Shire had great chemistry together, so the story
worked. But I wasn’t wowed. I’m not really sure why people love this film so
much. Even so, it wasn’t bad. It was more like, “Well, that was okay.” I don’t
imagine myself waxing poetic about it at parties any time soon.
I give the movie 3.25 stars.
2 comments:
Someone told me that whoever released this movie made and released it as a dud that would lose money, because the studios do that (did that?) on purpose for tax purposes, or something. Then they were blown away when it was a runaway hit.
(Don't you love fourth-hand "information" in your comments?)
But I DID know that Jason Schwartzmann was a Coppola, though I just learned that recently. It made so much sense when I found out.
And finally, I've never seen this film. But I can tell you my mother's review. "It's a boxing movie. You are waiting around for the big fight at the end. That's all." She was not a fan, apparently.
Haha, I do love fourth-hand "information" from you! And I enjoyed your mother's review as well. It's pretty accurate.
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