The Film Thugs Movie Show

The Criterion Collection, the last vestige of truly collectible DVD and Blu-Ray movies in existence. These are well produced, fancy pants editions of important and interesting films for the discerning film lover.

We continue our journey through Jim's collection of movies with...

Week 11:

Rushmore

Spine Number: 65

Director: Wes Anderson

Genre: Comedy

Few directors come out as fully formed as Wes Anderson. From the beginning it was clear what kind of filmmaker he was going to be. Quirky, yes, but not in an off putting way. Funny, but with a big heart and a lot of love for his characters. Visually distinctive, but with a style firmly rooted in his influences (Harold and Maude, we are looking at you). Unique characters who are completely believable as part of the world they inhabit.

His first film, Bottle Rocket (which we will be watching for this series eventually), was a statement but Rushmore was the absolute distillation of what he was all about. Max Fischer, Herman Blume, Rosemary Cross, Bert Fisher, Dr. Nelson Guggenheim, Dirk Callaway, Margaret Yang, Magnus Buchan, Ronnie and Donnie Blume and the rest are all very real, fully formed people who make this unique world the rich and engaging place that it is. This is a warm, funny, imminently re-watchable movie that leaves you feeling better than you did when it started, which is a rare achievement. So, join us as we talk Rushmore, one of the best movies of the past 20 years.

Next week:

Spine Number 75: Chasing Amy

Also, check this out.

http://fantasymovieleague.com/
Looks like Summer Movie League has officially become Fantasy Movie League.
It looks quite fun. Here's how it works.
You have an 8 screen theater.
Every week you pick movies and have a budget/salary cap you have to stay under.
Then you compete against other theaters in your league.
It's fantasy football for movie people.

Our league is Film Thugs 2015 and the password is Porterhouse.

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Also, be sure to check back often for our new endeavor The Life Masters, where we answer questions to other advice columnists.

Thanks for listening, and until next week...

Jim out.

