ROCKY III

Hello Everyone,

You may have notice that I have not had a new post in a while. There are a few reasons for this; my wife and I bought a wii and it is insanely fun and addictive, we prepared for and took a trip to Vegas and I have not been watching that many new films and am also trying to enjoy the nice and hot weather that we have been getting. As always MAY CONTAIN SPOILERS.

At some point in mid May, my beautiful wife Veronica bought the Rocky boxed set. After we saw Iron Man at the movie theatre, my wife said that she wanted to rent Rocky Balboa and I said okay but that we should probably rent the original Rocky as well because neither of us had seen the film. We watched both films; out of order mind you. We watched Rocky Balboa and then Rocky. The new film really had an interesting dialect with the new film; references, parallel montages etc.

Last night, my wife and I watched Rocky 3 and it was somewhat surprised that both Rocky 2 and Rocky 3 were both reasonably good efforts for sequels. Many people rave about how good the original Rocky film is and say that the sequels are not as good, but I think that they honour the original film pretty well. The character development of the Rocky character is very interesting to see and he struggles to keep going and defeat opponents while running the risk of losing everything that he has fought hard to get in the first place.

I was having a discussion with a fellow movie lover, a friend of mine named John (I know it is a common name, but I have a lot more friends named Mike and my name is David, but I do have friends with more original names; Sharda, Sumit, Heather-Anne, Denise [not too common] and others). Where was I...John said that although he did enjoy Rocky Balboa, he thought it was really glossy like an HBO type film or a hyped up ESPN/Pay Per View boxing event. I agreed with him on his point because the original films, specifically the first film have a more home video like contrast to them, partially because of the dated nature of the film stock that was then transfer to DVD and also because of the type of camera, film stock, and lighting techniques that were being used around the time of the first film. I am a big fan of Digital Video and older films that have that more realistic contrasty look to them (i.e. Mean Streets). Having said that I feel that aside from better technology and a likely bigger budget for Rocky Balboa, the reason why they may have made the film so glossy and pay per view event, because of the strength and popularity of the Rocky franchise that Stallone felt that the character really deserved the 'star treatment' for his final epic fight; I agree with this...I did say it and it is my theory so I kind of have to agree with it..I guess; ha ha.

I was surprise to see Hulk Hogan in Rocky 3, because I had never seen it and although I had not seen it, I was unaware that he was in the film. I figure that Mick was going to die because I was able to see the clues telling me (the viewer) that this was going to happen. Mr. T. I thought was a great opponent for Rocky because he was so tough and fast, of course Apollo Creed is likely his most known, respected and popular opponent. Paulie was really starting to piss me off at the beginning of the film, but of course that was the filmmaker's intention. He is one of those characters that you rhetorically ask, What the hell is his problem? Paulie's problem, as far as I can tell is that he is part of something big, but he does not have any of the money or glamour associated with Rocky's fame because he has always been somewhat of a problem for Rocky, so Rocky keeps him at a distance from the business of what he does because although Paulie does have big ideas, he does not have the common sense to appropriately put those ideas into motion without pissing off Rocky. I have notice a somewhat diminished role of Adrienne in Rocky 3 or less screen time anyway. I think that although she may not have a lot of lines, her character does have a strong impact on Rocky; quality of her screen time over quantity in minutes of screen time or number of lines. I am glad that they are continuing to feature Apollo Creed in the Rocky films because he is of course a very important part of the man that Rocky is becoming in his life. I would have to say that I believe Rocky 3 is as good as the 2ND film and that I am somewhat anxious to see if the movie lover maxim will prove to be true with Rocky 4. The maxim that I am referring to is the one that says often but not always, a movie franchise starts to head south in the 3rd film or that they 3rd film is usually a weak one, even if the franchise picks up after that film or after the next one (i.e. The Batman Franchise).

I hope that if you have not seen any films from the Rocky franchise that you go out an rent the first one and give it a try.

Sincerely,

F@nBoy D&vE