Rocky VI
Sylvester Stallone (Rocky Balboa)

What is it you said to the kid? The world ain't all sunshine and rainbows. It's a very rough, mean place... and no matter how tough you think you are, it'll always bring you to your knees and keep you there, permanently... if you let it. You or nobody ain't never gonna hit as hard as life. But it ain't about how hard you hit... it's about how hard you can get hit, and keep moving forward... how much you can take, and keep moving forward. If you know what you're worth, go out and get what you're worth. But you gotta be willing to take the hit. - Rocky

My dad worked a lot when I was a child, and with five children, I did not get to spend a lot of individual time with him. So, it was one of the highlights of childhood, and maybe the reason I love movies so much today, he took me, ME, with him to see Rocky in Ames. I remember the drive on the icy roads down to the Century Theater (at the time, the Century Two, now a parking lot). I remember the energy I had walking out, and every moment of the film. I remember days on end of phantom boxing, sit-ups, humming “Gonna Fly Now,” and yelling, “Yo, Adrian!” On November 21, 1976, America was introduced to a cultural icon, the Italian Stallion, Rocky Balboa. In February, it won the Academy Award for Best Picture and might have been the most influential film of the entire decade. In a nation dealing with the aftermath of the Vietnam War and Vietnam, it provided a positive role model, an example of a common man who overcame all the obstacles and went the distance. It defied the cynicism of the time. The legendary filmmaker of Americana Frank Capra proclaimed, "Boy, that's a film I wish I had made." Stallone came up with the character after watching little-known club fighter Chuck Wepner last fifteen rounds with the great Muhammad Ali. In just three-and-a-half days, Stallone wrote the first draft of the Rocky story. The studios loved the script, but wanted Burt Reynolds, Ryan O’Neal, or James Caan to star in it. A huge sum of money was offered to the broke, young actor, but he didn’t take the cash because he wanted the film to be a starring vehicle for himself. Eventually, United Artists gave in. Many of the executives still didn’t fully understand who their lead was even after production of the film had started. During the dailies, director John G. Avildsen was asked when they were going to start filming Stallone’s scene, mistaking the Italian actor for his Lords of Flatbush blonde co-star Perry King.
The making of Rocky VI is just as big of a long shot story as the original. As everyone who loves the Rocky series knows, the quality of the flicks went down hill. Rocky II and III were decent, but IV and V were toboggan rides to the bottom. The franchise grossed $496,286,204 or $1,011,877,532 when adjusted for inflation. Yet, the final installment made just $40,946,358. By the fifth film, Rocky had stopped looking like the guy next door or the average club fighter, and with the help of plastic surgeons and steroids, he had been transformed into a Greek god. The fighter from Philadelphia had become part of the Hollywood machine. Stallone’s career also bottomed out. After suffering through box office bombs like Judge Dredd and Daylight, Stallone was able to get only one film, Driven, released to big screen in the United States. Other films like Avenging Angelo and Eye See You went straight to video. While he could play wacky bad guys in movies like Spy Kids III, in studio executives’ eyes, he was box office poison. With the last Rocky appearing in 1990 and Stallone becoming a AARP poster boy, it appeared that Balboa would never make an in-ring comeback, especially when MGM started playing hardball with Sylvester. Studio executives did not want to lose money. They wanted to keep the budget between $10 and $15 million, comparable to the budget of the original film. That way, even if the film stunk, with DVD/video sales, international markets where Stallone is still a superstar, and cable, they would make a handsome profit.
Like the first film, the 60-year-old Stallone used reality to inspire him. He like the rest of America watched in amazement as George Foreman made a comeback. While Stallone has had enough plastic surgery, botox, and chemical help to pass for a man a decade or two younger than himself, Burt Young hasn’t. Paulie, well, looks like Paulie. Talia Shire (Adrian) looks like the 60-year-old woman that she is. Solution: Well, it would not be a Rocky film unless someone died. So, Adrian is killed off before the movie even opens. Yet, Stallone is smart enough to remember that what made the first film so great was the love affair between a down on his luck club fighter and a bookish wallflower who worked at a pet store. So, even though Adrian is not in the film, her relationship with the Italian Stallion is still front and center. There are plenty of scenes of Rocky next to Adrian’s grave, remembering the past with Paulie, eating at the restaurant he owns named after her, and even a repeat of the most famous line in the original film. There is also a riff between the former champ and his son (Milo Ventimiglia – “Gilmore Girls”) (Stallone’s son, Sage, passed on reprising his role from Rocky V). Rocky begins a relationship with Little Marie (Geraldine Hughes), the little girl that the future champ walked home in the original films, and gets to know her son, Steps (James Francis Kelly III). The sports cable network ESPN does a segment where they match fighters from the past against fighters from today. The computer states that if Rocky Balboa in his prime met current champion Mason “The Line” Dixon (Antonio Tarver), the slugger from Philadelphia would come out on top. This outcome is mocked on the show 1st and Ten, where they say Rock was pretty much a bum that got lucky. All of this leads the retired champ into coming out of retirement. After getting his license back from the athletic committee to do some local fighting, Dixon’s people approached Rocky about doing a big fight. Soon the over-the-hill Balboa is back in training for the big fight.
Rocky plots aren’t too difficult. They are all geared to the big fight. Mason Dixon does not have the charisma of Carl Weathers, or Mr. T, or is seemingly unbeatable like Dolph Lundgren. Yet, he is almost secondary. This film is really a good-bye letter, a walk down memory lane, and a proper ending to everyone’s favorite underdog saga. Nostalgia dribbles off this film like spittle down an old man’s chin. It is not a great film, but much better than the last 2 installments of the franchise. It is closer to the 2nd film than any other. The film is Stallone’s way of letting people know that he is like the character he created. The last few years he could not get arrested in American cinema. This year he will be doing Rocky, next year, Rambo, the two characters that made Sly an unlikely international sensation. You can almost hear him saying to his critics, “Yo Adrian, I did it.”

 

Verdict: Yo Adrian, I Am Mediocre