Alpha to Omega The film franchise is an inescapable part of the modern movie landscape. In this series I will address a series of films from the first to the last, looking at each film as a standalone and how it fits into the series. Rocky V Movies are a complex thing. So much happens between the page and the screen that it is often a wonder that any movies get made, let alone good ones. Look at the basic steps- Pre-Production- Concept, first draft, rewrite, rewrite, rewrite, securing finance, finding a director, hiring a crew, casting, location scouting, wardrobe, rewrite, rewrite, rewrite. Production- Film, rewrite, reshoot, rewrite, reshoot Post Production- Edit, rewrite, reshoot, edit, sound edit, color correct, recast, rewrite, reshoot.... It’s all a hot damned nightmare. So, can it really be considered a surprise when a movie that has a really solid concept completely falls apart in execution? This is the case with “Rocky V,” a movie that is savaged to the point of having its existence outright denied by Rocky fans... and with good reason. Let me be clear right off the bat, this is not a defense of “Rocky V,” far from it. It’s a pretty awful film. Hell, even Stallone lists this as his biggest regret. Not “Rhinestone,” not “Oscar,”  “Stop or My Mom Will Shoot,” (of which he says,"People didn't expect me in comedies or musicals. I made some truly awful movies. Stop! Or My Mom Will Shoot was the worst. If you ever want someone to confess to murder, just make him or her sit through that film. They will confess to anything after 15 minutes!"), not “Assassins,” or “The Specialist,” but... “Rocky V.” But how? The idea, on paper at least, isn’t terrible. In fact, it’s kind of amazing and fits completely with the arc of the films. Rocky- Act 1- We meet and come to care about the guy. Rocky 2- Act 2- We see him face setbacks while running from his destiny until he is ultimately forced to face it. Rocky 3- Act 3- He gets what he wants, loses what he needs, and has to fight his way back. Rocky 4- Act 4- He goes to Russia and busts the ass of a communist robot. At this point the series is following typical dramatic structure pretty cleanly. So, what would happen next that would force the story forward. Well, as it was established in “Rocky 2,” Rock isn’t very bright and has no idea how to manage his money. So, through some completely unimportant plot contrivances, let’s have him lose everything and force him to start all over again with nothing. If you think about it, this is the only logical way the story could move forward at this stage. By taking Rocky back to who he was at the beginning, making him a stranger to that world, and forcing him to adapt to it again you get to the core of the character. Rocky is, was, and always will be about resilience. No matter what gets thrown at him he keeps moving forward (this will be revisited in the next film). Think about it, 1- He’s a joke with no chance who has to prove that he is someone. 2- He has to come to terms with who and what he is and come back to himself. 3- He loses touch with who he was and has to earn that fire again. 4- He has to beat up Russia Again, classic character arc stuff here. So, after going through all of this and having everything, what do you do? Simple, you take it all away. At the beginning of “Rocky V,” Rock has lost the championship by taking part in an unlicensed fight in Russia, he has lost the ability to fight because of the inhuman cranial pounding he took in Russia, he has no money because of... well, that’s a bit convoluted and ultimately unimportant, the point is he’s broke, and because of the fallout from his financial nightmare he can’t even get endorsement deals. All he has is a house in the old neighborhood, and Mickey’s gym, which was willed to his son when Mickey died. So, Rocky moves back to the old neighborhood with nothing and the family tries to start over again. Now, on paper this is a really solid idea. On paper. But when it hit the screen it was... well, a bit of a mess. Why? Well, Stallone himself put it best. “I'm greedy - what can I tell you? It was a mistake because the audience didn't want to see the downside of the character. They wanted him to remain on top. I should have known that. I fell into a sense of self-parody." So, what happened. Well, lots of things. Basically, everything involving Rocky and his family was pretty solid (performances not withstanding). Adrian does what she does, she keeps the family together and does what needs to be done to keep things moving. Again, Adrian has always been the heart of the movies and in this film she falls naturally into the role. His son has to adjust to being the son of a famous/disgraced celebrity, thrown from a comfortable world of rich kids and rules onto the streets of Philly where things are a bit rougher. Rocky turns to training fighters and running the gym. Basically, back to where he started. He meets a scrappy up and comer and takes him under his wing. There is so much promise here. Then it gets strange. There is a Don King-esque boxing promoter who is convinced that he MUST get Rocky to fight again. He turns Rocky’s protege against him and the whole thing ends in a street fight. What didn’t work? Well, Richard Gant as George Washington Duke, the Don King character, didn’t make much, if any, sense. He is crazy rich to begin with, so his obsession with Rocky fighting again seems odd. What is the gain? It’s not like it’s life changing money for the man, it’s just more money. No knock against Gant. He does a great job with what he was given. He just wasn’t given much. Here’s the thing about bad movies, the villain is never more complex than an adjective or two. Why is he bad? Well, he’s “greedy.” There isn’t any more motivation than that. No personal vendetta, no complex issue from his past, no nothing. He wants more money and is willing to put Rocky’s life on the line to get it. Rocky’s protege doesn’t really work because they cast a boxer and tried to get him to act rather than an actor they could make look like a boxer. Apollo Creed worked because Carl Weathers is unbelievably charismatic. Honestly, you can’t take your eyes off him. Yes, he is an athlete, and a damned good one, but he was undeniably an actor as well. James “Clubber” Lang worked because Mr. T was an actor. Not a great actor, but Lang was a one note character. T just happened to be able to hit that note cleanly. Ivan Drago was... well, he didn’t need to do anything other than look like an action figure. Say what you will, but Dolph is nothing if not an imposing force of nature. So, Tommy Gunn... played by Tommy “Machine Gun” Morrison, had a bit to live up to. Sadly, he didn’t really deliver. Nothing against him. He’s a boxer who had never acted before and hasn’t really acted since playing a pivotal role in one of the most beloved film franchises in history. The kid didn’t stand a chance. Rocky’s son Robert, played by the late Sage Stallone.... Look, this kid has been the whipping boy of this film since it came out. I’m not going to pile on. Was his acting great? No. Was it horrid... not really. He was a 14 year old kid in his first acting role playing opposite his father in a movie written by his father from a wildly popular series of films created by his father. He was in an un-winnable position from the beginning. He wasn’t great, but he did as good a job as any person in that situation could reasonably be expected to do. The story itself is what killed this thing. Basically, Rocky loses everything, trains a new fighter, neglects his family, the fighter betrays him in a move orchestrated by a greedy fight promoter in an attempt to score a major payday with a Rocky Balboa comeback fight, the young fighter believes the hype, challenges Rocky to a fight, the two have a street brawl, Rocky wins and realizes what is important in life. You think that’s bad, substitute the ending with “Rocky is beaten to death in the final fight and dies in Adrain’s arms” and you get an idea of how bad it could have been. I am by no means saying that “it’s good because it’s not as bad as it could have been,” quite the opposite, in fact. This movie was so fundamentally flawed that I can’t really think of a way you could have saved it. I mean, the best I can think of is setting it up as more of a remake of the first movie with Rocky in the Mickey role, and that sounds fucking terrible. Basically, at this stage of the game there isn’t any real way for them to advance the story of the character without doing something they have done before. So, they had painted themselves into a corner. They’ve done redemption and revenge, now they need to do betrayal and survival, which is not inherently a bad idea, but it can’t work because, as Stallone himself said, “the audience didn't want to see the downside of the character.” This is a character we have invested in. The first time we saw him he was fighting for next to nothing in front of next to nobody and we go with him through all manner of personal turmoil and land on top with him. Asking us to see him lose everything was just asking too much. To me there is one, and only one, reason to make a sequel. There is a cool or interesting story to tell with those characters. That’s it. It doesn’t have to be some epic story arc or anything. All you need is a good story for those characters. Give an audience that, and things like logic and reason go out the window (Rocky 4 proved that quite convincingly). Rocky V is a case study in the law of diminishing returns. At some point you just run out of ground to cover. That doesn’t mean that the story or the character is dead, it just means that at a certain point you won’t get what you use to out of them. Most movie series hit this wall a few entries earlier, so to have four solid films out before tanking is pretty impressive. But if you think about it the movie going public has been so thoroughly conditioned to expect awful sequels that the longer a series goes without producing one, the greater the expectations grow and the harder it becomes to make ones that don’t disappoint. We know that the cliff is out there and that, eventually, the series is going to find it. It seems like every good entry the cliff gets a little bit higher. The higher the cliff, the more spectacular the fall. So, no, Rocky V is not unwatchable, it’s just bad and in such a beloved and successful series, “bad,” is the same as horrible. Once again, Hollywood proves that just because you can do something, doesn’t mean you should. Shop Amazon Home Entertainment - Black Friday Deals on TV, Video

