Shoulda stopped at this one
A lot of people say they should have stopped after 3 but i think this film would have been a perfect end to the series.
shareHELL NO!
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MovieChat Forums > Rocky II (1979) Discussion > Shoulda stopped at this one
3 and 4 and Balboa are all very enjoyable movies, in my opinion. And if you watch all the films in a row, even 5 is kinda fun, but not a good movie for sure, haha.
Witty thing
But this movie wrapped up the Rocky-Apollo story nicely. the others were just gilding the lily.
Interesting how Adrian was SO concerned about the danger of Rocky fighting in this movie but in the next one she forgot all about it and totally supported him.
Did you consider the possibility that she knew he needed her support if he was going to be the heavyweight champion? It's pretty clear in Rocky 2 that he couldn't keep focused with her being against his choice to go back into fighting.
shareYes but what happened to her concern about his health and about going blind? I would think that would be more important to her than whether he became the heavyweight champion.
On an unrelated note while i'm thinking about it, they kind of messed up the end of the fight in this film. When Rocky KO'd Apollo, he fell under the momentum of his own punch so, under the rules of boxing, he wasn't knocked out. He didn't have to get up at all. He would have won anyway.
Actually, I believe even though it is never really suggested in the movie itself, but that Mick may have confided in Adrian that the fighters Rocky would defend the title against were not the best and wouldn't hurt him so severely the way Apollo did. Remember that Mick tells Rocky in part 3 that the fighters he fought were decent fighters but not killers like Clubber. Then later on, during the beach scene when Rocky has lost all confidence with himself by thinking his title run was nothing but a sham with setups, Adrian says to him that Mick never lied to him, that he did what he had to do and that was protecting Rocky from getting hurt. I think that is the subtext that wasn't followed through with, maybe that Mick told Adrian that Rocky could continue to defend the belt and he would be ok because he was going to make sure he fought not the greatest fighters that could seriously hurt him.
shareThe ending of Rocky II made Rocky III necessary unless it had ended with Rocky retiring after winning the title. It was a box office hit and I'm sure it left most viewers thinking how is Rocky going to fare as the heavyweight champion. Now you can make a valid argument that Rocky III should've been the final film in the series.
shareThe ending of Rocky II made Rocky III necessary unless it had ended with Rocky retiring after winning the title. It was a box office hit and I'm sure it left most viewers thinking how is Rocky going to fare as the heavyweight champion.
Absolutely! There was a real sense of finality and victory to II. But III almost made it necessary to continue the story indefinitely with mediocre films. They should have quit while they were ahead. share
But then we wouldn't have gotten the awesome icons that are Mr. T and Drago.
share5 is a great movie. It has more heart than 3 and 4 and more closely resembles 1 and 2 in its darker feel.
sharethis is probably one of my least favorite ones. I think all the rest of the movies, with the exception of part five, are better than this one. I like the fight in this one, and the evolution of the character, but I find long stretches of this movie to be pretty boring.
http://www.hesaidshesaidreviewsite.com/
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I reckon Rocky III & IV are better movies than this one. If anything, they should've stopped at IV, as Stallone had taken the Rocky character as far as he could go (going from a humble southpaw to an action hero).
V took the character back to the old neighborhood and thus full circle, and it had some good scenes & good acting in it, but it was also depressing and maybe arbitrary in the bigger picture.
Rocky I-IV was great. V kinda mediocre and Rocky Balboa was just awful.
He was my C.O. in Nam. CIA listed him as MIA but the V.A. ID'd his M.O. and put out an APB.
I disagree that 3 and 4 were great. 3 seemed almost like a parody of 1 and 2 with the cartoonish over-the-top Clubber lang and that wrestler guy. Of all of them, i think 2 was the best.
shareseemed almost like a parody of 1 and 2 with the cartoonish over-the-top Clubber lang and that wrestler guy
Rocky III was about Stallone recognizing that things were radically changing in the 80s within cinema & pop culture, and he was smart enough to move the Rocky franchise along with the times. In III, it's more of an action film, and that's just why the wrestling fight & Clubber Lang were there because it fed into that, so he re-tooled Rocky into something of an action hero.
Even though III changed things, I still think it had the right balance of the type of drama you saw in I & II along with the OTT stuff. It wasn't a total betrayal of the character, it was just about expanding the rocky 'universe', much like what he did with Rambo.
He was my C.O. in Nam. CIA listed him as MIA but the V.A. ID'd his M.O. and put out an APB. share
I don't think part 3-5 were a "betrayal" but I definitely think they were not up to the same class as the first two. They were just "fight" movies. Whenever the topic comes up I tell my mom (who to this day does not like any of the Rocky films) "It's not a boxing movie it's about a man, Rocky could have been a golfer and the movie could have still been great". Not saying there was no plot but the main focus of the movie was the fight. And this is why I think they don't live up to the original and it's sequel. I still liked 3 & 4 but I might not ever sit down and watch them again. Part 5 was total crap though.
I did however really like Rocky Balboa, in my opinion stallone really brought back the emotion to the saga. And I believe (and hope) that it wasn't just for money and he knew he had left perhaps his greatest character without a proper ending.
Part 5 was not just a fight movie. It was mostly story.
shareRocky III is best of an excellent saga.
1. III
2. II
3. Original
4. IV
5. Balboa
6. V
I don't count the new one "Creed" because it's too far removed and it's too different than the others.
And I honestly think V is underrated and mainly because of the Duke Character. That fight promoter role was on point.
this one should not even be in the series. 2 movies about rocky fighting the same guy. talk about lame as hell. Everyone knew rocky was going to win the second time.
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