Not as thin a sequel as most, I was kinda surprised to be honest. While the part of the story where Rocky quickly burns through his payday, then hits hard times is a little drawn out, it packs a good deal of action into the end.
Best dialogue:
In the hospital after Adrian wakes up from her coma.
Rocky: “If you don’t want me messin with Apollo no more, maybe we can find another way”
Adrian: “There’s one thing I want you to do for me”
Rocky: “What?”
Adrian: “Come here” Rocky leans closer.
Rocky: “What?”
Adrian: (whispers) “Win”
Rocky: “What?”
Adrian: (louder) “Win!”
Mickey: “What are we waiting for?”
Awesome! Just awesome!
It’s a good thing Rocky has a pretty good knockout punch, cause he was getting murdered on the scorecard! The guy has no defense what so ever! Just jab after jab from Creed! He must have been racking up some serious points! -also, I’m fairly certain there were a few parts of the fight where the ref would have stopped that fight.
Was Apollo’s character based on Muhammed Ali, by any chance? I mean it’s pretty obvious he is, but was that ever said so by Stallone?
On the IMDB Trivia page from the first Rocky:
May or may not be true, but if so, you’d be right.
WOW! I had NO idea it was that heavily based on a real boxer! Man, in that second link the guy looks in horrible shape. Of course, he just got pounded by perhaps one fo the greatest boxers of all time, but still, he looks like some fat guy mowing his lawn with his shirt off!
Anyway, why didn’t the “real life Rocky” ride that wave I wonder? He could probably write a semi-interesting book, or at least a documentary film or something.
Well, he almost went the distance with Ali. He was KOed in the 15th.
Previously, Chuck “The Bayonne Bleeder” Wepner’s only “claim to fame” was losing to ex-champ Sonny Liston in the last fight of his career several years earlier.
This was supposed to be just a workout for the champ (Ali)–but something happened. This bum, The Bayonne Bleeder, knocked Ali flat on his ass for only the* fourth time in his career. Then he goes on, and although loses, this bum almost goes the distance!
BTW, Joe Frazier was another model for the Rocky fighter. Stallone based his training on Smokin’ Joe. So, it’s not just coincidence that Smokin’ Joe has a guest appearance in Rocky I. It was a way of sort of giving credit.
*The others being, in order, Sonny Banks, Henry Cooper, and Smokin’ Joe Frazier. But wait–there’s more! Sometime after the fight a still photograph showed that the knockdown was not legitimate. Wepner had stepped on Ali’s foot while Ali was moving backwards, which was the reason he went down. That’s a well-known phenomenon, and is almost always entirely accidental, as it doesn’t bode well to be looking at your opponent’s feet.