Alpha to Omega

The film franchise is an inescapable part of the modern movie landscape. In this series I will address a series of films from the first to the last, looking at each film as a standalone and how it fits into the series.

Rocky IV

Jean-Luc Goddard once said that "The cinema is truth at 24 frames per second." First, I think this gets at the essence of thoughtful cinema. Any movie that has an emotional or intellectual investment on behalf of the filmmakers will, in some regard, be a representation of how that person sees the world. Things don't always work out the way you want them to, people don't win when they should, and things aren't always connected.

Second, how great is it that I found a way to quote Goddard in an article about "Rocky IV?"

Why would I do such a thing? Well, in not everything that happens to a person is part of the same story. Our lives are more segmented than we think they are. Yes, you are a constant but not everything is thematically tied together.

Such is the case with "Rocky IV." This movie, wonderful though it is, has very little to do with the rest of the series. As I said in my "Rocky III" piece:

If you look at the first three Rocky films as a thematic trilogy it goes as follows:

Rocky- Heart and hunger vs Pride

Rocky II- Pride and destiny vs Hubris

Rocky III- Hubris and Fame vs heart and pride

Rocky IV falls more into Heart and Pride vs... Russia.

It really does stand apart. Yes, there are common themes and there are events that are wildly important in the Rocky universe, but it's very much an episodic, standalone movie.

Plot rundown, just to refresh...

It's the middle of the cold war and the Soviet Union decides that it is time for them to show their superiority by entering the world of professional boxing. And they don't just throw any old ham and egger out there, instead they bring a 6'5" 261 pound (which I guess is impressive to everyone in the world but me, who stands 6'8", 290 pounds, but it's fun pretending that someone smaller than you are is a giant, so I went with it) paragon of Soviet superiority named Ivan Drago. First off, well played with the name. I love movies that give bad guys names like this. Somehow it comes off more mustache twirling than Boris Badinoff. I know there are people out there with names like this (hell, there is a retired Army sergeant named Max Fightmaster... so if Sgt. Max Fightmaster is a real person, I suppose Ivan Drago isn't so much of a longshot) but it comes off so much faker. Normally it's the hero with a handle like "Jack Slade," or "John Matrix," or "Bob Swagger," but they might as well just name them Rad Heroman. I think they went with Ivan Drago because "Boris Badinoff" was already taken, but...

So, the Russkies think they can just waltz into our country and be all, "We are superior. Our training is better, our people are stronger, and we will crush you puny American's like... how you say, grape?" Well, not on Apollo Creed's watch, because there is nothing that strikes fear into a pristine Russian fighting machine like a retired boxer in his 40's.

Creed arranges a massive event in Las Vegas where he will take this cocky Bolshevik down a peg or two. The fight begins with a massive, over the top entry performance featuring James Brown singing, "Living In America," and Creed dressed as Uncle Sam that would make Creed look like kind of a douche today, but in the 80's it made him look like a proud American, and ends with Creed beaten to death.

