See here.
Sylvester . . . you’re 60 years old! Muhammed Ali, in his present condition, could eat you for breakfast and spit you out for lunch! So could Pee-Wee Herman! And if you went into the ring with Woody Allen, I’d take the long odds on Woody! What were you thinking?!!
Strangly enough, the trailer makes me want to go see it.
I defy thee not to get goosebumps when you hear the opening notes to “Eye of the Tiger”…
– IG
Weird Al’s “Rye or the Kaiser” is better. In every conceivable respect.
Touche.
– IG
Maybe so. Rocky however would eat Ali for breakfast 
Foreman was quite old when he had his last shot IRL. I see no reason to say that in the Rocky universe that he shouldn’t have another shot.
The trailer and early reviews are quite positive.
V was a POS but 4 and 3 were so bad they were good. 1 and 2 were very enjoyable IMO. 1 was also quite credible from any perspective you want to look at it from.
I’ll give this a watch, I have to say. Kinda looking forward to wanting Rocky to win again if I’m honest about it.
I’ve liked TV series with fewer episodes.
He dies at the end of the film.
Just wait.
I’ve an enormous fondness for the first film for many reasons. I’m from Philly and have had a career formed by the man who did that infamous running shot up the Art Museum Steps and through the Italian Market. ( amongst many others in that film ). I may be one of a handful of Steadicam Operators on the East Coast who has not made a pilgrimage to Philly to take their own rig and run up the Art Museum Steps. Seriously. Apparently it’s quite the thing to do. Not my style.
Setting side my personal involvement, the script for “Rocky” isn’t half bad- in an era of excellent quirky scripts it won Stallone an Academy Award nomination for best original script. Is the story original? Hell no. Is it handled with modern gritty urban nuance? Without doubt.
The film was shot for $ 900,000.00. It is fair to say that it has much more than made a tidy return on its investment. It gave people something to cheer about in 1977 in a way they’d not cheered in quite a while.
He’s not an idiot. He’s going out to poke holes in his own myth, to humanize the ageing warrior that rests inside of so many men of his age. I don’t see it as a parody at all. He’s taking it all full circle, and that takes some serious nerve to do when you look back and consider what the role meant to his life and career.
I cannot wait to see it, and wish to god I could see the premiere. ( Which I assume is happening in Philadelphia ). I’ve friends who worked on the Philly segment of the shoot and who said it was quite the emotional set. Everyone there felt it- it wasn’t another hack job. This isn’t " Rocky XXXXIV ".
To put it another way, if the back-story and myth and publicity and public perception of Stallone did not exist, and this older guy with some chops wrote this script and it was produced independantly, would you go to see it?
I would.
Cartooniverse
God, I hope you’re right, Cartooniverse. Since I’ve heard of this movie I’ve thought that the only way to do this is as an examination of aging and that Rocky should die at the end. It would give the movie weight and heft that would bring legitimacy to it.
Toss in some humor and a decent performance by Stallone, which, as an aside, he’s capable of bringing, and it should be a good movie.
OTOH, if it’s one more romp in the ring it’s a doubtful thing.
I’ve never watched any of the Rocky movies.
But when I’m a little old lady that nobody would give the time of die to if it wasn’t cos of her money, I’ll still be regaling my nephews with the tale of that time I took a Spanish coworker who was visiting Philly to the Art Museum to see the view and he stared at the view, then at the floor, then turned at me and said:
“WOW! These are the stairs from ROCKY! Oh, WOW!”
Getting his picture taken there was the trip’s highlight for him.
[/hijack]
Everything else I’d thought of has already been said by other people.
That’s my guess, too.
Also, I heard that during the credits (I don’t know if open or closing)
[not a PLOT spoiler]
that there’s a video montage of just regular people running up the museum steps and throwing their arms in the air.
Rocky resonates. What else can you say? I’m looking forward to this one.
I was younger, but I always like 1-4. I heard an interview on NPR recently with Sly. He was saying that part of why 5 failed was that people just want to see Rocky in the ring, that’s what they identify with.
Sly’s a pretty smart guy. He knows exactly what he’s made, and who it’s for.
The interview was funny. He was saying that for years, everyone (naturally) would give him the “Yo, Adrian” walking down the street. He said something like, “I was thinking, ‘Hey, I’m more than that.’ then I realized, ‘no, I’m probably not’.”
I’m sure I was the right age, but I like all the Rambo’s too. The first one is awesome. I think Judge Dredd is underrated, too. Not great, but not without some funny stuff.
Stallone seems to be a pretty decent, down to earth guy, and since he hasn’t had a hit in ages I hope this does well. Ebert gives it a fat thumbs up, FWIW, which is nothing.
The movie is at 77% on the Rotten Tomatoes web site, with 90% of mainstream critics saying it’s a good movie. That’s a pretty good rating. A few reviews are absolutely glowing.
Sounds like it’s the best Rocky film since Rocky.
I think it’s a testament to Stallone’s genius he can actually make the movie everyone’s been making jokes out of for years and no one’s apparently laughing.
Me? I won’t see it in the theaters, but I’ll probably catch it on DVD eventually. I already know what to expect from Stallone, but I’m curious what kind of range the guy who plays his son has. I like him well enough in Heroes.
As my father said when we saw a trailer for F.I.S.T., “It’s nice to see there’s still work for inarticulate actors.”
I’m curious why his RL son didn’t return for this one.
Not sure how seriously I can take it after hearing Sly hawking the Rocky as Christian Warrior line.
Well, so long as he keeps that out of the movie . . . here’s hopin’ . . . Rocky was never that much of a sinner in the first place.
Wonder when Britney and Paris are going to find Jesus?
He wrote that one too, didn’t he?
I understand the dismissal of Stallone’s acting ability, what with Rocky IV & V, Cobra, F.I.S.T. and Lords of Flatbush. But have you seen Copland? The guy can act.
Another trivia bit, since The Lords of Flatbush was mentioned. Originally Garry Marshall, et al offered the role of Arthur Fonzarelli to Sly Stallone but he turned it down. He said he had this script he wanted to write and make into a film, and didn’t want to do t.v. instead.
They went to the next guy on the list- another actor from The Lords of Flatbush: Henry Winkler. Stallone made “Rocky” and Fonzie became a household name in another way.
This came to me from the man who directed the Pilot Episode of “Happy Days”. I shot an episode of " Early Edition" for him years ago.