The SBP Archives - Your less than frequent dose of SBP!

With a strong contigent of Italian workers at my office, the talk of Rocky VI brought much anticipation for them months before the eventual release. Of course, I quickly dismissed a 6th installment as being any good. I mean, as the Rocky sequels increased, the quality also decreased. Rocky V was so bad that the decision to name the latest entry Rocky Balboa was done to try to distance itself from it as much as possible.

And surprisingly, we have a movie that's actually pretty good.

Adrien has died, Rocky is lonely, old kids from the neighborhood are now grown up and having kids of their own. Sylvester Stallone plays Rocky with a nice sentimental feeling of a guy struggling to get his life back on track and trying desperately to get over the loss of his beloved wife. Thrown in for good measure is the clichéd son who doesn't have time to spend with his dad. He runs a restuarant (called Adrien's, of course) and tells old boxing stories to the delight of his customers. He's not looking for attention, but to put a smile on the face of others, basks in it as it comes to him.

When a computer simulation pits a in-his-prime Rocky against the current champion, Rocky comes out as the winner and the idea of putting on an exhibition between the two fighters is talked about in the boxing community. Rocky decides he needs to step between the ropes one last time, and, well, we got this movie.

Rocky fans adore the training sequences and boxing battles and this is where shockingly the movie falters. I say shockingly because as much as we may roll our eyes when Ivan Drago spouts, "I MUST BREAK YOU!" we still got a decent action-packed boxing match. Seeing Rocky as a retired fighter outside the ring was more focused and meaningful than the rather quick training regime and a somewhat anti-climatic fight between Rocky and the champ. The story is trying to portray the champion as someone who hasn't been pushed, hasn't been tested and hasn't battled any adversity until now. Since Stallone is also directing this movie, that message isn't conveyed as strongly as it should, and we're left with a fight that's a good first draft but needed some fine tuning.

Yet, seeing Stallone with his physical imperfections in his still-impressive 60 year-old body, playing Rocky one last time, is charming and offers great nostalgia. This is a much better way to end the Rocky franchise than the forgetful part five, although with it's startling good box-office this holiday season, maybe a part seven is coming along sooner than we know.