Drago seems rather cold, only stating, "If he dies... he dies," before lighting a bus full of orphans, puppies, and orphan puppies on fire and laughing as he lights a Cuban cigar in with the flames (part of that last sentence might not have happened).

Rocky isn't having this and decides to go to Russia and get a bit of the old American style revenge. Several montages later (And I do mean several. This movie is to montages what "The Wild Bunch" was to dying in slow motion) Balboa is facing off against this remorseless punching machine in Russia on Christmas day. Long story short, after being brutally tenderized for the entire fight Rocky wins, not only the fight, but the hearts of the Russian people. He gives a speech and we fade out on him draped in the stars and stripes and any man with a heart in his chest wiping a tear from his eye.

While this movie does have many of the hallmarks of the Rocky series, and does advance the characters some it is very clearly a departure both thematically and narratively. Where the first three had a defined arc both as individual and series films, this one really does stand alone.

First off, Rocky doesn't really need to go to Russia. In 2 and 3 he needed to beat the guy in order to gain, or regain his self respect. Here, he is doing it out of guilt for allowing the Creed fight to go on, and to avenge his friend. Revenge, though cool, is not really the same as heart.

Second, there isn't anything new introduced, rather the themes from the first three are expounded on. Rocky trains old school, in the middle of nowhere. While Drago is in a state of the art lab... quick aside. Knowing what we now know about the Soviet Union, how ludicrous are those training facilities? Don't get me wrong, Russia did some hardcore training, but they throw cannon balls around and beat tires with sledge hammers or work in rock quarries using only their fists... they didn't have state of the art computer analytics and temperature controlled indoor tracks and treadmills.

Drago's training would have been more like Rocky's. Living in a barn, doing intense chores, and running up mountains... gets all manner of scientific help (they don't outright say he uses steroids, but they do show him getting injected and I can only assume there was a part of that scene that was cut where they show a comically large vial marked STEROIDS that they draw the shot from).

Also, the Adrian storyline, though nice and important, wasn't really new. She refuses to support him in the fight at first, like in Rocky 2, but eventually comes around. This is almost a more predictable story than Rocky winning. Adrian has always been the most important part of these movies. She's been Rocky's heart, and Rocky is all about heart. Had she not surprised him in Russia, there isn't much chance he would have own. Without Adrian he is lost... but this isn't new. It's covering old ground, and even though it does it well, it's still old ground.

There are many things about this movie that are absolutely amazing. The biggest being Dolph Lundgren. First off, he looks like a fucking action figure in this thing. Not like a regular, but like one designed by someone who was trying to get fired. He is unrealistically big. But that just goes to my theory that Dolph exists on this planet to show every other man how he is deficient He is a former Amphibious Ranger with the Marines, karate champion, masters degree in chemical engineering, MIT Fulbright scholar who speaks 7 languages and looks like this...

So, no you are not as good as him.

But this is a problem. Just look at the matchup in this movie...

I love you Rock... but you end this fight as a skin bag full of broken bones that requires a closed casket funeral.

But of course Rocky guts it out. I'm not complaining, that was the point of the movie. It's nationalistic, escapist fun, not a documentary shot in real time.

What makes this movie stand out though is the montages. There are no fewer than 8 montages that cover about a half an hour of screen time.

They are...

Exploding gloves/Rocky 3 recap- 2 minutes

Creed and James Brown (though not a Hollywood montage, it is basically a music video that follows a more classic montage template than anything else, so it counts)- 2 min 50 sec

Rocky drives to the airport (this features "No Easy Way Out," a song that objectively rules)- this recaps the first three movies- 4 minutes 25 seconds

Three minutes later...

Rocky arrives in Russia montage (Survivor's "Burning Heart," a bit too on the nose, and a weak follow up to "Eye of the Tiger.") - 2 min 41 sec.

Four minutes of Duke telling Rock that he needs to train later...

Training Montage 1- 3 min 40 sec

45 SECONDS LATER...

Training Montage 2- 4 min 15 sec

Final Battle- 4 min 35 sec

Victory Montage- 4 min 45 sec

That is 29 minutes and 10 seconds of montages in a movie that is 91 minutes and 20 seconds long. Do the math... carry the one... and that adds up to...

31.9% OF THE FILM

I am not criticizing. The first time I saw this movie was on an Air Force base in Panama when it was new. Anyone who even thought of looking at this movie with anything short of screaming praise would have been beaten to death in the theatre... and justifiably so.

The final fight is fascinating. First off, it appears that Russia doesn't cotton to the "get knocked down three times in a single round and you lose on a TKO" thing, because Rocky spends more time on the mat than in his corner (in Russia Technical knocks out you!). Honestly, Drago hits him so hard that, if you slow it down, you can actually see the taste leaving his mouth.

