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People asking for reasons why people don't like it


I just watched it for the first time in about 20 years or so. I didn't hate it, but I can see why some people do.

1: (The most obvious.) It's freaking depressing to see Rocky lose all of his money, suffering from brain damage, and having to go back to that god awful neighborhood, where every building is in bad shape, covered in graffiti, and his kid gets to school through a hole in a fence.

2: It doesn't really do anything with the brain damage plotline. He's acting strange enough for his kid to comment on it near the beginning, and then kind of forgets about "You notice anything weird about him?", having him just go back to being Rocky. The movies all have a problem with Rocky's intelligence. Sometimes, he's portrayed as a total idiot, and sometimes he isn't. In this movie, it's hard to tell if we're supposed to be seeing evidence of brain damage, or if Rocky is just being "Dumb Rocky".

3: As touching as the Mickey flashback is...when was Mickey ever that sentimental? I like the scene a lot, but it REALLY doesn't fit in with the character from the other movie, and in a way, it feels a little forced.

4: The incredibly half assed explanation for where the money went, and then the complete abandoning of the whole "We're suing him" thing.

5: Rocky can't get endorsements because "investigation into blah blah uncovered an assault charge on Rocky linked with LOAN SHARKS". O...kay? As if every celebrity with endorsements has a completely clean history? Especially sports stars. I mean come on, this movie has a parody of DON KING, a man who MURDERED two men, once by shooting him in the back, and again by stomping a dude's skull. He's still a very rich man, who seems to have no problems getting money. Rocky just beat possibly the most dangerous boxer in the entire world, who was also a Soviet, and it was the 80s. You really expect me to believe he couldn't land a Burger King commercial or two? Print his face on some shirts? Maybe, just maybe he could *gasp* get his name put on some boxing gear! Or you know, he could make an inventive little double hotplate and call it a grill.

6: Tommy Gunn goes from Rocky's best buddy in the whole damn world to a complete and total douchebag over the course of maybe three scenes. Yeah, he is shown hooking up with some red headed hooker that Don Duke George King Washington basically tosses at him (did she have a name?), but he's still tight with Rocky. Then over the course of one direct conversation with Duke Don King Washington Duke George, he decides "You know what? Screw Rocky!". He tosses him twenty grand, which I guess would motivate.

7: The climax feels a little bit rushed. He wins the title, gets hounded like hell from the press (By the way, does that happen? Do press conferences ever get THAT hostile? The one reporter basically calls the dude's woman a whore "I hear she comes cheap"), and then he immediately goes to that bar with a news crew (how did he know he was there?), and it escalates in about two minutes into a really violent street fight, with cops apparently just watching it happen, only moving in when it's over to arrest Gunn. Maybe cops were different in the 80s. I dunno, I'm not that old.

8: Rocky comes off as a prick to his son for a pretty big chunk of this movie. He seems totally oblivious to the fact that he barely gives his son a glance when he speaks to him, and it tries to do the whole "kid falls into bad crowd" thing, but the best it can do is show him smoking a cigarette with his actually kind of sweet girlfriend, and former bully made buddy. It doesn't really work, because he JUST had a blowup on his dad, and honestly was completely justified in everything he said. His "bad kid" line is how he wants to get out of that neighborhood, and away from his family. Wouldn't you? Your dad has been ignoring you for basically an entire year in favor of a guy that you've got the insight to see is using him (I do like how Rocky Jr. is actually very smart and talented), an overly stressed mother, and a drunken dummy of an uncle who is basically the sole reason you went from your cushy life, to living in the ghetto. Not to mention his dad giving a total stranger his room.


I'm sure I could dissect the movie a little bit more, and probably give a few more reasons, but I'm out of steam. Like I said, I didn't hate it. The things I mentioned aren't enough to make me dislike the movie as a whole. I could probably come up with an equally long, or longer list of positives for the movie. I will say that I wish they'd given Tommy's fall a bit more time. Tommy didn't seem like a scumbag at first. I thought he was even a likable character. His story about his home life, his hero worship of Rocky, his lack of arrogance in the beginning. I just wanna see a little more there.

Also, let's not bring up Creed, or Rocky Balboa. I'm examining this movie, not the others.

I thought I could paint it red, but I couldn't find enough goats.

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