Rocky takes so many unobstructed face punches from this Baltic death machine I am surprised he didn't just start punching himself in the face in an effort to stop himself from running into that nightmare one more time.

Here's the thing about Rocky 4... unlike the rest of the movies in this series you cannot bring your hip, new century judgmental bullshit into it. If you approach this movie from a "that would never happen" or "Isn't the patriotism a little over the top," then you have failed to understand this film on such a fundamental level that any further discussion will just end in me wanting to slap your stupid monkey face so hard that you couldn't do anything other than just stand there, grooving on it.

This is a fun, time capsule of a movie. Yes, there was a time when the US had a clear enemy for unclear reasons. It was amazing because it made movies like this easy. There weren't protests about how we made the Russians look bad, or that it was blatant propaganda. Both of these things are true, but nobody really gave a shit. Just have some escapist fun and realize that there is nothing wrong with it.

The film franchise is an inescapable part of the modern movie landscape. In this series I will address a series of films from the first to the last, looking at each film as a standalone and how it fits into the series.

Rocky 3

Part 3’s have become a pretty horrible thing lately. I have personally lost count of how many recent series have begun strong, gotten stronger… and then fallen to crap.

Granted there are exceptions. Toy Story 3, among others, was fantastic, but more often than not the third film is about where the production company takes over and decides that toys are more important than the film. What you end up with, most of the time, is an overwritten, pandering, poorly thought out unnecessary film that has little to do with the original.

Quick aside…

A third film does not make a trilogy. A trilogy is a three-part story. Star Wars (the original), Lord of the Rings, Back to the Future, are complete stories told over the course of three films.

Indiana Jones, Alien, Toy Story, Pirates of the Caribbean, and other series films, are not and never will be trilogies. Even if you stop at 3… if you aren’t beginning, continuing, and concluding a story over three films, you are not making a trilogy.

There are also, on occasion, films that fit the first criteria, but then move on and extend the trilogy and become a series. This is very rare.

In 1982 Sylvester Stallone made just such a film. Oh, it’s also, quite possibly, the greatest film of the 80’s (that isn’t “Big Trouble in Little China”) and possibly… the greatest movie of all time.

“Rocky III,” is, for lack of a better term, FUCKING MAGIC!

If you look at the first three Rocky films as a thematic trilogy it goes as follows:

Rocky- Heart and hunger vs Pride

Rocky II- Pride and destiny vs Hubris

Rocky III- Hubris and Fame vs heart and pride

Rocky a man with nothing, who was hungry to prove himself going against a man who had everything and had nothing to prove.

Rocky II was a man fighting his destiny going against a man who could not live in a world that doubted him in any way.

Rocky III is a man who won the world, but lost his soul going against a man who had nothing and was hungry to prove himself.

This is classical narrative structure. A man has nothing, goes on a journey and achieves his goals only to lose them and have to go on another journey to get back what he lost.

When last we say Rocky he had just won the heavyweight championship in a stunning upset defeat of Apollo Creed. This film picks up three years later, and what a three years it has been. Rocky has defended his title 10 times and become a national media celebrity. He is incredibly wealthy and comfortable in his new life. Everything is perfect…

Until a young, hungry upstart named James “Clubber” Lang starts rising through the ranks. A violent thug turned boxer (while in prison) he is looking to become king of the mountain, and like Apollo Creed, feels the only way he can truly do that is by beating Rocky.

He challenges Rocky publicly and gets him to agree to the fight.

Rocky sees it as a publicity stunt. He turns his training into a media circus. This isn’t a fight to him, this is a farewell tour.

Lang, on the other hand, is hungry and determined. He trains obsessively, with one goal in mind: Destroy Rocky.

Fight night arrives and all hell breaks loose. On the way to the ring Balboa and Lang have an altercation and Mickey is injured. Rocky wants to cancel the fight, but Mick urges him to fight and win.

Rocky enters the ring distracted and… gets beaten soundly in two rounds.

Defeated, Rock returns to the locker room in time to see Mickey die. Defeated and heartbroken Rocky is, for the first time lost.

Mickey and Adrian have always been Rocky’s heart and soul. What does he have without his mentor?

In steps Apollo Creed. You see, Lang is a large type asshole and Creed wants to see the arrogant man defeated. So, he steps in and offers to train Rock and help him get back the “eye of the tiger” that he has lost through years of comfortable living.

From here we get some masterful training montages. Honestly, these things set the bar. They are also a tad… homoerotic, I guess is the term. There are a lot of close ups of men’s thighs as they run down the beach and through the surf.

Rocky comes to the rematch honed, toned, and ready. He unloads on Lang, who comes back, and after taking a bit of the old busta fazool, Rock finally knocks the other man out and reclaims his title.

I cannot possibly speak objectively about this movie. It came out when I was 7 and by the time I saw it I was a full-fledged A-Team addict. I LOVED Mr.T, and even though he was THE bad guy, and be clear, he was not A bad guy, this cat was THE bad guy, I was absolutely fanatical about T.

This movie… it’s just so damned amazing. I am not kidding when I call it the only movie from the 80’s to give “Big Trouble in Little China” a run for “Best Film of the Decade.” It doesn’t beat it, but it’s in the conversation. Sure, that statement might be awash in youthful nostalgia, but it might also be completely true.

Let’s look at it from two points of view.

First, from a structural/narrative vantage.

This movie not only continues the story of Rocky Balboa, it takes it in the most interesting direction possible. This is a man who went from nobody to champ in a very short period of time. He has everything. What do you do to the man who has everything? You take it away.

Not money, mind you. At this point Rocky is just a step above the tough, working class guy he was in the first movie. No, you have to take away everything that matters.

So, you kill his mentor and father figure, and take the one thing that he worked the hardest for, his title. But you don’t just do those two things, you do them in the same night, and you have him lose his title badly. You have him lose it so badly that it looks as if he never deserved it in the first place.

In short, you break him. It’s an extension of what happened in Rocky 2. People start disrespecting him and he almost loses Adrian, his heart.

Then, when he’s broken down and has nobody to really help pull him back up (yeah, Adrian keeps him afloat, but Mickey made him reach higher) you bring in a new mentor.

But who?

Well, if you’re lazy and unimaginative, you create another Mickey, some gruff old guy who kicks him in the ass and gets him moving.

Or, if you’re not a lazy hack you take his biggest rival and transform him into his mentor.

Why is Apollo Creed the only real choice here? Two reasons. First, he knows what Rocky is capable of. He has stood toe to toe with the man for 30 rounds of brutal combat, so he knows what is in Rock’s heart.

Second, he has been where Rocky is. He had the title and lost it because he underestimated his opponent and overestimated himself. He knows the sting of losing a fight because he lost focus. So he knows what needs to happen to get Rocky back where he needs to be.

When we get to the final fight, and Creed gives Rocky his red, white, and blue trunks… it means something. It’s not just a vote of confidence or a show of friendship; it’s a subtle reminder. Remember who you were that night, and go out and be that guy again.

It’s an amazing transformation for Creed. He goes from dismissive businessman to obsessed villain, to human.

The final fight is absolutely everything you want it to be. Rocky has become a better, faster boxer and comes at Lang with everything. Lang rages back, but Rocky won’t back down. Rocky has found what he lost and then some. He has grown and earned the right to win, which he does.

This movie follows classical narrative structure not only as a self-contained film, but also as a part of the larger world of the film series.

Now, let’s look at this from a nostalgic “how awesome is this” point of view.

What the hell is there not to love about this thing?

It has Hulk Hogan in one of the most incredible cameo appearances ever as Thunderlips. Hell, one of my earliest film memories is his fight with the wrestler.

Then you have Lawrence Trudeau absolutely killing it as the most detestable bad guy imaginable. He embarrasses Rocky in public, disrespects Adrian in a very lurid way (T’s mother slapped him at the premier stating, “I didn’t raise you to talk to a lady like that,” before storming out), almost fights the MEDIA in his locker room, he basically tells Apollo Creed to fuck off in the ring before the fight, and causes Mickey’s death by trying to fight Rocky BEFORE they get in the ring. He is a bad guy. But damn! You cannot take your eyes off him.

I do not think there ever has been or ever will be a better trash talking baddie in film. Don’t believe me?

“No, I don't hate Balboa. I pity the fool, and I will destroy any man who tries to take what I got!”

“Interviewer: What's your prediction for the fight?

Clubber Lang: My prediction?

Interviewer: Yes, your prediction.

Clubber Lang: Pain!”

“Clubber Lang: I'm the baddest man in the world.

Rocky Balboa: You don't look so bad to me.

Clubber Lang: What did you say, Paper Champion? I'll beat you like a dog, a dog, you fool!”

“I'm gonna torture him. I'm gonna crucify him. Real bad.”

“I want Balboa! I want Balboa! You hear that, Old Man? You tell Balboa to come here! Nobody can beat me! You tell him what I said! And he's NEXT! I'm gonna kill him! Nobody can stop me! You tell Balboa that! I'M COMING AFTER HIM! YOU TELL HIM!”

And there is so much more.

He was such a dominant and amazing character.

Then you have the training montage. Yeah, all the Rocky movies had them up to this point, but this one was something more. He wasn’t training, he was rebuilding, relearning, becoming something better. Granted, this one got a bit… affectionate with it’s close up of Rocky and Creed’s thighs as they run and frolic in the surf, but it’s still amazing. But nowhere near as amazing as…

The song. Yeah, the music to Rocky is iconic from the very beginning, but this one had that song. Hell, is it possible to listen to any part of “Eye of the Tiger” and not want to go beat someone’s ass? I sure as hell can’t. The thing was epic and inescapable. The first cassette tape I ever owned was a “The Chipmunk’s Go Hollywood,” and even that had “Eye of the Tiger,” on it. Don’t judge me… I was 6 at the time so my tastes were not as refined… Actually, hold that. It’s awesome and I am pissed that I don’t have it any more.

The final fight is epic. Yeah, it’s not as long as the first two, but it’s exactly what it needs to be. Rocky dishing it, Rocky taking it, and Rocky winning.

Everything just came together in this movie. I honestly don’t think I am clouded in nostalgia. Anyone who enjoyed the first two films on any level can find something to love here. If you are one of those people who are “too cool” for Rocky, then please take a minute to learn how to enjoy life. There is no better representation of the 80’s film aesthetic than this.

Alpha to Omega

The film franchise is an inescapable part of the modern movie landscape. In this series I will address a series of films from the first to the last, looking at each film as a standalone and how it fits into the series.

Rocky II

In any film series, particularly one that achieves cult status, there is usually at least one film that falls between the cracks. A lot of times it’s because the movies are just bad. Studios are all about money, so when you have a property that is recognizable they will seize on that and start cranking them out. Did you know that there are 4 “Iron Eagle” movies, 11 “Shaft” movies? I didn’t.

Sometimes, though, it’s nothing to do with quality, many of these films are quite good, but for some reason they are almost doomed to live in the shadows of the other films. There are 22 Bond movies (not including the yet to be released “Skyfall”), and a lot of those are relegated to a more obscure position than they should be. I personally think “The Spy Who Loved Me” to be one of Roger Moore’s best, but more people have seen “Moonraker,” “Octopussy,” and “A View to A Kill,” and those border on un-watchable.

Essentially, Bill Goldman was right… nobody knows anything.

As a “Rocky” fan I have had countless conversations about how moving and inspiring the original is, or about how mind blowingly bad ass “Rocky III” is, or the jingoistic merits of “Rocky IV,” hell, I’ve even talked at length about the relative merits and weaknesses of “V.” But I found that as I embarked on this… I have never had a conversation about “Rocky II.” If you listen to our Stallone show, you have heard, quite literally, everything I have ever said about that film.

Why?

Honestly, I have no memory of actually seeing it. I mean, yeah, I’ve seen the ending during the montages in the other films, but I don’t remember ever sitting down and watching it.

Well, a few weeks back I rectified this as part of my “Rocky” marathon. Actually, it was the reason for the marathon and, indirectly, this series of articles.

So, what did I think?

In short, it is criminally overlooked. It isn’t the best of the series, but it is far from the worst… very far from the worst. From a strictly narrative standpoint it is the most necessary and has the strongest emotional link to the original (until “Rocky Balboa” that is).

Done properly a sequel will advance the characters and/or the narrative of the original film. It becomes a necessary step in the evolution of the world of the first film. “Rocky II” does that brilliantly by not only advancing the story and the characters, but by evolving the themes and building on the emotional impact of the original.

Quick recap- Robert “Rocky” Balboa is a scrappy ham and egger (boxers who lack sufficient skill to fight for big prizes, they go paid so little that they couldn’t afford steak) who was given a shot at the heavyweight championship of the world. He didn’t stand a chance, but had enough heart to be the first fighter to ever go the distance with Apollo Creed, the Ali-esque undisputed champ. To Creed it was a show, to Rocky it was a chance to be some thing more than just some “bum from the neighborhood.” He loses the fight, but wins the love of Adrian, the shy sister of one of his closest friends.

The movie came out of nowhere and became the biggest hit of the year, win Oscars, catapult the cast into the A list, and became a fixture in American pop culture. So, naturally there had to be a sequel.

“Rocky II,” is a direct sequel, picking up exactly where the first film left off. In essence, if you removed the credits the two could play as one movie. It does what the best sequels do, it continues the story of the original while developing its themes and allowing the world of the film to grow with the characters.

The movie begins with both fighters being rushed to the hospital for treatment after the brutal fight that ends the first movie. In the aftermath of the fight Creed realizes how much the split decision could harm his reputation and once at the hospital he publicly challenges Rocky to a rematch. Rocky declines and announces his retirement.

From here he attempts to enter normal life. He has a bit of money from the fight and doesn’t think it will ever run out. He buys an expensive car that he doesn’t know how to drive, nice clothes, fancy jewelry, and a house. He is living the dream. His newfound fame affords him a chance to make more money through endorsements and he thinks it will lead to a job.

The problem is, as he said in the first movie, he isn’t someone who can make a living off his brains. He tries to do commercials but can’t read lines. He tries to get a job, but lacks education and skills. He even tries going to work at Mickey’s gym, but because he was a contender for the championship and is now cleaning spit buckets and moping the floors he isn’t given any respect by the fighters.

So, broke, broken, and desperate he starts working in the meat packing plant with Paulie. He marries Adrian and she is soon pregnant. Everything seems to be shaping up well for Rocky.

Meanwhile, Apollo is getting deluged with hate mail. Fans see his split decision as an indictment of his championship. If he’s so great, how did this ham and egger go the distance? He is desperate to clear his name and embarks on a public smear campaign of Balboa in hopes of goading him into the ring.

This is where the movie gets interesting. In the first film Creed wasn’t really a villain. He was Rocky’s opponent, but he wasn’t a bad guy. He was a businessman seizing an opportunity. Here, however he turns bad. What makes him bad is the same thing that makes Rocky good; his pride and his desire to be the best. The line that best encapsulates him doesn’t even come from this film. It comes from “Pulp Fiction.”

“The night of the fight, you may feel a slight sting. That's pride fucking with you. Fuck pride. Pride only hurts, it never helps.”

Creed cannot turn his back on his pride. He is the undefeated champion of the world. No fighter had ever gone the distance with him before, but it wasn’t enough. He needed to be perfect, and Balboa was in the way of that. In his mind, and against the advice of his trainer, he has to get Rocky back in the ring and beat him.

“He's all wrong for us, baby. I saw you beat that man like I never saw no man get beat before, and the man kept coming after you. Now we don't need no man like that in our lives.”

Eventually Rocky has to accept who he really is. He is a fighter, and the only way he can really provide for his family is by doing the only thing he knows. He decides that, against the advice of his doctor who fears for Rocky’s eyesight, he has to fight Creed. In his mind it’s the only way he can support his family and regain his pride.

Things go from bad to worse for Rock when Adrian, who is staunchly against the fight, falls ill and ends up in a coma. He abandons his training and sits by her side.

This sequence reminds you what makes these films work. Rocky isn’t really about fighting. It’s really a love story between Rocky and Adrian. She is his heart, and as the movies are about having the heart to keep going… you see what I’m saying.

Well, as you might expect Adrian comes out of her coma, the baby is fine, and she tells him to go and beat Creed.

The fight comes and Creed is gunning for blood. He vows to knock Balboa out in the first two round to prove that the first time was a fluke.

But he doesn’t. He keeps beating on Rocky, gaining an insurmountable points lead. But Rock won’t go down, reaching the final round.

In the final round, Creed has the fight won on points. All he has to do is dance around Rocky for three minutes and the fight is his. But then pride starts fucking with him. He trades blows, going for the knockout. Finally, after standing toe to toe, pounding on each other, Rocky gets a clean shot in and knocks the champ down….

But he falls off balance and hits the mat at the same time.

Two boxers, one count, and the one to get to his feet before the count of 10 wins.

Finally, after suffering defeat, humiliation, rejection, and almost losing Adrian, Rocky digs deep, because that is what Rocky does, and gets to his feet in time too win.

In many regards this is a perfect sequel. It takes Rocky in a very necessary and important direction and shows his growth as a person. It also shows Creed as a flawed and very human character. Both men represent different sides of the same coin.

Both are dedicated to what they do, they are committed to giving their all, not for money, but for pride. But, whereas Rocky is the embodiment of how pride can help you pick yourself up, Creed shows how dangerous it can be when it gets in the way of common sense.

So far as the Rocky canon goes, this one is difficult to place. It’s not the best, but it is far from the worst. Yet, it still gets less respect than it should. It is a solid addition to the world created in the first one. It moves the characters forward, not just from a narrative standpoint, but also from a personal standpoint. But for some reason it gets lost in the shuffle. If you haven’t seen it, correct that. It’s really good. If you’re like me and can’t remember when you saw it last, you should really take the time to reexamine it. There is a reason Rocky has become as iconic to American cinema as he has, this movie is a big part of it.